Just to recap: the TH is made with the tip of your tongue touching just under or just behind your top front teeth. The body of the tongue is long and thin and you can have a voiced and voiceless TH. So, that's how to pronounce the TH..
Correspondingly, why do the English say leftenant?
According to military customs, a lower ranking soldier walks on the left side of a senior officer. This courtesy developed when swords were still used on the battle field. The lower ranked soldier on the "left" protected the senior officers left side. Therefore, the term leftenant developed.
Secondly, why do British say F instead of th? <th> pronounced as /f/ or /v/ is called th-fronting and has been widespread in working class London speech since the 19th century, it's also found in a few other parts of the country. As with most features of this dialect, it's stigmatised, as the responses already up demonstrate.
Likewise, what is it called when you can't pronounce th?
A lisper is someone who can't pronounce the letter S. What do you call someone who pronounces TH as an F?
Is th pronounced as D?
In Standard English, th is pronounced as a voiceless or voiced dental fricative (IPA θ or ð), meaning it is made with the tip of the tongue touching the top row of teeth. –In London, voiced th often becomes 'd' at the beginning of a word: this becomes 'dis.
Related Question Answers
Why can't some people pronounce th?
People who pronounce 'th' as 'f' don't have a speech impediment; it's a matter of accent and dialect. And for the same reason, it's not 'wrong' or the result of poor education or laziness or anything like that.Why does English have the th sound?
From a Latin perspective, the established digraph ?th? now represented the voiceless fricative /θ/, and was used thus for English by French-speaking scribes after the Norman Conquest, since they were unfamiliar with the Germanic graphemes ð (eth) and þ (thorn).How can I help my child pronounce th?
Practice “f-th-f-th” to contrast the two sounds. If necessary, gently push the lower lip out of the way. 3.To teach the voiced TH, instruct the child to imitate the voiceless TH and to “turn his voice on.” It may be taught by having him say “zzzz,” then gradually move his tongue forward to between the teeth.What British accent says TH as F?
Th-fronting is the pronunciation of the English "th" as "f" or "v". When th-fronting is applied, /θ/ becomes /f/ (for example, three is pronounced as free) and /ð/ becomes /v/ (for example, bathe is pronounced as bave).Why do British people say free instead of three?
Why do British people pronounce 'three' as 'free'? It's not standard for British accent. It's a Cockney accent originating in East London in working class people. In Britain you will find that more people from down south pronounce th as f not just London.Why do Americans say zee?
The primary exception, of course, is in the United States where “z” is pronounced “zee”. The British and others pronounce “z”, “zed”, owing to the origin of the letter “z”, the Greek letter “Zeta”. This gave rise to the Old French “zede”, which resulted in the English “zed” around the 15th century.Why do British say Aluminium?
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary English chemist Sir Humphry Davy named the element alumium in 1808 and then changed it to aluminum in 1812. British editors changed it to aluminium to be more in keeping with other elements such as potassium and sodium, while the Americans retained the spelling as aluminum.Why do British add u to words?
Originally Answered: Why is there an extra U in the British spelling of certain words? The British spellings do not contain extra letters; those spellings were there first and thus they are the original spellings.How do British people say Lieutenant?
Reason for different pronunciations of "lieutenant" While Americans (and possibly others) pronounce this as "loo-tenant", folks from the UK pronounce it as "lef-tenant".Why is Colonel pronounced with an R?
The French also took this word from the Italians. But when they added it to their language, they changed the word "colonnelo" to "coronel." Language experts say this is because the French wanted to have the "r" sound in the word, instead of the two "l" sounds. Colonel was spelled c-o-l-o-n-e-l but pronounced "kernel."What is a British lieutenant?
Lieutenant (UK: /l?fˈt?n?nt/; Lt) is a junior officer rank in the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above second lieutenant and below captain and has a NATO ranking code of OF-1 and it is the senior subaltern rank. The rank is equivalent to that of a flying officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF).Why is Arkansas pronounced wrong?
Arkansas was named for the French plural of a Native American tribe, while Kansas is the English spelling of a similar one. Since the letter "s" at the end of French words is usually silent, we pronounce Bill Clinton's home state "Arkansaw." It's the English spelling though, so naturally, we pronounce the final "s."Do you pronounce the r in foyer?
Indeed, the French pronunciation [fwaje] (fwa-yay) is fairly uncommon. Some (as in Standard American) take yet a further step and pronounce the word with the [r] at the end. (Ironically, speakers of non-rhotic dialects will then abandon the [r] and pronounce it something like FOY-uh).Why is the L in solder silent?
Solder, not Sodder? The Story behind the Silent (or not so Silent) L. The word solder originates in Middle English. The Latin origin is the word solidaire, meaning to “to make solid,” which is where the -l- in solder comes from.How do British people say good morning?
Bore da (bore-eh-dah) - Good Morning.What is your accent?
Broadly stated, your accent is the way you sound when you speak. There are two different kinds of accents. One is a 'foreign' accent; this occurs when a person speaks one language using some of the rules or sounds of another one. The other kind of accent is simply the way a group of people speak their native language.Why can't Irish say th?
It isn't that they don't pronounce it correctly, it is simply that some Irish people pronounce the th sound differently that you or I might. Ireland has many dialects of English. Some will pronounce it the way we are most used to hearing it in the UK and U.S. Others may use a d sound while others yet may use a t sound.Why is Thomas spelled with a th?
There is no rule at all. Thomas comes from the Aramaic t'om'a, while Theodore comes from the Greek Θεόδωρος (Theodōros), which is probably the reason for the difference in pronunciation. Eventhough the th in Thomas comes from the later Greek spelling, it's likely that the pronunciation remained from the original form.What is th called?
In the case of 9th, the superscript shown is indeed called the 'ordinal indicator' as Matt Gutting has noted in his answer. The addition of -th/ -eth relates to numbers 4 to 20 (and similarly,) and is a suffix to the cardinal number. 
