THE ENGLISH “TH” PROBLEM

The TH sound in English can create problems for both native and non-native speakers. Like the T, the TH sound is tongue dependent. With just a quick, light flick of the tongue on the roof of the mouth, you get a T. But the TH sound requires use of your front teeth.

Without using your vocal cords, breathe out as you slip your tongue swiftly between the teeth like a frog catching an insect or a snake’s tongue flashing to catch scents. This is the “voiceless” or what I call the soft or short TH used in words like “thunder” or “thirsty.” This is not always easy for non-native speakers who often use the T sound instead.

The second TH is a heavier or “long” sound. This sound is found in the words “the,” “though,” “that,” “this,” among others. It requires you to push against the front teeth and roof of the mouth while sending a strong breath through your vocal cords resulting in a sound similar to “zz”. The true “z” sound is often substituted by non-native speakers for the voiced TH.

Apart from pronunciation, there is a spelling problem as well. The words “tooth,” “teeth,” “bath,” and “lath” for example use the short or soft sound. However, “teethe”, “bathe” and “lathe” end with the long sound.

Looks like the final “e’ is the key, right? Wrong, or not right all of the time. The word “smooth” uses the long TH while the similarly spelled word “sooth” (now archaic) uses the soft TH. However the word “soothe,” coming from the same root as sooth, requires the final “e” for the long TH sound). This leads people (even native speakers) to believe that “smooth” should be spelled “smoothe,” when it is simply an exception to the general pattern. Given enough time, this misspelling of “smooth” may win out and the current spelling (no e) will slip into disuse. Who knows?