The "th" in British English for a Dutch native

[LadyGrey1986]

Yesterday, I had a trial session with a British tutor to evaluate my spoken English. I was relieved to hear that she found me very easy to understand. However, I still would like to sound more British. My role models would be Keira Knightly or Emma Watson, even though i realise eradicting your accent completely is impossibe,
My main problem seems to be a typical one: the th. My tutor advised to record myself and compare the result with how a native speaker would sound like. She also recommended my to practice with a mirror.
Many some knowledgeable HTaLer has some more advice to offer?

[DaveBee]

Yesterday, I had a trial session with a British tutor to evaluate my spoken English. I was relieved to hear that she found me very easy to understand. However, I still would like to sound more British. My role models would be Keira Knightly or Emma Watson, even though i realise eradicting your accent completely is impossibe,
My main problem seems to be a typical one: the th. My tutor advised to record myself and compare the result with how a native speaker would sound like. She also recommended my to practice with a mirror.
Many some knowledgeable HTaLer has some more advice to offer?

I've often read that Dutch is English's closest relative. Do you not have the th at all in dutch?

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If you're aiming for a british accent, you might like to consider Julie Andrews as a model too. If you listen to her speak or sing, she enunciates every syllable, without sounding at all forced or stuffy. She has a better accent than the Queen!

Someone on this forum mentioned reading book on accents aimed at actors. The author has a website.

[Cainntear]

It's hard to give any advice without knowing what your problem is. Do you fail to pronounce it at all (i.e. say a D or a T) or do you pronounce it, but in a non-native way?

[tarvos]

As a Dutch native, the thing about the "th" that most people fail to realise is that it is produced in a very different place in your mouth than our equivalents (most Dutch people substitute d or t or even f or v). There are actually two th sounds (one voiced and one voiceless). The voiceless th sound is the easier of the two to imitate.

Dutch people do not natively have either of those two sounds and usually it's a dead giveaway for me that someone has a Dutch accent when they have trouble with this sound along with a few other usual characteristics.

LadyGrey, what you want to do (and incorporate the mirror in this! the nice thing about th is that there are two sounds here that you can see in the mirror because of the mechanical position of the tongue) is try to stick out your tongue while producing a v sound. Aim to position your lips as if you were going to produce a Dutch v sound. Instead of blowing air with your lips, thrust forward your tongue slightly between your teeth (don't stick it out entirely, you're not a snake). Your lips will widen a bit and you're going to create the sound you want. If you produce a v (with voicing) you're going to produce the the "th" with voicing (so the th in "the"). To produce the sound in "thin", don't think of v, but of f. If you mix up v and f in Dutch, think of the voiced sound as a Dutch w instead.

Remember that if you normally pronounce d or t, these are stops. You want to blow out air for a th sound. They are fricatives.

[LadyGrey1986]

Thanks Tarvos!

[tarvos]

By the way, the "th" sounds are not different between different dialects, except in Cockney, where they are fronted to v and f - but that usually carries stigma.

[jsmith12]

I can't find the research right now, but I remember reading that the contrasts involving these phonemes (/θ/ as in think vs /t/ and /ð/ as in that vs /d/) have among the lowest functional loads in the English language, meaning that there are very few minimal pairs (such as three and tree) formed using these phonemes. As a language teacher, these phonemes aren't a priority unless the student's pronunciation is otherwise perfect and they specifically ask for help.

That said, they're definitely achievable!

[sharpsk8]

I can't find the research right now, but I remember reading that the contrasts involving these phonemes (/θ/ as in think vs /t/ and /ð/ as in that vs /d/) have among the lowest functional loads in the English language, meaning that there are very few minimal pairs (such as three and tree) formed using these phonemes. As a language teacher, these phonemes aren't a priority unless the student's pronunciation is otherwise perfect and they specifically ask for help.

That said, they're definitely achievable!

And some native dialects of English lack these sounds all together.