Filipino learners of English who have difficulty producing the initial sound of the word THUNDER are likely to replace it with which sound?

• A. /d/
• B. /t/
• C. /s/
• D. /f/

Answer: (B)

The sound being tested is how learners handle the English “th” at the start of a word. In THUNDER, the initial sound is the voiceless dental fricative /θ/, a sound many Filipino speakers don’t have in their native phonology. To produce a word aloud, they often substitute with a familiar sound that’s easy to articulate.

The best substitute here is the voiceless alveolar stop /t/. It keeps the voiceless quality of the original and is a common sound learners know how to make, so THUNDER tends to become TUNDER in their speech. Replacing it with /d/ would introduce voicing, changing the sound more; /s/ would switch to a fricative with a different manner and place of articulation, and /f/ is a different fricative and place of articulation altogether. Thus, /t/ is the most natural and accurate approximation.