Which accents have a true TH at the start of “three”?

Modern RP / Standard Southern British, Bristol / Southwest English, West Country English, London / Estuary English, Multicultural London English, Birmingham / West Midlands English, Scouse / Liverpool English, Mancunian English, South Yorkshire English, West Yorkshire English, Geordie / Tyneside English, Central Scottish English, Highland Scottish English, South Wales English, Northern Irish English, Cork English, East Irish English, Southern Appalachian English, New York City English, California English, Texas English, Boston / Eastern New England English, Chicago / Inland North English, Newfoundland English, Jamaican English / Patwa continuum, Bajan English, Queensland Australian English, New Zealand English, Toronto Canadian English, Johannesburg South African English, Delhi Indian English.

Which accents have TH-fronting — “three” sounds like “free”?

Bristol / Southwest English, London / Estuary English, Multicultural London English, Birmingham / West Midlands English, Mancunian English, South Yorkshire English, West Yorkshire English, Central Scottish English.

Which accents have TH-stopping — “three” sounds like “tree”?

Multicultural London English, Scouse / Liverpool English, Northern Irish English, Cork English, East Irish English, New York City English, Newfoundland English, Jamaican English / Patwa continuum, Bajan English, Delhi Indian English.

Which accents have TH is variably fronted or stopped?

London / Estuary English, Multicultural London English, Birmingham / West Midlands English, Scouse / Liverpool English, Mancunian English, South Yorkshire English, West Yorkshire English, Central Scottish English, Northern Irish English, Cork English, East Irish English, New York City English, Newfoundland English, Jamaican English / Patwa continuum, Bajan English, Delhi Indian English.

Pronunciation

Three, Free or Tree? What Happens to Your TH

TH is rare across the world's languages and unstable even within English. London and much of urban England front it to F — “free” for “three”. Ireland, the Caribbean, New York and India stop it to T — “tree” for “three”. Both changes are spreading, and both are heavily judged.

The question, as everyone in the survey sees it

What does the first sound of “three” resemble in your relaxed speech?
Say “three things” naturally rather than carefully reading it.

A TH sound
An F-like sound — “free”
A T-like sound — “tree”
I use more than one
I cannot tell

Answer it yourself and see where you land on the map →

Which accents do what

Each accent profile in the survey has an expected answer to this question. Where a profile allows more than one answer, the region genuinely varies.

A TH sound

In these profiles, a true TH at the start of “three”.

An F-like sound — “free”

In these profiles, TH-fronting — “three” sounds like “free”.

A T-like sound — “tree”

In these profiles, TH-stopping — “three” sounds like “tree”.

I use more than one

In these profiles, TH is variably fronted or stopped.

Why this question is in the survey

Pronunciation questions carry more weight in the scoring than vocabulary questions do, because they are much harder to change deliberately. People move house and pick up new words; the vowel system learned in childhood tends to stay. Every answer is stored with a coarse map cell for the town you grew up in, and a region is coloured in once at least five people there have answered.

See the full question bank, the accent profiles these answers feed, or how the scoring works.