Today I want to talk about the phrase "21st century." 21st century.

今天我想谈谈“21st century”这个短语。21 世纪。

And as a bonus, I‘m gonna add "20th century," but it‘s a bit more advanced, so we‘ll start with "21st century." Okay, so let‘s with the word "century." Century.

同时，我也会讲一下“20th century”这个短语，但让我们从“21st century”这个短语开始吧。先来看看“century”这个词。世纪。

This word has two syllables.

这个词有两个音节。

The primary stress is on the first syllable ‘sen‘, and then the second syllable is ‘ch‘, ‘chree‘.

主要重音在第一个音节“sen”上，然后第二个音节是“ch”，“chree”。

Chree.

“Chree”。

So it‘s a ‘ch‘ sound, an R, and a high ‘ee‘.

所以它是“ch”音，R 音，和高“ee”音。

Chree.

“Chree”。

‘Sen-chree‘.

“Sen-chree”。

Century.

/ˈsentʃəri/。

Okay, so let‘s put this on the side.

好吧，让我们把这个放在一边。

Then let‘s start with the word "twenty".

我们再来看看“twenty”这个词。

As you‘ve noticed, I‘m not pronouncing the T here, because the T after an N is often dropped, especially in popular words and especially if I wanna speak fast.

正如你所注意到的，我在这里没有发 T 音，因为 N 后面的 T 音经常被省略，尤其是在流行词中和我想说得快的时候。

So I‘m not saying ‘twen-tee‘ first century, I‘m saying ‘twe-nee‘.

所以，我不会说“twen-te”，我会说“twu-nee”。

Twe-nee, okay?

Twe-nee，好吗？

And then ‘first‘.

然后是“first”。

For the word "first," we wanna begin with this R sound, so we shift from the F to the R immediately.

对于单词“first”，我们想以 R 音开头，所以我们立即从 F 音转换为 R 音。

F‘R, F‘R.

“F‘R”。

Then we have the S, ‘F‘Rs‘, and then you abruptly stop the S with a T. F‘Rssss.

然后我们有 S，“F‘R”，然后你突然用 T 音来阻止 S 音。“F‘Rssss”。

Okay, I don‘t need to pop the T to let the world know that there is a T there.

我不需要可以强调这里有个“T”音，但大家都能听出来。

Firs-t, no.

不是“Firs-t”。

Basically, a T after an S is just an abrupt stop of the S consonant sound, okay?

其实就是 S 音之后，发音突然停止。

So listen to this.

所以听听这个。

F‘Rssss.

F‘Rssss。

I just held the S, okay?

我只是把 S 音按住了，好吗？

So we have twenty, first, and century.

所以我们学习了“twenty”、“first”、以及“century”这三个词。

But the real secret on pronouncing this phrase is how to connect the three words together.

但这个短语发音的真正秘诀是如何把这三个词连在一起。

So twenty-first, pretty easy, right?

“Twenty-first”很简单，对吧？

Twenty-first, ‘cause there is a vowel before and then to connect it to the consonant of the word "first," twenty-first, that‘s pretty simple.

/twenti ˈfɜːst/，因为在“first”这个单词的辅音之前有一个元音，然后连接到“first”这个单词的辅音。所以读起来很简单。

But when you try to pronounce "first century," it may be a bit more difficult because you get stuck there, because of the T, because you have an S and then a T that you have to stop your breath with.

但是当你试着说“first century”的时候，可能会有点困难，因为你会卡在那里，因为 T 音和 S 音连在一起了，你必须停止呼吸。

F‘Rsss, and then another S. First century.

F‘Rsss，然后是另一个 S。第一世纪。

Now this is the proper way to say it, however, and this is what I do, I just eliminate the T. I don‘t pronounce it.

这是正确的说法，我没有发 T 音。我没有发 T 音。

I disregard it.

我无视它。

I say it fast and I put the two words together, combining them with one S. Listen.

我说得很快，我把这两个词放在一起，把它们和一个 S 组合起来。听。

Tweny-f‘rssssSENchree.

/Tweny-f‘rssssSENchree/。

Twenty-first century.

二十一世纪。

If I pronounce all the other words correctly, and I put the stress on the right word and the right syllable, then it doesn‘t matter that I don‘t pronounce the T. It‘s super clear, and it‘s actually more fluent and less choppy.

如果我把所有其他单词的发音都发对了，我把重音放在正确的单词和音节上，那么我不发 T 音也没关系。这样也很清晰，实际上更流畅了。

Twenty firs-T century, right?

/Tweny-f‘rssssSENchree/，对吧？

That‘s not how you wanna say it.

这不是你想说的。

Tweny-f‘rssssSENchree.

/Tweny-f‘rssssSENchree/。

Twenty-first century.

二十一世纪。

Now say it.

现在说出来。

Twenty-first century.

二十一世纪。

How easy is that, right?

容易多了，对吧？

If you just pronounce it with one long S. Twenty-first century.

如果你用一个长 S 来发音，忽略掉 T 音，二十一世纪。

Okay, so this is a little trick.

这是一个小技巧。

However, when you say "twentieth century," that‘s a little more difficult because there is no cheating here, okay?

但当你说“二十世纪”的时候，那就有点难了，因为这里没有作弊，好吗？

You have to go through the transition between a T-H sound, twentieth, th, th, right?

你必须经历一个 T-H 音之间的转换，对吗？

The tongue is out for the T-H.

发 T-H 音时舌头要伸出来。

And then you have to pull it in for the S sound.

然后你必须把它拉进去，发出 S 音。

So let‘s look at the main differences between those two phrases.

让我们来看看这两个短语的主要区别。

So "century" remains the same.

所以“century”的发音保持不变。

If we wanna say the word "twentieth," it starts again with twenee, but then it has the ending ith, ith.

如果我们想说“twentieth”这个词，它以 twenee 开头，但它的结尾是 ith。

So basically, it‘s twenee, then you end it with a high ee, and then you drop your tongue a little bit to a relaxed i, as in sit.

所以它的发音是“twenee”，然后你以一个高的“ee”音结尾，然后你把舌头放低一点，变成一个放松的“i”音，就像在单词“sit”里一样。

Twenee-ith century.

/ˈtwentiəθ ˈsentʃəri/。

You do wanna have that mild transition in your tongue, otherwise, it‘s gonna sound like ‘twenee-th‘ century, then it already sounds like "twenties," okay, and that‘s a little different.

你确实想在你的舌头上有一个温和的转变，否则，听起来会像“二十世纪”，然后听起来已经像“二十世纪”了，好吧，这有点不同。

So you wanna have that shift between the ‘twenee‘ to the ‘ith‘.

所以你想在“twenee”到“i”之间转换。

So if it‘s hard for you to pronounce a high ‘ee‘ and then a relaxed ‘i‘, because it‘s very subtle, just use a schwa there, so it sounds something like ‘twenee-uh; , and then a T-H.

所以如果你很难发一个高的‘ee‘和一个轻的‘i‘的音，因为它非常微妙，那就在那里用弱读音，听起来像“twentee -uh”，然后是 T-H 音。

Twenee-uhth, twenee-uhth, okay?

/Twenee-uhth/，好吗？

And then the distinction between those two vowels is more clear.

这样的话，这两个元音之间的区别就更清楚了。

So ‘twenee-y‘th‘, the tongue is out, then as you breathe out for the T-H, you wanna pull the tongue in.

/twenty -y‘th/，舌头伸出来，当你发出 T-H 音时呼气，你要把舌头收回来。

Twenee-y‘thSSS.

/Twenee-y‘thSSS/。

Make the S a little longer to make sure you brought it inside, you brought it back home, and then you‘re actually pronounce a nice, clear S sound.

S 音可以发长一地啊，确保你的舌头卷起来了，这样你就发了一个漂亮清晰的 S 音。

Twenee-y‘thSSSEN-chree, okay.

/Twenee-y‘thSSSEN-chree/，好的。

And then you continue to the rest of the word.

然后你继续读剩下的单词。

Now I know it‘s a difficult transition.

我知道这是一个艰难的转变。

This is why I have a video just about the transitions between a T-H and an S, and a T-H and a Z, so I‘m gonna put the link to this video right below this video, okay?

这就是为什么我有一个关于 T-H 音和 S 音、 T-H 音和 Z 音之间的过渡发音的视频，我会把这个视频的链接放在这个视频的下面。

So check it out if it‘s still a problem for you, okay?

你可以去看看，发现自己是否对这两个发音还有疑惑。

So let‘s try both phrases again.

让我们再试一次这两个短语。

Tweny-f‘rssssSENchree.

/Tweny-f‘rssssSENchree/。

Twenty-first century.

二十一世纪。

Now let‘s say it really fast, twenty-first century.

现在让我们快速地说，21 世纪。

And twenee-y‘thSSSEN-chree.

以及/twenee-y‘thSSSEN-chree/

Twentieth century.

二十世纪。

Okay, good.

好的很好。

So you have the whole week to practice these two phrases, and I want you to let me know in the comments below how your practice is going, and if it‘s difficult, if not.

你有整整一周的时间来练习这两个短语，我想让你在下面的评论中告诉我你的练习进行得如何、是否还是很困难。

If there is another issue that comes up that I haven‘t addressed in this video, so I can help you out and answer you.

如果有其他问题我在这集视频中没有提到的问题，欢迎留言，我可以帮你解答。

That‘s it, I hope you enjoyed it.

这就是今天的课程了，希望你喜欢。

Thank you for watching.

感谢您的收看。

Please share this video with your friends so they can also benefit from pronouncing these phrases correctly.

请将本期视频分享给你的朋友，这样他们也能从正确发音这些短语中受益。

And come on over to my website to put your hands on my list of the 50 most commonly mispronounced words in English, okay?

来我的网站看看，这里英语中最常发错音的50个单词系列。

So you can check it out.

你可以去看看。

Just click on the link below or here in the video.

只需点击下面的链接或视频中的此处。

Have a great week, thank you for watching, and I will see you next week in the next video.

祝大家一周愉快，感谢收看，我们下周再见。

Bye.

拜拜