Pronouncing the 'th' sound (as in 'the')
This is a sound that many students find challenging to pronounce in English and yet occurs very frequently in words such as 'this', 'that', 'other', 'worthy' and 'bathe'. Brush up on your pronunciation with this helpful tutorial:
Source: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish
How do you pronounce the word 'the'?
There are two pronunciations: 'The' sometimes sounds like 'thee'. Sometimes it sounds like 'thaaa'.
I think because 'the' is such a common word in English - it is in fact the most common word both in writing and in speech - we often tend to overlook it.
It has two pronunciations. One pronunciation - the one that most learners will know - is 'the' with a vowel that we call a schwa - a very common vowel. So we talk about 'the sound' ; 'the word' ; 'the number'. This pronunciation appears before consonants. The other pronunciation 'the' comes before a vowel. So you will notice that I said 'the other pronunciation'.
One warning though - there are words that look as if they begin with a vowel, but they actually begin with a consonant. One example is the word 'university'. It starts with a /j/ sound, which is a consonant. So we say, 'the university'. Another example is the word 'one' - 'the one that most learners will know'. So remember that these words are consonants, not vowels.
The other place you would use 'the' is when you are stressing the word and adding extra emphasis to the noun coming after it. So you talk about restaurant that you like and say, ' It's THE best restaurant in town'; or 'It's THE restaurant in town'. Very useful for expressing your enthusiasm about anything.
Source: www. bbc.co.uk/worldservice
This is a sound that many students find challenging to pronounce in English and yet occurs very frequently in words such as 'this', 'that', 'other', 'worthy' and 'bathe'. Brush up on your pronunciation with this helpful tutorial:
Source: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish
How do you pronounce the word 'the'?
There are two pronunciations: 'The' sometimes sounds like 'thee'. Sometimes it sounds like 'thaaa'.
I think because 'the' is such a common word in English - it is in fact the most common word both in writing and in speech - we often tend to overlook it.
It has two pronunciations. One pronunciation - the one that most learners will know - is 'the' with a vowel that we call a schwa - a very common vowel. So we talk about 'the sound' ; 'the word' ; 'the number'. This pronunciation appears before consonants. The other pronunciation 'the' comes before a vowel. So you will notice that I said 'the other pronunciation'.
One warning though - there are words that look as if they begin with a vowel, but they actually begin with a consonant. One example is the word 'university'. It starts with a /j/ sound, which is a consonant. So we say, 'the university'. Another example is the word 'one' - 'the one that most learners will know'. So remember that these words are consonants, not vowels.
The other place you would use 'the' is when you are stressing the word and adding extra emphasis to the noun coming after it. So you talk about restaurant that you like and say, ' It's THE best restaurant in town'; or 'It's THE restaurant in town'. Very useful for expressing your enthusiasm about anything.
Source: www. bbc.co.uk/worldservice
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