Bloody embarrassed... how do you all pronounce 'thus' ?

[JellyTots2009]

I'm totally embarrassed just because this happened in front of my partners dad.

I am currently writing up a college assignment and used the word 'thus' in a sentence. Now, not using this word a lot I asked my partner who was standing with his dad if this sentence made sense.
When I pronounced thus all I got was 'it's thus! Thus!' from both of them. Obviously writing it down you don't know how it's said.

I pronounce it 'th-us' like 'fuss' but using 'th' they said it is 'the-us' obviously said as one word and not with a hyphen in.

I know I'm 100% wrong but has anyone else pronounced it my way making my embarrassment less?

It's thus like fuss but I think where you went wrong was pronouncing the th like "think". It should be the same th sound you'd use to say "therefore" or "the".

Slightly off topic but quite a number of female students now tell me they ask family members, boyfriends etc to give an opinion on their work. And quite often, from the way they describe it, those peoples comments are not that relevant to the point of the assignment because - amazingly - they have not studied the subject and know little about it. As a result, they point out minor spelling errors and so on, which do little to improve the substance of the work (student could usually have picked these up themselves in a final proofread) but leave the student thinking the family member helped them and still somehow knows more than they do, when the reverse is true. Incidentally, I don't tend to hear from my male students that they do this.

My point is, OP, have confidence in your own work. It's yours and you've studied to write this assignment. They haven't. Don't let a mispronunciation issue - when you won't even be reading the word out - make you think less of yourself.

I can’t tell the difference between a hard and soft ‘th’. I say ‘tooth’ and ‘the’ with the same pronunciation of ‘th’.

I spent years saying the word epitome wrong. It is not a word I had ever heard spoken aloud growing up and had only ever read it. So when at university I had the chance to use it I smugly said something along the lines of "And that is the epiTOME of rudeness" . Got a pasting... But I styled it out and forever have used epiTOME when talking to that group of pals.

This reminds me of an odd unofficial debate we were having way back in school. It was the early days of memes, and there were half the people rhyming that with "mi-mi", and half using the regular "meem". Fun times.

There is no shame in mispronouncing words, btw, it just means you learned the word from reading it, rather than conversationally.

You are right and they are wrong

As a result, they point out minor spelling errors and so on, which do little to improve the substance of the work (student could usually have picked these up themselves in a final proofread) but leave the student thinking the family member helped them and still somehow knows more than they do, when the reverse is true.

Sounds like those cases where someone will correct your grammar/spelling on the internet when they don't have a proper counterargument to the point you've been trying to get across!

Am I alone in not being able to hear a difference in the way the th is pronounced in the, this and thought?

But really, despite being a died-in-the-wool pedant

That has made my day, @acis!

@Cinnabar

How do you say thought? The beginning of thought is a soft th.

Thus is pronounced with the soft th sound, like they, them, though etc
Not like through, thermometer, theory etc

As my brain is currently fried with Easter assignments, after re reading my OP I didn't mean to write my pronunciation rhymes with fuss as my partners does too.
I meant the start of the word.
It seems there's a divide as people pronounce it either way.

@Herland - the way I pronounce ‘th’ in ‘thought’ is the same as the way I pronounce it in ‘the’. No difference that I can hear.

@Larrygreysonsdoor - no, not alone!

Every single ‘th’ word used as an example on this thread - I use the same ‘th’ sound for all of them.

'Th' in 'think' should just sound like a soft hissing sound, whereas the hard 'th' actually has a vocalisation - so you could sing it with any pitch you wanted. You can't sing a note for a soft 'th'.

A bit like saying 'v' as in 'version' vs 'f' as in 'fish'.

It's hard to describe... When I say 'tooth' or 'think' I keep my tongue between my teeth for a little longer on the 'th' than I would when I'd say 'the' or 'that'.

Or even a dyed in the wool pedant.

Gawd, how did I miss that? Ya got me, Piggywaspushed!

Cinnabar so you'd say just the sound 'th' for 'the'? That's what it'd be without the hard 'th', just air passing through your teeth.

@IhateBoswell - I don’t. Same clipped, quick sound for all of them.

So confused @cinnabar. I can sing a soft th and a hard th. ???

acis you could blame auto correct !

OP , I reckon this is regional. It's an unusual pronunciation but it's not a mispronunciation. I do know quite a few who say it like you. I did ask before and am still curious : where are you from?

When I say "the" I use the tip of my tongue against my teeth; when I say "thin", my teeth hit my tongue slightly further back.

I can sing all the ‘th’ words. Flat, but I can sing them. How can you not sing a word?

It's th as in seethe. Not as in truth.

oooooh the difference between the 'th' in think and the 'th' in the is voicing! In 'think' the vocal folds are open therefore no voice but in 'the' vocal folds are vibrating - thus voiced!! The place of articulation is the alveolar ridge behind the teeth for both 'th's. I am a sppech and language therapist btw :D