One syllable: Breathe.
breeth
/bɹið/
Breathe is pronounced breeth (/bɹið/). It has one syllable (Breathe), with the stress on "Breathe". Breathe is a single-syllable verb meaning to inhale and exhale air, or to rest or pause for breath in speech. The noun breathe is rare but appears in literature and medical contexts to describe an act or instance of breathing; most usage treats breathe as a verb. In everyday use, it also functions in phrases like “take a breath” to refer to the act of inhaling or a moment of calm.
nounBreathe is a single-syllable verb meaning to inhale and exhale air, or to rest or pause for breath in speech. The noun breathe is rare but appears in literature and medical contexts to describe an act or instance of breathing; most usage treats breathe as a verb. In everyday use, it also functions in phrases like “take a breath” to refer to the act of inhaling or a moment of calm.
- You might slip into /breθ/ using a voiceless /θ/. Fix: keep voicing; place tongue between teeth and buzz your vocal cords for /ð/. - Another frequent error is using a short /i/ (like in ‘bit’) instead of /iː/; fix by elongating the vowel just before /ð/. - Some learners insert a hard alveolar stop between /iː/ and /ð/ in fast speech; avoid an audible /t/ or /d/ by gliding directly to /ð/ after /iː/.
"Take a deep breath before you begin speaking."
"The patient’s slow, steady breath helped calm the monitors."
"She could hear her breath in the silent room after the storm."
Pronounce as /briːð/. The initial /b/ is a standard bilabial stop; the vowel is the long /iː/ as in “beet”; the final voiced interdental fricative /ð/ is produced with the tongue between the teeth and the vocal cords vibrating. Stress is on the only syllable. In connected speech, you may hear subtle vowel shortening before a pause. If you’re learning, start slowly: /b/ + /riː/ + /ð/ and then blend.
Common errors: (1) Pronouncing it as /breθ/ with a voiceless /θ/ instead of the voiced interdental /ð/; (2) Using a short /i/ as in 'bit' (/brɪθ/) instead of the long /iː/; (3) Overemphasizing the /t/ or /d/ at the end in rapid speech. Correction: produce a long /iː/ before the interdental /ð/, maintain voicing through /ð/, and avoid adding a hard stop. Practice: /briːð/ slowly, then as blends with tempo, finally in sentence contexts.
All three accents share /briːð/ roughly, but rhoticity and vowel length can tweak quality. US/UK/AU typically maintain the long /iː/; UK may have more precise tongue placement near the alveolar ridge with subtle tongue-lip shaping. Australian often features a slightly clipped /iː/ and softer /ð/. Stress remains on the only syllable. The main difference is the vowel quality and the voicing of /ð/ influenced by surrounding vowels in connected speech.
The key challenge is the voiced interdental fricative /ð/, a sound many learners struggle with because it requires the tongue to protrude between the teeth and maintain voicing. Also, the long /iː/ before /ð/ must be held without shortening under stress, which can be hard in rapid speech. Finally, in some dialects the final /ð/ can soften or merge with /d/ or be barely audible in casual speech.
Unlike many common verbs, breathe centers on a th-sound that is voiced and interdental, not a simple /θ/ or /ð/ isolation. The tricky part is maintaining the vocalized /ð/ without turning it into /d/ or /v/. Also, the /iː/ is a long vowel in most dialects, which can be mistaken for a shorter vowel in rapid speech; emphasize duration before the final /ð/.
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- US: tends to a slightly tensed /iː/ with clear /ð/; mouth slightly wider; avoid thinning the tongue. - UK: very precise /iː/ with tongue near the hard palate, soft jaw; keep rhoticity minimal (non-rhotic often). - AU: often a marginally shorter /iː/ and a softer /ð/, sometimes approaching a vowel-like quality; keep voicing; ensure /ð/ remains voiced.
Breathe comes from Old English brǣthan, meaning to blow, blow softly, or to emit air; it shares roots with related Germanic terms such as Old English brīþan and Dutch brengen, though the precise semantic shift is complex. The verb form evolved in Early Modern English from Proto-Germanic *breþan-/*bræþan- to mean to exhale and inhale in a more physiological sense, later expanding to metaphorical uses like to take one’s breath away or to breathe life into something. The noun usage is archaic and uncommon in modern speech, but survives in medical, religious, and literary contexts (for example, “breath” and “breathing” are closely linked forms). The first known written attestations appear in Old English medical and poetic texts, with “breathe” appearing in both literal and figurative senses by the 13th century, becoming a fundamental term in descriptions of respiration and vitality. Over time, medieval and early modern pharmacopoeias and treatises used breath to refer to life force and the act of taking air, while modern English clearly differentiates breathe (verb) from breath (noun). Modern pronunciation maintains a long /iː/ vowel in some dialects when prefixed or inflected (breathed), but core pronunciation remains /briːð/ in most varieties for the base verb and /brɛð/ for some forms in certain contexts.
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Words that rhyme with "Breathe"
-ath sounds
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