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How to distinguish th and f sound? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6321 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 25 of 32 08 May 2009 at 3:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Before I got into learning German, I'd never considered how similar "V" and "W" are in English. After listening to many German friends and neighbors, I finally realized that touching the lower lip to the front incisors was the only maneuver changing the "W" sound into a "V." They're not far apart at all, and it's easy to produce a sort of intermediate consonant, by not quite touching the lip to the teeth. It's similar to the one produced by many native German speakers striving for the "V" sound...
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| Tezza Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5684 days ago 41 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 26 of 32 09 May 2009 at 1:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm from the North East of England and I can 100% tell the difference between 'f' and 'th'. When I was younger I used to get corrected off my parents for saying 'free' instead of 'three' etc, and to be honest if anyone pronounces their th as an f then people do tend to think they're a bit stupid, if only a bit.
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| paparaciii Diglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6342 days ago 204 posts - 223 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian Studies: English | Message 27 of 32 09 May 2009 at 6:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you can't distinguish 'th' and 'f' sounds then your English basically sucks. :)
And if you're a native speaker not knowing the difference between 'th' and 'f' then you should see a speech therapist. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tezza Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5684 days ago 41 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 28 of 32 09 May 2009 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | ||
Agreed, especially on the second part. If you're just learning English though then the difference may not be obvious to you. I can only suggest what others have, get a native speaker to repeat words like: Three/free Thought/fought Thirst/first After a while I'm sure the difference will become obvious to you. I'm still a bit shocked that people are saying there isn't a difference in the UK, there certainly is. Edited by Tezza on 09 May 2009 at 7:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6915 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 29 of 32 09 May 2009 at 7:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think it's a difference between being able to distinguish between the sounds, and pronouncing them. Most UK citizens would be able to hear the difference, right?
I wonder if natives who use /f/ for both sounds are unable to spell three/free correctly when they hear them - context would give it away, wouldn't it? On the other hand, I have seen natives write "then" instead of "than" - countless number of times. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tezza Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5684 days ago 41 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 30 of 32 09 May 2009 at 8:50pm | IP Logged | ||
I think any native, aside from the most stupid, know and can spell three as opposed to free. But the pronunciation of them is another matter. If you think the then/than example is bad you should see the complete inability to use the correct version of there/they're/their (or even spelling 'know' as 'no') by a lot of people. It shouldn't happen much on here, since people interested in languages tend to know their own pretty well, but outside of forums like this is is hardly a rarity. Obviously a lot of it is done for speed online (still annoying though), but on application forms for jobs? It's unforgivable. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6321 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 31 of 32 09 May 2009 at 10:53pm | IP Logged | ||
Jeff, in the American South, all words with the sequence "en" in them are pronounced as if the vowel were a short "i," i.e., rhymes with "fin." There has been a merger of the vowels. The word "than" is pronounced with a short "a." As a consequence, many in the South, most of whom, not hearing this distinction are unaware of it, and may hear "then" pronounced with the "eh" sound as "than." Also, in the part of the South where I live, "they're" "there" and "their" have three distinct pronunciations.* In much of the US, two of these - sometimes all three - are merged into the same pronunciation. Another interesting word is "comfortable." I grew up pronouncing it with four syllables, and the short "o" sound. In much of the US, the second "o" vowel is missing, and the "o" becomes "uh." The "t" and "f" are elided together, so that the word only has three syllables. *I should say this is the way it used to be. My community now is composed of people from all over the country, and, indeed, all over the world. As a consequence, kids going through school here develop their own accents, an amalgam, and come out sounding like - Californians... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pfwillard Pro Member United States Joined 5705 days ago 169 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 32 of 32 10 May 2009 at 12:46am | IP Logged | ||
It's easy, you'll get it if you practice without being self-conscious about it. For th, put your tongue between your front incisors, like you were going to bite it off and try to exhale through your front teeth. For f, curl your bottom lip between front incisors and exhale. You can also hum at the same time to get the voiced th and v sounds. When you can make the sounds, you will start to hear the sounds as distinct. My Japanese friends tend to try to use s, z, or sh for f and v. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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