How to Pronounce Numbers 20 1 Billion American English
A note about the numbers
20, 30, 40, etc. to 90:
Here it is the first
syllable that is stressed.
20, 30.
This is what helps
differentiate them from 13,
where it is the second part
of the word that is stressed.
30, 13
Twenty.
The official pronunciation for this is
twenty, with two of these tt sounds.
But as you may have noticed
listening to native speakers,
the second tt is not
always pronounced.
In fact, most of the time it’s not.
Most of the time it’s pronounced twenny,
with only an N sound in the second syllable.
Twenny as opposed to twenty.
So the word begins, tt,
with the T sound, tw-.
Followed by the W consonant sound where
the lips form that tight circle,
twe-,the ‘eh’ as in ‘bed’
vowel sound, twen-.
You can then see the front part of
the tongue moves up to make that N.
Twen-n-e.
And the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’.
If you are going to pronounce it the
official and proper way, twent-,
you would then add the T, with the
escaping air, after the N sound.
Twenty.
But as I said, most people
will pronounce this ‘twenny’.
And this is true of all of these
kinds of words: 20, 30, 40, 50.
You don’t hear me saying ‘twentty’,
‘thirtty’, … with that tt sound,
although that would be the
official pronunciation.
So, thirty.
Thirty begins with the
unvoiced TH sound,
where the tongue must
come through the teeth,
then the ‘ur’ as in ‘her’
vowel sound, thir-.
So the tongue pulls back as it
fattens a bit and then raises.
I really feel like it functions
like a D, the tongue goes up,
this part of the tongue
here, so it’s forward.
It then makes a little bit of sound with
the vocal cords before it pulls down,
and then the corners of the lips pull wide,
-ty, for the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’ vowel sound.
Thirty.
Forty.
The ff, F consonant sound,
the ‘oh’ as in ‘no’
followed by the R, for-, -ty.
And again, this same ending.
Forty.
Fifty.
The f consonant sound, the
‘ih’ as in ‘sit’,
and the F consonant
sound, fif-, fif-, -ty.
And this same ending.
Fifty.
Sixty.
Six, just like the number six, or the
first part of 16, six, followed by -ty.
Sixty.
Seventy.
Again, the first part is
just like the number 7,
or the first part of 17, seven-,
seventy, with this same -ty ending.
Seventy.
Eighty.
Now here, we don’t
get the tt from -ty,
but we also don’t say the
tt at the end of eight.
It’s ay, the ‘ay’ as in ‘say’
diphthong, followed by -ty.
Eighty, eighty.
Ninety.
90 again has nine, just like the
number 9 or in 19, nine – ty.
If you’ll notice, when the tongue
comes up for the second N, nin-,
it’s in position to make the D sound.
Nin-.
So just make a little noise
with your vocal cords, 90, 90.
One hundred.
Hundred begins with the H sound, hh,
and the next sound is the ‘uh’
as in ‘butter’ sound.
So the mouth is in position
for the ‘uh’ vowel sound, hh,
as you release air for the H.
Hun-, the N consonant sound, followed
by -dred, the D consonant sound,
the R consonant sound, the schwa
[?], and the R consonant sound.
-dred, -dred.
So, the tongue is here for the
D, pulls back a bit for the R,
down for the schwa, and
back up again for the D.
-dred, -dred, hundred.
One thousand.
Thousand begins with
the unvoiced TH sound,
where the tongue comes
through the teeth, thou-.
It opens into the ‘ow’ as
in ‘now’ diphthong.
Thous-, zzz, voiced z sound,
the schwa, N, and D sound.
-sand, -sand.
Thousand.
One million.
Million begins with the M consonant sound,
mm, opens into the ‘ih’ as in ‘sit’,
it then has the L that finishes
the syllable, so it’s a dark L,
so it has that uh before the tongue
moves up to make the L, -ion.
The Y consonant sound [j], followed by
the schwa and the N consonant sound.
Million.
Billion.
Almost the same, except for the
first consonant sound is different.
Here it is the bb, B consonant sound.
Billion, Billion.
With 100, 1000, 1,000,000, etc,
you would probably only say ‘one’
if you were counting or to emphasize.
In most cases, you would
probably say a, a hundred,
where the letter A would be pronounced
as a schwa connected to the next word.
A hundred, a thousand.
I need a hundred dollars.
Or, what would you do
with a million dollars?