In today’s episode of Embarrassing English Errors Ep16: Think & Sink I teach you how to pronounce the difference between the words “Think” and “Sink.

Embarrassing English Errors Ep16: Think & Sink

So, welcome to this episode of Embarrassing English Errors guys. Today we’re going to go through the words “Think” and “Sink”.

So, “To think” means to have a particular belief or idea. And the verb “To sink” means to go below the surface of something, so like, “To sink below the water”, or to descend from a higher to a lower position, so to drop downwards. So, if you sit in a really really soft couch or a soft chair you could say that you’re sinking into the chair. So, it’s that idea of going down into something. And obviously if you’re saying “I’m thinking” and you accidentally pronounce this “I’m sinking” you’re going to confuse a lot of people at least initially. Obviously, they’re going to get what you mean, they’ll understand when you keep talking, you know, and say “I’m sinking of something”, they’re going to know what you mean, but it’s one of those small changes that you can make to sound more natural, to sound more native, and to just make conversation a lot more fluid.

So, what are some other words in English that have that “Theh” sound at the start of it [them*], like the word “Think”:

Thick

Thin

Thing

Thimble

Thistle

Thinner

Thicken

Thesaurus

And what are some other words that sound like “Sink” and have that “Seh” at the start of it [them*]:

Cyst

Sick

Sixth

Silk

Silly

Sift

Cigar

City

Sibling

Sickened

So, we’ll go through the “Theh” and “Seh” sound[s] 10 times:

Theh – Seh x 10

And now we’ll go through the different words “Think” and “Sink” 10 times:

Think – sink x 10

And I might do a little bonus at the end here guys with the word “Sixth”, because this is a very evil and hard to pronounce word in English. “Sixth”, so number 6, if you come “Sixth in a race” it means that you finished in the posisition number 6. “Sixth” it’s spelt “S-I-X-T-H” and so you say “Si…” “Sic” and then you end with a “ssss thhhh” sound. So, it’s sort of like you switch from a “Seh” to a “Theh” in one motion after “Sic”. “Sixth”, “Sixth”. So, you move through multiple consonants here guys. You end with an “ic” sound then you have a “Ss” sound and then a “Th” sound. So, it’s like a:

Ic-Ss-Th x 5

Sixth x 15

And, I’m not 100% sure but I think that may be the only word in English that sounds like that, that has that “X-T-H” sound. Anyway, thanks for listening to this episode guys, and if you have any other difficult to pronounce English sounds that you would like me to do an Embarrassing English Errors episode on then feel free to message or comment me on Facebook. Have a good one guys!