时髦英语口语词汇讲解第42期:Thirty-something

This phrase, 'thirty-something', it came in in the 1980s referring to people of an unspecified age between 30 and 40.
这个短语thirty-something来自上个世纪80年代，指的是大概30-40岁的人，但是并不清楚具体的年龄。

These were members of the baby boom, the people who were born 20, 30 years before and entering their 30s now and not knowing how to cope - or at least, that was the idea.
这些人都是‘ 婴儿潮 ’时期出生的人——都是20、30年前出生的人。这些人正步入三十岁，但是并不知道怎么处理这个年龄，所以……这就是背后表达的意思。

It was the name of a television series.
这是个电视连续剧的名字——《thirty-something》。

It also became the name of a film.
它也变成了一部电影的名字。

People who had lost their freedom, was the idea.
电影的主题描写了关于一群失去自由的人。

Children, they'd got now, demanding jobs, approach of middle-age, gloom!
他们现在有孩子、压力重重的工作，还要应对中年危机——郁闷呢！

There's a website which says it's 'personal growth for thirty-somethings'.
有个网站还声明它‘专为三十多岁的人个人成长’而设计。

It's used both as an adjective - 'she's a thirty-something career woman'.
这个表达同时也有形容词性：她是个三十多岁的事业女性。

And it's also used as a noun, as I just did - 'the thirty-somethings'.
它还被当作名词使用，就像我这样：三十多岁的人/物。

And then, the ending got applied to others.
然后，这个表达的后缀又被适用于其它的东西。

We started to hear 'twenty-somethings'.
我们开始听到人们说这样的话‘twenty-somethings'。

And now we've got 'forty-somethings' - that was a television show in 2003, 'Forty-Something'.
我们现在有‘forty-somethings'——2003年的一部电视节目。

Well, it can be any age.
嗯，这可以是指任何年龄。

The implication is always that there's a set of values or problems associated with that age.
而这背后其实是在暗示着这个年龄里，会有相应的一套价值观或者面对其它问题。

Me? I'm sixty-something!
我？我六十多岁了！