Real clips from the app. Turn your sound on.
Hear both words in 9 voices
Each row is one speaker saying both words. Play one, then the other, and switch to slow when the difference hides.
- American woman, younger
- American woman, older
- American man, younger
- American man, older
- British woman, younger
- British woman, older
- British man, younger
- British man, older
- Australian man
What's different
Both start with the same th, so it's no help here. Listen to the end. Both end in a hum through the nose. Thin closes it off at the front, with the tongue tip on the ridge behind the teeth, so it stops crisply. Thing closes it with the back of the tongue, so it rings lower and further back, with nothing after it: there's no g to listen for.
American voices often add a second clue: before ng, the vowel rises toward the ee of see, so thing can sound close to "theeng", while thin keeps a short, relaxed i. Japanese ん at the end of a word is made far back, close to ng, which is why thin said as katakana シン can sound like thing.
Studies: Nozawa & Cheon 2012 · Thomson 2018
NG rings in the back of the nose. N ends crisply at the front.
Start hearing the difference.
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