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Take the random sentence "Start with the basics." Would you pronounce both "th" sounds separately or link them essentially saying "withe". Being a non native speaker I find pronouncing both difficult without disrupting the "flow of speech" which is often stated as being very important when speaking english.

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  • How quickly are you speaking?
    – choster
    Aug 8, 2017 at 18:49

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I think it depends on the region whether or not someone will say both "th" sounds or not. I'm American and from the Pacific Northwest, and I tend to merge the two words into sounding like this:

Start wi-thuh basics.

As with most languages (I'm sure), people are lazy, and sounds will tend to mesh together if they're similar enough. But as I said, it probably depends on who you ask whether or not those words are said separately or not.

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    Other dialects might say something more like "wit/wid-the" or "wi'-the" (indicating a glottal stop) as well.
    – A. Galloway
    Aug 8, 2017 at 18:13
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It's just one sound, unless you are speaking really slowly.

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    I'd put it the other way round; it's a long consonant, unless I'm speaking very quickly. What it isn't is two separate consonant sounds.
    – Colin Fine
    Jan 3 at 18:54
  • Ah, yes, I forgot that point.
    – ILEM World
    Jan 3 at 18:56

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