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Sennin
Senior Member
Bulgaria
Joined 6036 days ago

1457 posts - 1759 votes 
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 Message 1 of 14
15 July 2010 at 4:47pm | IP Logged 
How do you guys pronounce it, is like "tree" or like "free"? ;(. th- in the beginning of words is really hard to pronounce, and I absolutely hate it. People complain about -ble in French and the French -r-, but that th- thing is 10x harder.



Edited by Sennin on 15 July 2010 at 6:17pm

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Levi
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5569 days ago

2268 posts - 3328 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish
Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian

 
 Message 2 of 14
15 July 2010 at 4:52pm | IP Logged 
I say /θɹiː/. I have no difficulty at all with the sound. The only variation I ever hear among native English speakers here in North America is that sometimes people will change the "r" into a Spanish- or Russian-style alveolar flap when it comes after "th": /θɾiː/

Edited by Levi on 15 July 2010 at 4:55pm

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Sennin
Senior Member
Bulgaria
Joined 6036 days ago

1457 posts - 1759 votes 
5 sounds

 
 Message 3 of 14
15 July 2010 at 5:09pm | IP Logged 
Hmm... perhaps it is a bit like the ch- in chair? ^_^

The funny thing is I have no problems with "thirty", I guess it is the combination of θ + ɹ that I find hard.

Edit:
just found an online library with people saying "three", how cool is that? :) Link: http://fr.forvo.com/word/three/

The Scottish guy pronounces it almost exactly like f-, with a hard r - and a short i at the end; I can imitate that quite easily; With the southern British English accent there is some sort of hissing sound in the beginning - is it a good example to follow? I'm not sure how I can reproduce that.

The US accents are more clear, maybe it's just that recording. So which one should I imitate? That's always a problem with English...


Edited by Sennin on 15 July 2010 at 5:54pm

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johntm93
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5329 days ago

587 posts - 746 votes 
2 sounds
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 4 of 14
15 July 2010 at 7:27pm | IP Logged 
I'd say the US accent (because I'm American lol). But you could say tree or free (I'd recommend tree) and you'd be understood with context. I've never thought of how hard the "th" sound could be for learners...
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GREGORG4000
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5525 days ago

307 posts - 479 votes 
Speaks: English*, Finnish
Studies: Japanese, Korean, Amharic, French

 
 Message 5 of 14
15 July 2010 at 7:38pm | IP Logged 
Now that I think about it, it is a devilish combination of consonants. It really is pronouncing both of those in a row, sorry...

Edited by GREGORG4000 on 15 July 2010 at 7:39pm

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Tyr
Senior Member
Sweden
Joined 5784 days ago

316 posts - 384 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Swedish

 
 Message 6 of 14
15 July 2010 at 9:10pm | IP Logged 
Like free but with emphasis on the ee.
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egill
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5698 days ago

418 posts - 791 votes 
Speaks: Mandarin, English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch

 
 Message 7 of 14
15 July 2010 at 11:36pm | IP Logged 
I say both [θɹiː] and [θɾiː], tending towards the latter in fast speech. I've heard both [t͡ʃɹiː] or [fɹiː] and say those for fun
sometimes.

Yeah, English can have some decently long consonant clusters. Carefully articulated, sixths or even moreso
strengths comes to mind. That second one has three consonants followed by a vowel, followed by four more. I say
it something like [st͡ʃrɛŋkθs].

Edited by egill on 15 July 2010 at 11:36pm

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ilanbg
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6412 days ago

166 posts - 189 votes 
Speaks: French, English*
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (classical), Persian

 
 Message 8 of 14
15 July 2010 at 11:39pm | IP Logged 
Maybe I'm overlooking something simple, but to me "tree" and "free" both rhyme (and also rhyme with "three"). Is
that just a result of my American accent? I can't picture how any of those three words would sound different from
each other.


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