Your sounds · S and TH
My sister thinks the suspect is super smart. She says this path is faster, so let's pass the south side. Thanks! I'll see you on Thursday at six.
Real MRI · S
S: the tongue tip comes up close to the ridge but doesn't touch it, and the air hisses through.
Real MRI · TH in "think"
TH: the tongue tip comes forward and touches the top teeth. Air only.
Real MRI · TH in "this"
Same place as "think", plus voice: you feel a buzz.
Real MRI · SH
SH: the tip sits further back and the lips round. S stays forward and smiling.
Pairs
sink · think sing · thing pass · path
sea · she sip · ship sign · shine
Say each pair. Your partner points to the one they heard.
Chunk 1 of 3
My sister thinks the suspect is super smart.
Watch: crisp s in sister, suspect, super, smart · th in thinks · thinks ends with a hiss
Chunk 2 of 3
She says this path is faster, so let's pass the south side.
Watch: sh in she vs s in says · path vs pass · south side: teeth, then ridge
Chunk 3 of 3
Thanks! I'll see you on Thursday at six.
Watch: th in thanks, Thursday · s in see, six · six = k + s
Real MRI · a full sentence
"The girl was thirsty and drank some juice." Watch TH then S in "thirsty".
Real MRI · a passage
"These… the shape… its path… something." TH, SH and S in real speech.
Sources
Seeing Speech, University of Glasgow, IPA chart (MRI 1 and Animation, speaker Janet Beck, © University of Glasgow 2018). seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts. The site doesn't state a licence on its pages. Its sister SpeechStar dataset is CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Used unchanged, for non-commercial class teaching, with credit.
USC SPAN rtMRI IPA chart, Dani Byrd, 2015. sail.usc.edu/span/rtmri_ipa/db_2015.html. Freely shared for research and education, with no explicit licence on the page. Used unchanged, with credit.
Labels, slow-motion and captions added by English for More (upscaled, sharpened, slowed; marker positions approximate). S, TH and SH clips: Seeing Speech "MRI 2" (© University of Strathclyde 2022, speaker Janet Beck).
Model audio: OpenAI text-to-speech.
Prepared by Monica Lim