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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

The pronunciation of sixty and sixteen

I have noticed that some students who have learned English as a Second Language place the stress of the teens, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, etc. on teen.

To me this sounds funny. I was brought up in Texas in the 1950s. All my teachers were native speakers of English and I never heard anyone stressing the last part of the teen numbers.

Is stressing teen a general and accepted form or is it a short cut to help students distinguish between the two, for example, síxty and sixteén?
  

Top answer

It could be. It was probably something they picked up from their language teacher, and that could be because the teachers were worried their students might confuse the words like sixty and sixteen. But you're right, native speakers will put the stress on the first part of the word.

— Chalkbrd

  • It could be.
  • It was probably something they picked up from their language teacher, and that could be because the teachers were worried their students might confuse the words like sixty and sixteen.
  • But you're right, native speakers will put the stress on the first part of the word.
  • THIRteen, FOURteen, FIFteen, SIXteen.
  • Chalk
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8 Answers
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It could be. It was probably something they picked up from their language teacher, and that could be because the teachers were worried their students might confuse the words like sixty and sixteen. But you're right, native speakers will put the stress on the first part of the word. THIRteen, FOURteen, FIFteen, SIXteen.

Chalk
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Dear Anonymous,

According to Longman Contemporary Dictionary and many other dictionaries the stress IS on teen.

Let's see what others say.

Iman
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I agree with Mr. Imantaghavi, Thefreedictionary clearly shows the stress difference.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/thirty

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Then I've been saying them wrong for 51 years. Emotion: smile I've never heard any native speaker put the stress on the TEEN. The stress goes o
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By the way, the phonetic pronunciation on the Merriam-Webster dictionary site gives both pronunciations (not in audio, but in the written format). This could be a British-American difference, but I don't know. I only know where I live everyone pronounces it THIRteen.

Please note, though, that we say thirTEENTH, fourTEENTH, etc.

Chalk
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Another native American English speaker chiming in to say that I've only ever heard people put the emphasis on the first syllable.
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I've been polling my friends and so far I've only found one person who put the stress on the TEEN part. That person did not grow up in the Midwest. It very well might be a Midwest thing, but I'm still doing some research. I guess what puzzles me most about it is that the alternative way of pronouncing it (like the people around here do, with the stress on the first part of the word, THIRteen) w
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The pronunciation of the "teens" is variable. It depends how they're used.

In counting or if a noun follows, the stress is on the first syllable. ... fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, ...

thirteen birds, eighteen cats, ...

In answering a question the stress is on 'teen'.

- How old are you?

- Sixteen.

- How many peo
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