Words With “th”

Th is a digraph, two letters that spell one sound, and in English that one spelling makes two different sounds. The voiced th (/ð/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet) is the one in this, that and mother: your voice switches on and your throat buzzes. The unvoiced th (/θ/), also called voiceless, is the one in thin, three and bath: only air comes out. Your mouth makes the same shape for both, so the whole difference is your voice. Below, each sound has its own word list and three worksheets, and the mixed review at the bottom of the page asks your child to sort the two by ear.

How do you make the two th sounds?

Both th sounds start from the same tongue position. Rest the tip of your tongue lightly between your top and bottom front teeth, so a little of it shows, and let air flow out over it.

• Unvoiced th, as in thin: just blow. It is a soft stream of air with no voice in it.
• Voiced th, as in this: keep your tongue exactly where it is and turn your voice on.

To check which one you made, put a hand flat on the front of your throat. The voiced th buzzes under your fingers, and the unvoiced th does not.

A mirror helps, because your child can see the tip of their tongue. Young children often swap th for a sound that is easier to make: f for the unvoiced th (fink for think) and d or v for the voiced one (dat for that, bruvver for brother). That is common while the sound is still coming in. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) says most children can say almost all speech sounds by age 4, and names th among the sounds that can take longer. If you are worried about your child’s speech, it recommends talking to a speech-language pathologist.

When does th make each sound?

No rule works every time, but where the th sits in a word is a strong clue.

Where the th is	Usually	Examples
Start of a small pointing word	voiced /ð/	the, this, that, they, them, there, than
Start of any other word	unvoiced /θ/	thin, think, three, thumb, thank
Middle of a word, as in -ther	voiced /ð/	mother, father, weather, feather
End of a word	unvoiced /θ/	bath, teeth, both, cloth
End of a word, before a silent e	voiced /ð/	bathe, breathe, clothe

The small th words are few, but a beginner reads them constantly. Twelve of the first hundred words on the Fry list, Edward Fry’s list of the most common words in reading, have a th: the, this, that, these, they, them, their, then, there, than, other and with. Eleven always say the voiced th, and the twelfth, with, is said both ways, so a child’s first reading is almost all voiced th. That is why the voiced words come first on this page, and why most of them turn up again as sight words. The kindergarten and 1st grade sight word lists sort them by what else each word needs besides its th.

The exceptions are few enough to learn as words. In the middle of a word, nothing, author and method say the unvoiced th. At the end, smooth says the voiced th, and with is said both ways.

A silent e at the end turns an unvoiced th into a voiced one. The word without the e names a thing, and the word with it is the action: bath and bathe, breath and breathe, cloth and clothe, teeth and teethe. In bath and bathe, and cloth and clothe, the e makes the vowel long too, as it does in every silent-e word.

How should you use these th worksheets?

Work through one sound at a time, voiced first, in the order the sheets are numbered. Start here once your child can read CVC words like cat and sit. Teaching one pattern at a time, in a planned order, is what the National Reading Panel’s 2000 report calls systematic phonics, and the panel found it helps children from kindergarten through sixth grade. Read the word cards together, each one aloud with a hand on your throat, and say whether it buzzed. The handwriting sheet comes next, then the word search, which comes last because a child can find a word by matching letters without reading it.

When both sounds are easy, the mixed review brings them together, and its word sort is the sheet that asks the real question: say the word, listen for the buzz, and write it under voiced or unvoiced. Each column mixes words that start with th and words that do not, so the only way to sort them is by ear.

There is no word scramble on this page, on purpose. Scrambled, thin spells hint, these spells sheet and there spells three, so a child who unscrambled one of them into a real word would be marked wrong by the answer key.

What are voiced th words (/ð/)?

The voiced th, written /ð/, is the th that buzzes. Put the tip of your tongue between your teeth and turn your voice on, and you get the sound at the start of this and in the middle of mother. With a hand on the throat, your child should feel it hum. It is the th in the small words that fill every sentence (this, that, they, them, then, than, these, those and there) and in the -ther words: mother, father, brother, feather and weather.

The is the voiced th word your child will read most, and it is left off these sheets on purpose. In a word search, the hides inside them, then, they, these, there and every -ther word, so a child who circled it inside mother would be marked wrong by the answer key. Other is left off for the same reason, since it sits inside mother and brother. Practice both in a book instead, where they turn up on almost every page.

• this
• that
• they
• them
• then
• than
• these
• those
• there
• mother
• father
• brother
• feather
• weather

Printables for Voiced “th” Words

1. 1Voiced “th” Word Cards (PDF)14 cards · 2 pages↓
2. 2Voiced “th” Words: Handwriting Practice (PDF)14 words · 2 pages↓
3. 3Voiced “th” Word Search (PDF)14 words · answer key included · 2 pages↓

What are unvoiced th words (/θ/)?

The unvoiced th, written /θ/, is the th made with air alone. Some books call it voiceless. It is the same mouth shape as the voiced th with the voice switched off, so a hand on the throat feels nothing. It starts most words that are not small pointing words (thin, thick, thank, three, throw and throat) and ends most words that finish in th (bath, math, path, teeth, tooth, both, moth and cloth).

Moth and mother show the difference in one pair. The same four letters, m-o-t-h, say the unvoiced th in moth and the voiced th in mother, so reading the two aloud with a hand on the throat is the quickest way to hear it. If your child says fin for thin or baf for bath, use a mirror: tongue tip out between the teeth first, then blow.

• thin
• thick
• thank
• three
• throw
• throat
• bath
• math
• path
• teeth
• tooth
• both
• moth
• cloth

Printables for Unvoiced “th” Words

1. 1Unvoiced “th” Word Cards (PDF)14 cards · 2 pages↓
2. 2Unvoiced “th” Words: Handwriting Practice (PDF)14 words · 2 pages↓
3. 3Unvoiced “th” Word Search (PDF)14 words · answer key included · 2 pages↓

Mixed review: printables for the whole list

Every sheet below is built from the Words With “th” above. No account, no email, no watermark. Start at the top and print one at a time. The sheets are in teaching order, and ten minutes on a single sheet is more valuable than working through a stack on autopilot.

1. 1Words With “th”: Word Cards (PDF)16 cards · 2 pages↓
2. 2Words With “th”: Word Sort (PDF)8 words · answer key included · 2 pages↓
3. 3Words With “th”: Word Search (PDF)16 words · answer key included · 2 pages↓