In this English Pronunciation lesson I am going to teach you how to correctly pronounce THE at all times!

Many students mispronounce this word because there are some tricky rules and exceptions to rules that can be confusing.

There are two ways to pronounce THE in English. /ðə/ and /ði:/. The first rule is that if THE is before a word beginning with a consonant (like MAN) then we pronounce it /ðə/. The man (/ðə mæn/). But if THE is followed by a vowel then it is usually pronounced /ði:/ as in The Energy (/ði ˈɛnəʤi/). This seems simple, but sometimes in english a word can begin with a consonant letter which is silent, such as in hour (/ði ˈaʊə/) so here we again use /ði/ because the first SOUND is a vowel sound.

To make things even more confusing, sometimes in English a word can begin with a vowel letter, like the word 'ONE' but the first sound is actually a CONSONANT SOUND, /wʌn/, so here we need to say /ðə wʌn/ because one begins with a consonant sound but when we LOOK AT the word it looks like it begins with vowel sound.

Watch the video one or two times until you are CONFIDENT that you understand everything and your pronunciation of THE will be PERFECT!

Vowel Sounds Videos! ⬇⬇

Short Vowels    • MASTER English Pronunciation  |  The ...  
Long Vowels    • MASTER English Pronunciation | The 5 ...  
Diphthongs    • MASTER English Pronunciation  |  The ...  

Also, for anyone wondering, I'm James, an English teacher from the UK so in this video I'm speaking with a British English (Modern RP) accent.

These lessons use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to teach English sounds.



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00:00 Intro
00:48 ð sound
01:48 The First ‘THE’
03:09 Exceptions to 1st THE
05:02 The 1st Rule
05:18 The Second ‘THE’
07:16 Exceptions to 2nd THE
08:35 STRESSING ‘THE’
10:44 Practice Sentence
11:32 TEST

Recommended BOOKS (I earn a small commission for your purchase)
English Pronunciation in Use (Beginner)
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English Pronunciation in Use (Intermediate)
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English Pronunciation in Use (Advanced)
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Great book for improving accent and pronunciation.
Accent: B1C2 (Collins Work on Your Accent…)
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Some people asked me what I use to make these videos...I just use the two items below, a basic but good microphone and an iPhone. Nice and Easy. :)

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