jueves, 8 de diciembre de 2011

Pronunciation / θ / vs / ð /

In late September this year the blog I spilled the beans published a wonderful video to illustrate the difference between / θ / and / ð /.

The sounds are not difficult for Spanish speakers, but we do tend to make mistakes with individual words, especially with / ð /.

The main difficulty, though, may be recognising the sounds, as you may find the phonetic symbols intimidating.
  • / θ / is pronounced like the Spanish "z".
  • / ð / is articulated exactly the same as / θ /, the only difference between them being that / θ / is voiceless, "sorda", with no vibration of the vocal chords and / ð / is voiced, "sonora", so it is pronounced with vibration of the vocal chords.
Watch this wonderful video by David Sconda to learn all the details and find out the typical mistakes English learners make with these sounds.