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What?
Edit: my research says that half-fifth is how they call 4.5, which is insane. Then they multiply that by 20, holy shit, they are mathematical geniuses. So:
7 + 4.5 * 20.
WHAT THE FUCK.
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How about in telling time? Like half seven means 7:30 in British English but is 6:30 in Dutch and German
That one at least makes some sense: halfway to seven vs seven and a half. The more confusing ones are quarter seven (6:15) and three quarter seven (6:45). If you didn’t learn to tell time with an analog clock it can throw you off since they are the opposite of eg quarter to seven. It’s even worse - in German it’s a regional thing, and they’ll look at you as of you’ve grown a second head if you use a form they’re not used to.
american time keeping for the win in this case.
Half fifth isn’t 4.5 but 90 because of 4.5 * 20. Its the same with half third being 50 and half fourth is 70.
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Norwegian, but I was tought this by a dane.
Fems is the short as you say, but that isn’t really possible to translate correctly. Thats why people translate it to fifth. The proper danish for a fifth is en femtedel. I might be mistanken here, but I dont think any dane would ever talk about 4.5 as halv fem (half five), but as fire komma fem.
The exception is when we talk about the time in the nordics. Then half passes four is half five.
Absolutely retarded
Katre-van-deez-nuts
Ha! Je les ai eu!
Context:
German:
- “siebenundneunzig”
- = “sevenandninety”
English:
- = “ninety-seven”
French:
- “quatre-vingt-dix-sept”
- = “four-twenty-ten-seven”
It’s shit like that why I wonder people just don’t update their languages, remove useless letters, nonsensical loan words exonyms, etc.
LOL, this kind of shit is what happens when people do try to police their language:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Académie_Française
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_québécois_de_la_langue_française
… A dictionary? We already have those in English lol.
Like many things in life, languages aren’t necessary logical but I’m looking forward to your efforts to finally get everyone into Esperanto!
Megwetch
French Belgians 90 + 7
Same for Swiss French except for Geneva (of course).
Not in Geneva? So what’s the convention there?
It’s something very human, right?
It’s design is very human
Same as the French.
Can’t let this go by without posting this classic:
“We aren’t all Eric Einstein!” 😂
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Lincoln: 4 * score + 17
80 (quatre-vingt) comes from the base 20 system. That’s a vestige from pre indo-European languages (specifically the Gauls) that ended up influencing France.
Interestingly (if I’m not mistaken), in Switzerland they actually say “huitante” and in Belgium they say “octante”.
In Wallonia ( french belgium ) you’re also likely to hear “nonante” for 90 IIRC
Maya use mostly base 20 system. Mostly, because all digits go from 0 to 19, except for the second one, that goes from 0 to 17.
What do you mean by the second one? Like this? {0-19}{0-17}{0-19}…{0-19}
No, the second from the left
… 19 19 19 19 17 19
The Gauls were Celtic, which is Indo-European. Maybe you meant “Pre-Romance”?
Not to defend the French but the more correct representation would be 4 * 20 + 10 + 7.
Also if you take this meme to the extreme it would be best to just say “97” which requires a unique word for every number instead of a system to construct them. So I guess there is a balance to be struck in number composition.
also “ninety” is literally just a shortening of “nine ten”, it’s not like the french pronounce the whole thing either, i’d wager it usually comes out more like “katvandisett” which isn’t much worse than “ninetyseven”
And the French get offended if you use the wrong word. I went to a shop there and asked if something was ninety (there is a word for that). The shopkeeper gives me a scathing look and says with emphasis it’s four twenty ten.
‘Nonante’ is used in the French-speaking part of Belgium, but it’s generally frowned upon in France.
frowned upon
as in “you just wiped your ass with my language, my country and the history of my ancestors” it seems
They kind of stare at you as if you just farted in the most obscene way possible.
Or they passive-aggressively make you repeat what you said until you say it ‘right’.
Or they reply in a kind of exaggerated broken English.
Not the ever so polite French!
I spent a lot of time in the country when I worked for a French owned company.
It’s a beautiful country, too bad about the epidemic of sticks in their asses. I am so glad it hasn’t spread to their neighbors.
Japanese: 9*10+7
Ninety also means 9*10 since -Ty has its roots in the old Gothic word tigjus which means tens/decades https://www.etymonline.com/word/-ty
That Japanese is also 9*10 is not really surprising since counting in most languages is in base-10
Same with the German ‘zig’ which is also mentioned in your linked page. It’s also used elsewhere e.g. “zigfach” meaning many times.
🚫🤢fr*nch🤮🚫
Growing up bilingual in German and English, can I just say german’s “7 + 90” is pretty dumb too.
397 is 300 + 7 + 90: 100s 1s 10s. For bigger numbers you’re doing it repeatedly.
In German for every set you’re saying the digits and tens in the wrong order. You get used to it, but only if you grow up in Germany (I didn’t), else it forever does you head in reading numbers.
Russian be like:
- ten
- two ten
- three ten
- centipede
- five ten …
20x4 + 10 + 7 appears stupid at first but is really the better approach. It teaches 100% of the speakers basic arithmetic by literally embedding it in the language and makes it easy to visualize fairly large numbers. Try imagining 97 of something in your head vs 20x4 + 10 + 7 of the same something.
Huh?
You know what else teaches basic arithmetics? elementary school. And numbers are taught alongside the arithmetics to calculate with them.
So you first learn addition and substraction of single digit numbers, then it goes to double digit numbers, then you learn the multiplication tables and through that divisions. Then you move on to larger numbers, written additions, subtractions, multiplication and division with remainder.
So by the time a child learns the number 80 it also learns how to do arithmetics in that area.
wait until you realize that “two hundred and fifty seven” means 2×100 + 5×10 + 7 of something and you have to imagine that every time you say 257 of something
how is it that the word “ninety seven” (9×10 + 7) doesn’t count as embedding arithmetic into the language?
