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  • Hello, guys.

  • My name is F@nny.

  • Welcome to this English pronunciation video.

  • In this video, we are going to talk about two very important English consonant sounds.

  • The sound /s/ and the sound /θ/.

  • So the /s/ sound and the th sound.

  • They are very confusing because they sound very similar but they are different.

  • And they are very important in English so I want you to be able to pronounce them correctly.

  • Let's take two example words.

  • The first word is the word 'sink'

  • with an /s/ sound/

  • 'sink'

  • The other word is 'think'

  • with a th /θ/ sound.

  • So 'sink' and 'think'.

  • They are two very different sounds in English.

  • And I really want you to be able to pronounce them correctly.

  • So let's practice together and I promise you by the end of this video you will hear the difference.

  • Let's get started.

  • Before we learn about the consonant sounds s /s/ and th /θ/ in English,

  • you should know guys about the I.P.A. spelling - that's very useful.

  • You can also watch me and how I move my mouth and obviously please try to repeat after me.

  • You can make those sounds and we're going to do it now.

  • Okay, guys.

  • Let's now learn how to produce the /s/ sound.

  • So /s/

  • It's a voiceless sound. You're not going to use your voice.

  • You're not going to feel the vibration in your throat.

  • What you're going to do is...

  • your teeth are going to touch each other.

  • And your tongue goes down.

  • It touches your lower teeth, okay. And you're going to push out some air.

  • So… /s/

  • Please watch my mouth, repeat after me.

  • /s/

  • /s/

  • /s/

  • Let's practice with the word 'sink'.

  • Please repeat after me.

  • 'sink'

  • 'sink'

  • 'sink'

  • And now, let's make the th /θ/ sound in English.

  • So /θ/.

  • It's voiceless. Again, no vibration. No voice.

  • And what you're going to do is you're going to put your tongue between your teeth...

  • okay and you're going to push out some air, okay.

  • /θ/

  • Repeat after me.

  • /θ/

  • /θ/

  • /θ/

  • Let's practice with the word 'think'.

  • Please repeat after me.

  • 'think'

  • 'think'

  • 'think'

  • Good.

  • Let's now practice with minimal pairs - words that are practically the same

  • but the sounds are different.

  • They are very good if you want to hear the difference between the two sounds.

  • First, let's focus on the sounds themselves.

  • Please watch my mouth and repeat after me.

  • First the /s/ sound.

  • /s/

  • /s/

  • /s/

  • And now the th /θ/ sound.

  • /θ/

  • /θ/

  • /θ/

  • Now let's do both.

  • Please repeat after me.

  • /s/

  • /θ/

  • /s/

  • /θ/

  • /s/

  • /θ/

  • And now let's practice with our words.

  • Please repeat after me.

  • 'sink'

  • 'think'

  • 'sink'

  • 'think'

  • 'sink'

  • 'think'

  • Very good, guys.

  • Let's now go through minimal pairs together.

  • And I want you to look at how I move my mouth

  • and of course to repeat after me.

  • Let's get started.

  • face

  • faith

  • force

  • fourth

  • gross

  • growth

  • mass

  • math miss

  • myth

  • moss

  • moth

  • mouse

  • mouth

  • Norse

  • North

  • pass

  • path

  • purse

  • Perth

  • race

  • wraith

  • sank

  • thank

  • saw

  • thaw

  • seem

  • theme

  • sick

  • thick

  • sigh

  • thigh

  • sin

  • thin

  • sing

  • thing

  • sink

  • think

  • some

  • thumb

  • song

  • thong

  • sought

  • thought

  • suds

  • thuds

  • symbol

  • thimble

  • tense

  • tenth

  • truce

  • truth

  • use

  • youth

  • worse

  • worth

  • Very good, guys.

  • Let's now practice with a few sentences containing our consonant sounds.

  • Our first sentence is: 'The Norse passed the North path.'

  • Please repeat after me.

  • 'The Norse passed the North path.'

  • Good.

  • Second sentence: 'The sick mouse had a thick mouth.'

  • Please repeat after me.

  • 'The sick mouse had a thick mouth.'

  • And finally: 'Use thick suds to keep your youth.'

  • Please repeat after me.

  • 'Use thick suds to keep your youth.'

  • Excellent, guys.

  • Let's move on.

  • Let's now move on to listening practice.

  • I'm now going to show you two words.

  • I will say one of the two words, and I want you to listen very carefully and

  • to tell me if this word is, 'a)' or 'b)'

  • Let's get started.

  • Here are my first two words now.

  • Word 'a', word 'b'.

  • Which one do I say?

  • Listen to me.

  • 'thin'

  • One more time.

  • 'thin'

  • Is it 'a' or is it 'b'?

  • It's 'b' guys, 'thin'.

  • 'a' is pronounced 'sin'.

  • What about this one?

  • Listen to me very carefully.

  • 'worse'

  • 'worse'

  • It's 'a' guys, 'worse'.

  • 'b' would be 'worth'.

  • 'faith'

  • 'faith'

  • It's 'b', 'faith'.

  • 'a' would be 'face'.

  • Listen to me.

  • 'sank'

  • 'sank'

  • It's 'a', 'sank.

  • 'b' would be 'thank'.

  • 'fourth'

  • 'fourth'

  • It's 'b', 'fourth'.

  • 'a' is 'force'.

  • 'tenth'

  • 'tenth'

  • Answer 'b' of course.

  • 'a' would be 'tense'.

  • 'sink'

  • 'sink'

  • It's 'a', 'sink'.

  • 'b' is 'think'.

  • Listen to me.

  • 'gross'

  • 'gross'

  • Is it 'a' or is it 'b'?

  • It's 'a', 'gross'.

  • 'b' will be 'growth'.

  • 'truth'

  • 'truth'

  • It's 'b', truth.

  • 'a' is 'truce'.

  • Our last two words.

  • Now listen to me very carefully.

  • 'mass'

  • 'mass'

  • Is it 'a' or is it 'b'?

  • It's 'a', 'mass'.

  • 'b' would be 'math'.

  • Excellent job, guys.

  • You now have a better understanding of the sounds

  • /s/ and θ/.

  • So the /s/ sound and th sound in English.

  • But of course keep practicing.

  • It takes a lot of practice to master these sounds but you can do it.

  • So practice makes perfect.

  • Keep practicing.

  • Train your ear to hear the different sounds.

  • And obviously watch my other pronunciation videos.

  • I promise you they will help you improve your skills.

  • See you next time.

  • Thank you so much for watching, guys.

  • If you've liked it, show me your support, click 'like', subscribe to the channel,

  • put your comments below, and share this video.

  • See you.

Hello, guys.

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