th/θ/
Place the very tip of your tongue slightly between your teeth. Blow air gently around it without voicing.
How to pronounce third in American English
thurd
Start here
Americans pronounce third as thurd (/θɜrd/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The office is on the third floor" or "I think his office is on the third floor" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "third".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ur/ɜr/
Flare your lips and push them away from the face. Lift the middle of your tongue toward the roof of the mouth.
d/d/
Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.
In real conversation
Hear "third" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"I think his office is on the third floor."
ahy thihngk hihz AH·fuhs ihz ahn dhuh thurd flor
"My birthday is on the third Thursday of the month."
mahy BURTH·day ihz ahn dhuh thurd THURZ·day uhv dhuh muhnth
"The office is on the third floor."
dhee AH·fuhs ihz ahn dhuh thurd flor
"We're working on the report for the third quarter."
weer WUR·kuhng ahn dhuh ruh·PORT fer dhuh thurd KWOR·ter
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Watch out
Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.
The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.
01
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "third", the "d" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
third→thurd
02
Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R — the tongue curls back rather than rolling. The R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it, not two separate sounds.
… (no R)→… r (curl the tongue)
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How do I pronounce the R in "third"?
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R: the tongue curls back rather than rolling, and the R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it — not two separate sounds. Don't try to pronounce a separate vowel followed by a separate R. Treat them as a single shape.
Is the American pronunciation of "third" 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 "thurd" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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