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Hi there.
大家好啊。
This week on Ask a Teacher, we will answer a question about the difference between “teen” and “tween.”
本周《名师答疑》，我们回答关于teen和tween有什么区别的问题。
Hello VOA Learning English, I am Abdirohim from Somalia.
你好，美国之音英语学习栏目，我是来自索马里的阿布迪罗希姆。
Could you kindly explain and further explore the differences and usage between these two words: “tweens” and “teens?''
你能解释并拓展一下teens和tweens这两个词之间的区别和用法吗？
Thanks, Abdirohim.
谢谢，阿布迪罗希姆。
Thanks for you for this interesting question, Abdirohim!
谢谢你提出这个有趣的问题，阿布迪罗希姆！
Both words refer to very young people.
这两个词都指非常年轻的人。
There are major differences in the ages of these two groups.
但这两个群体的年龄有很大的不同。
Let’s look not only at the meanings of these two words but also how they were made.
我们不仅看这两个词的意思，也看看它们是如何构成的吧。
Let’s start with “teen.”
首先从teen开始。
The word “teen” is a noun that means a young person from ages thirteen to nineteen.
这是一个名词，意思是从13岁到19岁的年轻人。
We get this word from the ending of the numbers, like thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and so on.
这个词源自一些数字的末尾，比如13、14、15等等。
Many teens enjoy hanging out with their friends.
许多青少年喜欢和朋友们一起出去玩。
When he was a teen, he loved the Beatles music.
当他还是个青少年的时候，他就喜欢披头士乐队的音乐。
We combine “teen” with “age” to make “teenage,” an adjective that describes someone who is in their teens.
把teen和age组合起来，就有了teenage，这是一个形容词，用来描述处于青春期的人。
The movie “Mean Girls” is about a group of teenage girls in high school.
电影《贱女孩》讲述了一群十几岁的高中女孩的故事。
We can also add an “-er” ending to “teenage” to make another noun with the same meaning as “teen.”
也可以在teenage后面加上-er后缀，构成teenager，意思与teen相同。
Some teenagers like to go against their parents.
有些青少年喜欢与父母作对。
Now, let’s move on to “tween.”
现在，我们继续讲tween。
The word “tween” is a blend of the two words “teen” and “between.”
这个词是teen和between两个词的合成词。
It is a special blend word since it combines not only the spellings of the two words but the meanings as well.
这是一个特殊的混合词，因为它不仅结合了这两个词的拼写，也结合了它们的意思。
The word is used to describe the age group between a child and a teenager.
tween用来描述儿童和青少年之间的年龄段。
The earliest age for "tweens" is eight or nine years old, and the oldest age goes up to twelve.
最小的年龄是八九岁，最大的年龄是十二岁。
Many tweens go to a middle school after completing elementary and before going to high school.
许多八至十二岁的孩子是小学毕业后上初中，但还没上高中的年龄。
Maria looks after tweens who are not old enough to be by themselves.
玛丽亚照顾八至十二岁的孩子，他们没有到独自生活的年纪。
We also call this group of young people “preteens,” with the prefix “pre” to mean “before.”
我们也称这群年轻人为“前青春期儿童”，前缀pre的意思是“在……以前”。
A fun fact about the history of “tween” is that it may have come from J. R. R. Tolkien who wrote The Lord of the Ring books.
关于tween这个词的来源，一个有趣的事实是，它可能来自《指环王》的作者J. R. R. 托尔金。
Some say he came up with “tween” to describe an in-between age for his characters called “hobbits.”
据说他为了描述他笔下的“霍比特人”的一段中间年龄，而想出了tween这个词
Please let us know if these explanations and examples have helped you, Abdirohim.
请让我们知道这些解释和例子是否对你有帮助，阿布迪罗希姆。
And that’s Ask a Teacher.
以上就是本期《名师答疑》。
I’m Faith Pirlo.
我是费思·皮尔洛。
