How to Pronounce Numbers – English Pronunciation

In this English Video lesson Ronnie is teaching the way of pronouncing confusing numbers in English. After studying these simple rules those numbers would never again be any confusion to you.

In this English Video lesson Ronnie in a more substantial and systematic way is explaining the pronunciation rules on those confusing numbers.

In various languages those numbers sound very much different from each other so that no confusion arises. In English though, they sound almost (pretty much) the same. So learning how to pronounce them right and how to learn to listen for the difference is very important for ESL students.

The teens	The tens
13 – thirteen	30 – thirty
14 – fourteen	40 – forty
15 – fifteen	50 – fifty
16 – sixteen	60 – sixty
17 – seventeen	70 – seventy
18 – eighteen	80 – eighty
19 – nineteen	90 – ninety

 

In pronouncing the teen numbers the most important thing is to emphasize the teen ending and to put a stress on the teen ending. It’s a long dragged pronouncing

On the contrary, the ten numbers pronouncing is very short. And in pronouncing those numbers the most important thing is to emphasize the first numerical part and to put the stress here, on the first part of the word.

To make it even more clear and easier to understand the difference in pronunciation we can write down the big flat T (note that it’s not the right spelling of course, but it’s just the way to make the pronunciation more simple and clear to you, especially when you already know the counting numbers from one to ten). It goes like this:

Thirty = Thur-T

Forty = Four-T

Fifty = Fif-T

Sixty = Six-T

Seventy = Seven-T

 

So, remember the basic stress rules outlined above. And hope this explanation and writing down will be of much help to you. Clearly learning this simple difference you can now go ahead in studying other pronunciation clues and techniques in other lessons on pronunciation on our website.