The question today is, Is there a difference between the words then and than?

So technically, yes, there is, But often times when we used these words and his sentence and they are unstrap est, then they sound very, very similar and they are almost exactly the same.

So here are the two words then and the van.

So let's talk about the technical differences between these two vowels.

So this we have the short sound and you can see my mouth is slightly open and you can see the tip of my tongue between my top of my bottom teeth.

Yeah, uh, this is more clothes than the a sound.

And for that short a sound.

My mouth is very open.

So the tip of my tongue is low and the back of my tongue has pulled up.

So again, very open mouth for the app.

Tip of the tongue is down, back of the tongue is pulled up as opposed to the, uh where my tongue is more flat and you can see it between my top and bottom teeth.

So that's the technical difference.

What do we do with this?

Th is.

This sound is really hard for a lot of people because it's the voiced T H sound.

Here's the key.

You must keep space between your top teeth and the tip of your tongue so that air can keep moving out of the mouth.

Oftentimes my students think they're saying this sound cause their tongue is outside of their mouth.

But there's no room for the air to move over the tongue, so it sounds like a duck.

The the almost a D sound.

So again, tip of the tongue is out.

Allow space between the top chief and the tongue for air to move over.

Voice box is on for the end sound.

We're just going to touch the tip of your tongue to the back of your top front teeth, airs moving out of your nose.

So let's try both of these.

Then then then Van Van van, then van, then van.

So that's the difference.

However, when you hear these words in a sentence and if they are not stressed and they're linked to other words, so we might say something like, other than that and other than that sounds like then, not other than that.

It sounds like then.

So again, other than that, you hear that they sound very, very similar.

So again, technically speaking, then, van, but often times when we used the's in sentences were a shorter, quicker vowel, and then they both sound a lot like then.

Okay, so give it a try.

I know people are going to notice the difference.

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