December 4, 2023 / Kate

How do you pronounce ‘the’?

That is the question!

There are two different ways of pronouncing the definite article ‘the’.

Normally, we pronounce the with a short sound (like /ðə/ (“thuh,” rhymes with “duh.”)

However, when the comes before a vowel sound, we pronounce it as a long sound /ði:/ (“thee,” rhymes with “free.”)

So for example we will say:

The fruit = The here is pronounced /ðə/

Now if we add an adjective that starts with a vowel sound such as amazing then the pronunciation of the changes:

The (/ði:/) amazing fruit

Let’s look at some more examples:

Vowel	phonetic vowel	Written	Pronounced
a	/æ/	the apple	/ði:/
e	/e/	the egg	/ði:/
i	/aɪ /	the ice-cream	/ði:/
o	/ɒ/	the orange	/ði:/
u	/ʌ/	the ugly fruit	/ði:/

It is important to understand that it is what we say that matters, not what we write.

It is the sound that matters, not the letter used in writing a word. So we use a long “thee” (/ði:/) before a vowel sound, not necessarily before a vowel.

Let’s look at these examples:

we write	with the letter	we say	because
the house	consonant ‘h’	/ðə/ (thuh) House	consonant sound /h/
the hour	consonant ‘h’	/ði:/ (thee) hour	vowel sound /aʊ/
the university	vowel ‘u’	/ðə/ (thuh) Y-university	consonant sound /j/
the umbrella	vowel ‘u’	/ði:/ (thee) Umbrella	vowel sound /ʌ/

There is another reason we say the long ‘the’ /ði:/

When we wish to place emphasis on a particular word, we can use “emphatic the” /ði:/ , whether or not the word begins with a consonant or vowel sound.

For example: