how to pronounce numbers

[rprosperi]

(06-26-2018 05:12 AM)cyrille de brébisson Wrote:  Such an interesting topic!!!

>He said "forty", my program produced "fourty" (which I perceived as correct!)
My wife had the same disagreement with my kid's english teacher on "Fifth" over the second f is pronounced or not. Can we have a show of hand here? Who pronounces that 2nd f?

Cyrille

It truly is interesting! So many subtle variations...

While I can't speak for all Americans, I have traveled to all major areas of the country and I've never heard anyone here pronounce 'fifth' without the 2nd f. Of course, I didn't ask folks to use the word fifth wherever I travelled, but if it was used that way, it would be very noticeable.

Possibly related, the popular American rapper "50 Cent" has a name which in proper English should nominally be pronounced "Fifty Cent" (with the 2nd f pronounced) but in actual use is pronounced as "Fitty Cent". While the origin of this may have come from the rap community, it is in widespread use today (at least in all homes that raised kids that are under 30 today).

In a related but OT topic, here is an article on phrases Americans use, which are supposed to be not understood by non-Americans. Is that true, at least in general?