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The /θ/ Sound: The One Nobody Gets Right
Level: A2 · 5 minutes · All Learners
💡 Today’s Idea
The English /θ/ sound (as in think, three, mouth) does not exist in most languages. It is made by placing your tongue gently between your teeth and blowing air.
📖 From My Experience
I am a native Bengali and English speaker. Bengali has no /θ/. When I started teaching English and doing the Cambridge CELTA course — 120 supervised teaching hours — the /θ/ sound was consistently the hardest moment in pronunciation work. A student from France, one from Japan, one from Brazil, all made the same error: sink for think, free for three. The good news: it takes two minutes to place the tongue correctly. After that, it is just practice.
📚 How to Make /θ/
- Put your tongue tip between your upper and lower teeth.
- Blow air gently — do not vibrate your throat.
- Say: th-th-th-think
Practice words: think · three · thank · tooth · month · birthday · weather · brother
Tongue twister: Think of three thin things.
✏️ Try It! (2 minutes)
Say these 5 words OUT LOUD, slowly, feeling your tongue touch your teeth:
think · thank · three · birthday · tooth
Then say the tongue twister three times, faster each time.
🎯 Quick Quiz
To make /θ/ correctly, where is your tongue?
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification.
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