How to pronounce thaw in American English

IPA /θɑ/ Syllables 1 · thah Stress 1st syllable

THAH

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Americans pronounce thaw as THAH (/θɑ/). You'll hear it in sentences like "I need to thaw the frozen meat before I can cook it".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "thaw".

1 syllable, 2 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

th/θ/

Place the very tip of your tongue slightly between your teeth. Blow air gently around it without voicing.

ah/ɑ/

Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.

In real conversation

Hear "thaw" in the wild.

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"I need to thaw the frozen meat before I can cook it."

ahy NEED tuh THAH dhuh FROH·zuhn meet buh·FOR ahy kuhn KUUK iht

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Questions

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Is the American pronunciation of "thaw" different from British English?

American English uses different vowel shapes, a relaxed retroflex R, and connected-speech tricks like flap-T and glottal-stop T that British Received Pronunciation generally avoids. The respell "THAH" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.