THa

Why do we say tha but spell it t-h-e...

Wow this word is very tricky. Sometimes it sounds more like tha, like pick up the phone. Sometimes it sounds more like thee, you are the best! We say thee when we want to add emphasis to the noun that we are talking about. There are other times when 'the' sounds more like thee, when we have accents. But when ever or what ever way you say the word 'the', you still spell it THE! Yes, we don't use all capitals but I needed you to feel the importance of those three letters that don't make much sense.

Now, to make matters more fun, let's look at the first part- th. Think /th/ we stick our tongue to the to the middle of our mouth and front of our teeth. We blow air with our tongue, through our teeth. This makes that /th/ sound we teach in words like thing, thimble, thought, thumb, other, etc. But when we say 'the', yes try it, that little th doesn't quite make the same /th/ sound as it does in the example words or in other words as it appears. So THE will always be t-h-e.

When you teach this to students there is really no other way then drill and kill. Model it, write it, reveal it, highlight it, air write it, search for it, color it, build it, write it, stick it, play with it, read it, mold it, decorate it, draw it, sing it, write it, find it, explore it, and never let any one forget it. T's verbal path is down and cross. H's verbal path is down, up and around. E's verbal path is out and around like a c. Students need to say the verbal path as they practice writing their letters. Once they know the verbal path of their letters they should be able to say a word as they write it. When they say 'the', they should be writing t-h-e, the! Have them do a slow check. Always check your work for good measures.

Practice make perfect and 'the' needs to be perfect every time. Remember lower case letters!