Pronunciation · Everyday words people get wrong

How to pronounce “thorough”

THU-ruh

2 syllables · stress on “THU”

THUruh

Britishˈθʌrə

Americanˈθɜːroʊ

In short

“thorough” is pronounced THU-ruh: 2 syllables, with the stress on “THU”. Four words differ by one or two letters and share almost nothing in sound: through /θruː/, thorough /ˈθʌrə/, though /ðəʊ/ and thought /θɔːt/. The version to avoid is THROO — reading it as “through”.

Say “thorough” in 3 steps

1Two syllables: THU-ruh. It is not “through”.
2The th is the voiceless /θ/ of “think”.
3Compare directly: through = THROO (one syllable); thorough = THU-ruh (two).

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: THROO — reading it as “through”

Four words differ by one or two letters and share almost nothing in sound: through /θruː/, thorough /ˈθʌrə/, though /ðəʊ/ and thought /θɔːt/.

Hear real people say it

Model audio is consistent; real speech is not. Hearing several actual speakers is what makes a word recognisable when someone says it at full speed.

Real speakers

2 human recordings

Actual people saying “thorough”, not a synthetic voice. Real speech varies — that variation is what you need to recognise, and what a single model voice cannot show you.

Recordings from Wikimedia Commons by No machine-readable author provided. Baryonic Being~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). and Dvortygirl, licensed under Public domain / CC BY-SA 3.0. Full credits.

Practise it out loud

Reading about a sound does not change your mouth. Say it, hear it back, and fix one thing at a time.

Say it yourself

0/6 practised

Listen first, then record. You get feedback on the individual sounds, the stress and the rhythm — no account needed, and nothing is stored.

Three speakers per accent

Recordings are used only to generate this feedback and are not stored. Your accent is never penalised: IELTS scores intelligibility, and so do we.

British vs American

British English ends in a weak schwa; American English ends in the diphthong of “go”: THUR-oh.

The sounds inside this word

Each links to a full guide with mouth position, audio and drills. If a word keeps failing, the problem is usually one of these.

θth as in think ʌu as in cup rr as in red əa as in about (schwa)

Don't confuse it with…

Minimal pairs isolate the exact contrast this word depends on — the fastest way to train both ear and mouth.

More everyday words people get wrong

Same pattern, same fix. Learning them as a group is far faster than one at a time.

clothesKLOHDHZ monthsMUNTHS sixthSIKSTH askedAHSKT FebruaryFEB-roo-uh-ree libraryLY-bruh-ree

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce thorough?

thorough is pronounced THU-ruh, written /ˈθʌrə/ in IPA. Two syllables: THU-ruh. It is not “through”.

How many syllables are in thorough?

two: THU-ruh. The stress falls on “THU”.

What is the most common mistake with thorough?

THROO — reading it as “through”. Four words differ by one or two letters and share almost nothing in sound: through /θruː/, thorough /ˈθʌrə/, though /ðəʊ/ and thought /θɔːt/.

Is thorough pronounced differently in British and American English?

British English ends in a weak schwa; American English ends in the diphthong of “go”: THUR-oh. IELTS accepts either accent, so choose one model and stay consistent.

What is the difference between through, thorough, though and thought?

Through is THROO, one syllable. Thorough is THU-ruh, two syllables. Though is DHOH, with the voiced th of “this”. Thought is THAWT. Only the spelling makes them look related.

The full sound library

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