CONSONANTS: “TH” AND /V/ VS. /W/

MS. QUINONES

“TH” SOUNDS

CONSONANT SOUNDS: “TH”

•/θ/ as in “think”, “nothing”, and “teeth”

•/ð/ as in “the”, “weather”, and “bathe”

COMMONLY CONFUSED CONSONANTS

•/θ/ is commonly confused with /s/ or /t/.

• /s/ - people say “sink” for “think”• /t/ - people say “tank” for “thank”

•/ð/ is commonly confused with /z/ or /d/.

• /z/ - people say “zen” for “then”• /d/ - people say “day” for “they”

PRODUCTION•Both /θ/ and /ð/ are pronounced with the tongue between the teeth.

•The difference is in the voicing.

• /ð/ is produced by vibrating the vocal cords • /θ/ is produced with out the vocal cords

vibrating

INDIVIDUAL SOUND PRACTICE

•/θ/

• The three threatening thimble thieves thought the thrifty thinker had nothing in his sword’s sheath.

•/ð/

• Though they were wearing clothes, the weather was so hot that my mother, father, and brother bathed in the cool, soothing water of the pool.

NOW PRACTICE THE SOUNDS TOGETHER

There once were thirty thirsty thieves that thought

they could steal their own teeth.

These loathesome, blathering thugs thundered

threatening oaths with thumping and thrashing as

they were thwarted by their throbbing thumbs.

ADDITIONAL PRACTICE

1. Three thin thieves thought a thousand thoughts.

Now if three thin thieves thought a thousand

thoughts how many thoughts did each thief think?

2. Thelma thanked Theo until she was out of breath.

3. They can sail north or south, but say they sail

south, the southern seas may be worse than these.

4. Both boats taught the thin, sick math majors that

nothing they thought then was true.

/V/ VS /W/

CONSONANTS: /V/ & /W/

• /v/ as in “very,” “fever,” or “live”

• /w/ as in “wet,” “flower,” or “stew”

COMMONLY CONFUSED SOUNDS

• These sounds are commonly confused with each other.

• /v/ for /w/ = “veal” for “wheel”• /w/ for /v/ = “whim” for “vim”

• Additionally, /f/ is sometimes substituted for /v/ or vice versa.

• “ferry” for “very”• “leaf” for “leave”

Ms. Candice Quiñones, Lehigh University ESL Department

PRODUCTION: /V/ & /W//v/

Pronounced by touching your top teeth to your lower lip and letting your vocal cords vibrate as the air escapes.

/w/

Pronounced by tensing and rounding your lips and then relaxing them while your vocal cords vibrate as air escapes.

Ms. Candice Quiñones, Lehigh University ESL Department

INDIVIDUAL SOUND PRACTICE

/v/

• Victoria has a very voracious vim and vigor for everything she believes in.

/w/

• Walter always awaits Wanda when she wants to wipe her wet hands.

Ms. Candice Quiñones, Lehigh University ESL Department

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

1. The weatherman is warning us that we will have very vicious winter weather this weekend.

2. They advised us to veer away from snow and keep warm.

3. Driving was also not advised.

ADDITIONAL PRACTICE

1. We waved very vigorously when Steven went away.

2. The victorious viceroys wanted to wear their weapons of war in the victory parade and shout “we won!”

3. Kevin was weaving wearily as he drove.

4. Vera is an avid Marvel Comics devotee and works at “Wacky Walter’s Wonderful World of Comics.”