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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask my husband to pronounce his th

179 replies

Pumpkinallspice · 27/09/2025 19:10

My husband has always hade an "f" sound for his th's. Mumf for month, teef for teeth etc.

He is highly educated but it sounds terrible. His Dad who brought him up as a single parent uses the sound set so it's a learnt speech pattern.

We have twin 4 year olds who are now making the same speech sounds. Yes I'm a snob. I don't want them growing up with incorrect speech. Honestly I think how you speak affects how people perceive you.

I mentioned it to him and he was upset obviously. It goes without saying I don't want to upset him, but I really don't want the children growing up with the same speech style.

OP posts:
PistachioTiramisu · 27/09/2025 19:14

I agree OP, cannot bear to hear people pronounce th as 'f'. Get him out of it. My DH doesn't pronounce H properly, i.e. 'ole'. 'appy', 'I hate it so much.

AllTheChaos · 27/09/2025 19:13

Studies have shown that after the age of approximately 11 months, not only can children not learn new phonemes, they stop being able to hear them. So a child who grows up only hearing ‘fff’ rather than the ‘th’ sound, not only won’t be able to pronounce the ‘th’ sound, they won’t be able to hear the difference between that and ‘fff’. By all means encourage your children to use the ‘th’ sound (I happen to agree that it is an important one in terms of pronunciation), but don’t have a go at your husband about it as it’s quite possible that it is something that he cannot help.

toomuchfaff · 27/09/2025 19:13

So you expect him to change his learnt speech pattern? YABU

Changingplace · 27/09/2025 19:11

Surely you’ve always known this? You can’t expect someone to change their accent that’s ridiculous.