Accent Reduction – The /th/ Sound

Quite often, individuals who speak Latin-based languages, such as Spanish, may have a bit of difficulty pronouncing the English  /th/ sound. Other than in Castilian Spanish, the /th/ sound is not normally used in Spanish, so the manner of pronouncing it is unfamiliar to most Spanish as first language speakers. What may occur is that the voiceless /th/ as in “thing” and “with” may be pronounced as “ting” and “wit”; the voiced /th/ may be substituted with a /d/ sound making words such as “this” and “that” sound like “dis” and “dat”, and “breathe” sound like “breed”.  The following video may provide some clarity in this issue of /th/ pronunciation.

If you are interested in finding out more about the accent reduction course that I teach online and in person, please visit www.AccentReductionNow.com and feel free to contact me, keeping in mind that I am on California, PST time. 

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Derra Huxley is a California licensed Speech-Language Pathologist in Los Angeles having earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in Communicative Disorders. She specializes in Accent Reduction, having been trained and certified to utilize the nationally acclaimed Compton P-ESL Program through the Institute of Language and Phonology. She has worked with adults with varying degrees of accents from around the globe to improve their pronunciation of English.