A short instructional video by Hadar Shemesh explaining the pronunciation difference between the singular 'this' and the plural 'these' in American English. The speaker demonstrates articulation (tongue placement for 'th'), vowel quality (short /ɪ/ vs. long/tensed /iː/), and final consonant voicing (s [s] vs. z [z]) with example noun pairs (this table/these tables, this chair/these chairs).
Chapters
Hi, it's Hadar. And this is the accent's way, your way to finding clarity, confidence and freedom in English. I want to talk to you today about the two words this and these. I often hear people pronounce them the same, something like this and this. And then it sounds like they're making a grammar mistake when it's actually a pronunciation mistake. So let's get this thing straight once and for all. Lets start with the singular form this. This. We begin with a strong th sound. Bring your tongue out to touch the upper teeth, release air and sound, then shift to an E as in sit, vowel, the the and end it with an S. S. This. This. The word these. The plural form begins with a strong th sound as well, V. But then it's a high e V so it's longer and tenser. The and you end it with a z sound like a Z. These. Although it's spelled with an S, it sounds like a Z. These. These. This table. These tables. So it's a little longer. These tables. This chair. These chairs. This person. These people. This. These. Alright, that's it. Good job. Thank you for watching. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you did, please share it with your friends. And do not forget to subscribe if you haven't yet. I will see you next week in the next video. Thank you for watching. Bye.
