Key Points
- Learning Objectives: understanding stress patterns and practicing the difference between numbers ending in -teen or -ty
- L1 Influence: many language learners struggle with ‘teen’ and ‘ty’ because English is stress timed, not syllable timed.
- Text for Practise : I went to the store and bought thirteen tomatoes for thirty dollars, fourteen fish for forty dollars, fifteen forks for fifty dollars, etc.
- Minimal Pairs : ‘teen’ is the stressed syllable - it is long and clear and the /t/ is clearly pronounced: thirteen, fourteen... ‘ty’ is the unstressed syllable- it is short and quick and the ‘t’ is pronounced /d/: thirty, forty, fifty...
