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

229 replies

JellyTots2009 · 21/04/2019 12:24

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?

OP posts:
CinnabarRed · 21/04/2019 13:13

‘Seethe’ and ‘truth’ - still the same clipped ‘th’ sound.

cdtaylornats · 21/04/2019 13:13
CinnabarRed · 21/04/2019 13:14

@Wren77 - can you feel vocal folds vibrating if you touch your throat?

Wren77 · 21/04/2019 13:15

And to test the theory pop your fingers on your vice box and say the 2 'ths' and you will feel the vibration in one and not the other

Wren77 · 21/04/2019 13:15

yes - x post

Wren77 · 21/04/2019 13:16

sorry - too excited by this discussion to attempt to spell

CinnabarRed · 21/04/2019 13:17

So I tried that - same feeling in my voice box for all of the ‘th’ words - no vibrations.

Sarahjconnor · 21/04/2019 13:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CinnabarRed · 21/04/2019 13:18

Sorry - I meant there ARE vibrations! For all of the words.

Sarahjconnor · 21/04/2019 13:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Wren77 · 21/04/2019 13:19

hhm - try just doing a long thththtth-ink and a long ththtth-uh (the) - or could be just dialect/ or the way you say th/th

Wren77 · 21/04/2019 13:21

the vibration will start with the voiced vowel (i) in think and will be voiced all the way through for the

AllPizzasGreatAndSmall · 21/04/2019 13:21

that's awful. (Possibly a bit of a hypocrite here because I do correct my children's "haitches", but I would never correct anyone else.

But haitches is wrong, using short, flat vowel sounds isn't. I am from the North and despite living in the South for over 30 years, still say these words with a short vowel sound, but I have never said 'haitch' and would correct my children if they had said it. However I do let them get away with using long vowel sounds in words like bath, basketball etc. without comment.

InceyWinceyette · 21/04/2019 13:22

Rhymes with fuss,
Th as in the, though, other, soothe.
Not ‘think’ , through.

Wren77 · 21/04/2019 13:23

And Jellytots I agree with the others - it was rude of your husband and father-in-law to make fun of you :(

Flyinga · 21/04/2019 13:24

I pronounce it Duss, but I'm Irish and we don't do TH's Grin

EngagedAgain · 21/04/2019 13:25

I suppose the correct way is to lightly pronounce the th then us, as in bus. It's not really a word I hear much in daily life. Probably is in the legal world or written word.

CinnabarRed · 21/04/2019 13:25

Nope - still the same no matter how much I draw out the words!

How strange. Clearly just me.

FWIW, I come from quite a privileged background (no family money now though!) and have struggled with pronunciation threads before because I do speak in very clipped tones. When I say ‘house’ it sounds more like ‘hice’ (to rhyme with ‘mice’). I also pronounce the ‘s’ in ‘issue’ (not ‘ishoo’) and ‘tissue’ (not ‘tishoo’).

Flyinga · 21/04/2019 13:27

Ok, so reading back, you're pronouncing the 'th' like an F? A lot of English people seem to do that.

Piggywaspushed · 21/04/2019 13:29

There's a GCSE poem called Tissue
Every teacher in the dept says it differently! Debate rages until none of us is sure how we say anything any more. Ditto The Prelude which a public school educated teacher says Pray lewd and has infected the rest of the teachers and nearly all the students with this!

CinnabarRed · 21/04/2019 13:30

@Flyinga - was that question to me? In case it was - no, I pronounce ‘th’ and ‘f’ very differently.

Flyinga · 21/04/2019 13:34

I've noticed some English people say things like 'Firty' for thirty. Or that's how it sounds to my ear. Being Irish, I struggle to say anything other than Tirty. Except when I'm talking to a machine where I then have to pronounce TH's like F otherwise the machine tells me 'Im sorry, I didn't quite catch that..........'

I think the OP is pronouncing the TH with top teeth touching bottom lip and tongue back, whereas DH & FIL are pronouncing the TH with tongue touching top teeth.

That make sense to anyone?

Flyinga · 21/04/2019 13:34

Question was to OP?

SinkGirl · 21/04/2019 13:40

Say “this”.

It’s exactly like that, but with a u. Same th sound.

neveradullmoment99 · 21/04/2019 13:41

They are wrong! Its THUS like fuss. What silly people.

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