Hi guys, welcome back to English with Max. In this video we're going to look at how
to pronounce these three words. Remember I'm Australian, but in this video I'm
just going to give you the standard British and American pronunciations.
I'll start with the British one and then I'll give you the American pronunciation.
The first word is cloth. Cloth. This has a voiceless TH at the end.
When I say the TH, there is no vibration here.
Cloth. Cloth. Cloth is basically a synonym of fabric. It's woven material.
Clothes are made of cloth. These cushion covers are made of cloth. This is cloth.
Sheets are made of cloth, and so are towels. The American pronunciation is similar.
It's just the vowel sound that changes. Americans say something like "cloth". Cloth.
The second word is clothes. Clothes. I know, nearly
everybody learning English finds this word difficult, and I've already
spoken about it in one or two other videos. The TH sound in "clothes" is the
voiced TH. There is vibration here. Thhhh. The. The.
But in the word "clothes", this sound is very short. It's almost not
there. Clothes. Clothes. The sound after that is "zzz", which is also a voiced sound.
Okay, so that's how you say it if you want to say it very correctly. However if
you just find it too difficult, it's perfectly fine to ignore the TH and to
just say "close". Close. Like the verb "to close". And to be honest, when native
speakers are speaking quickly, that's normally what they say anyway. I also say
that quite a lot. Again, the American pronunciation is similar. It's just the
vowel sound that changes. So instead of "clothes", Americans say something like
"clothes". Clothes. Or if you don't want to pronounce the TH: close. Close.
The final word is clothing. Clothing. Clothing is basically just a synonym of clothes.
They mean the same thing, but clothing is more formal. We don't say it very often,
but you'll see it on signs and things like that. For example: Only three items
of clothing may be taken into the changing rooms. Or if you have to perhaps
get an x-ray or a scan, you might see: Please remove all clothing.
This also has the voiced TH sound. Thh. Thh. Thh. Clothing. Clothing.
In the American pronunciation, again it's just the vowel sound that changes.
Clothing. Clothing.
That's it guys. I know it was short, but hopefully it was helpful.
If you liked the video, as usual, please leave me a thumbs up,
and if you would like to leave me a comment, don't hesitate to write one
in the comments section down below.
See you next time.