/θ/ as in "thumb"

/θ/ is a voiceless dental fricative of General American English, as in "thumb" and "bath." To produce it, tongue tip between teeth, air flows through. Phoneme provides native-speaker audio and minimal-pair contrasts so learners can hear and practice this consonant.

How to make /θ/

voiceless dental fricative — tongue tip between teeth, air flows through.

Sounds that learners confuse with /θ/

• /θ/ vs /t/ — /t/ as in "tea"
• /θ/ vs /s/ — /s/ as in "sun"

Minimal pairs for /θ/

/θ/ vs /t/

/θ/	/t/
thin	tin
thick	tick
thigh	tie
three	tree
thread	tread
thank	tank
theme	team
threw	true

/θ/ vs /s/

/θ/	/s/
think	sink
thin	sin
thick	sick
thumb	some
thank	sank
thing	sing
thigh	sigh
theme	seam