As in _th_eater.

No! As in _t_om.

Is that question directed at German or English native speakers?
In English it is definately Thomas as in t_om.

@minu: Excuse me, that's nonsense!

@ducky: It is pronounced like Thames (the river) and thyme (the spice, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, remember Simon and Garfunkel?). In your words: Like "Tom".

@ AndreasS


Then is "through" pronounced as "true"?

@minu
No, but English is renowned for not being sensible with its spelling.

George Bernard Shaw said that fish could be spelled thus:

GHOTI

- GH like from "enough" (F)
- O like from "women" (I)
- TI like from "station" (SH)

I think the pronunciation "troo" (with a dental /t/) does exist though, maybe in some American dialects/Irish?

But generally, through = like theater, thompson = like tom

Support LK, Alex and AndreasS.

It is definitely a "t" as in "time," "Tom," "tube", etc.

@ Alex


:-D


That is ONE brilliant explanation!

Thank you!

erm, thanks :)

If you'll excuse my French, English spelling is a bugger.

Just out of curiosity:
Minu, I often heard people from India pronounce the "th" and 't' very softly, thus both becoming similar to a 'd'. Might the confusion here have something to do with this? Please don't get me wrong, I do not want to criticize your English (which is great) nor foreign accents in general (having an accent myself ;-)! It just occurred to me, that regional provenance could be the reason for a specific perception of the sounds "th" and "t" (Germans for instance tend to miss slight differences between 'a' (had) and 'e' (head) or "v" (vine) and "w" (wine) sounds.)

IŽm surprised at the amount of follow-up this generated!

Thank you very much, everybody!

Yes birgila / DE.
This change in pronunciation is due to regional accents, as sounds from mother-tongues peep into spoken English.

--> Minu, I often heard people from India pronounce the "th" and 't' very softly, thus both becoming similar to a 'd'.

This is particularly true of people from southern parts of India.

:)

Nice observation!

thank you, minu :-)