How do you pronounce "with these things"?

[Torsten]

Hi,

How do you pronounce "with these things"? I mean, do you link the first two "th"s and then the "s" with the third "th"?

Thanks,
Torsten

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[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

In conversation, I'd say the pronunciation of "with these" would basically be with a single TH sound.
In "these things", the final S sound in "these" and the initial TH in "things" would be separately pronounced, though not quite as distinctly as when you pronounce each of those two words alone.

That's my input from my part of the world -- for whatever it's worth to you. :?
.
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[Torsten]

Hi Amy,

Many thanks for your swift response which I found very useful.
Regards,
Torsten

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[Jamie (K)]

"With these" is frequently pronounced [wɪði:z] when people are talking fast, but it's not a problem for most people to say [wɪθ ði:z].

In "these things" it's not a problem for native English speakers to say the [s] and [θ] right next to each other, as Amy mentioned. I imagine it would be quite hard for a German, but it's not a problem for us, because we don't think the sounds are similar.

However, in ordinary speech the sounds [θ] and [ð] usually DO change when they come after [n]. So, for example, "in there" is usually pronounced [ɪn nɛr]. You have to pronounce both [n] sounds (a double-length [n]), or people will think you said "in air". This is a very common feature of native English pronunciation all over the world, but even though it's everywhere, and it's necessary for understanding us, for some reason pronunciation books never make any mention of it.

[Ralf]

Hi,

In a bog Irish accent, it'd be pronounced "wit dese tings". It doesn't sound very charming, but your ears harden to the sound after a while similar to the way you get used to any other terrible accent. I don't think that there are too many occasions that lead to contextual confusion when you pronounce /t/ as a stop instead of a voiceless dental fricative, or /d/ instead of a voiced dental fricative. 'Richard de turd' is an example I can tink of :)
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