Twenty

Steve   Monday, February 16, 2004, 15:36 GMT
how do you pronounce this word. I pronounce it as ''twunty'' [tw^nti:].
Heather   Monday, February 16, 2004, 19:17 GMT
In general, it is pronounced as "TWEHN-tee" or "TWENN-tee"
Steve   Monday, February 16, 2004, 20:32 GMT
Actually dictionary.com and merriam-websters dictionary list both pronunciations ''twenn-tee and ''twunty''.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=twenty

and

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=twenty
Marie   Monday, February 16, 2004, 23:14 GMT
I say it like Twenny
Jim   Monday, February 16, 2004, 23:42 GMT
/twenti(:)/ exactly as it's spelt.
Steve   Tuesday, February 17, 2004, 03:03 GMT
The merriam-websters dictionary plays both the pronunciations.

Twen-tee http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?twenty02.wav=twenty
and
Twun-tee http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?twenty01.wav=twenty

I pronounce it Twun-tee
Ryan   Tuesday, February 17, 2004, 03:04 GMT
"Twenny" is a popular American colloquial way to pronounce the word. I say it with only a slight "t" sound in the second syllable, actually.
Steve   Tuesday, February 17, 2004, 04:33 GMT
I pronounce ''twenty'' as ''twunty'' and I commonly hear it pronounced that way in my area. I wonder if it's a regional thing. ''twenty'' and ''plenty'' don't rhyme when I say them.
Jordi   Tuesday, February 17, 2004, 06:11 GMT
Having learnt English in Australia I would imagine that /twenti(:)/ is the way all Australians pronounce this; just as Jim said.
mjd   Tuesday, February 17, 2004, 06:36 GMT
Ryan's description goes for me as well.
Steve   Tuesday, February 17, 2004, 20:23 GMT
Yeah, Australians pronounce the word as [twenti:].
Californian   Wednesday, February 18, 2004, 03:10 GMT
"twunny"
Jim   Friday, February 20, 2004, 00:03 GMT
Cambridge is by no means the be-all-and-end-all last word in pronunciation but in their dictionary only [twenti(:)] is listed for UK and US pronunciation. It's interesting to read how people really pronounce it. I'd never have guessed. I mean I had never noticed the "e"'s ever being pronounced [^].
Ryan   Friday, February 20, 2004, 03:20 GMT
I think it's fairly common to pronounce it ^ in African-American accents. There is a common shift from "e" to "^" among African Americans. Note Chingy's popular song "Right Thurr," "Thurr" meaning "There."
Steve   Friday, February 20, 2004, 03:26 GMT
I'm not African-American.