© Paul Smit 2006-2020
This is a very common minimal pair for Cantonese speakers.
Exercise 1: Listen to the pairs and repeat
| /f/ | /θ/ | |
| fink | think | |
| first | thirst | |
| four | thaw | |
| free | three | |
| fin | thin | |
| deaf | death | |
| oaf | oath | |
| reef | wreath* |
Exercise 2: Listening and distinguishing the sounds
This will help you learn to distinguish the two sounds.
- Listen to the recording.
- Choose the word you hear.
- You can listen as many times as you want.
- Click the blue > arrow on the bottom right to move to the next question.
Tongue twister
- Repeat the following tongue twister.
- Focus on the two different sounds /f/ as in free and /θ/ as in three.
- Repeat again, trying to say the tongue twister faster and faster.
Three free thirsty oafs swore an oath
“The oaf who is first to swim the reef gets a wreath.”
* The w in wreath is silent – It’s pronounced /ri:θ/
© Paul Smit 2006-2020