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How to say the number 92
(i.imgur.com)
What's going on in Denmark?
It's base 20 like in France, plus the quirk that we have an ordinal numeral way of saying half integers, i.e. 1.5 is "half second", 2.5 is "half third", 4.5 is "half fifth". So 92 is said as "two and half fifth times twenty". We've since made the "times twenty" implicit for maximum confusion, so it's just said as "two and half fifths".
Also, the ordinal numeral system for halves is only really used for 1.5 these days, so the numbers don't really make sense to anyone. When speaking to other Scandinavians, we often just say "nine ten two".
Why don't we just change it to the more sensible system then? Because language is stubborn.
Now imagine moving there as a foreigner from a normal country and someone telling you their phone number! It's like having a micro stroke.
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1.5 is "half second", 2.5 is "half third", 4.5 is "half fifth"
Interesting. ~~Regionally, some~~ Germans measure time like this, i.e. "half two" is 01:30 resp. 13:30. (Which is different from English, where people who say "half two" mean "half past two".)
We've since made the "times twenty" implicit for maximum confusion, so it's just said as "two and half fifths".
I know very little about Danish, but I learned that Danes slur the middle of most words. So I suspect you actually pronounce even less of the word than you'd write..?
Because language is stubborn.
Belgian French gives me hope.
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[Edited: Usage is not regional]
Regionally, some Germans measure time like this, i.e. "half two" is 01:30 resp. 13:30.
This isn't regional nor "some", I never met a German wo doesn't. Sure, there is "13 o'clock 30" and both are valid but I'd say the default is still the half system.
When it comes to quarters, there are regional differences and it's a common "ice breaker" or small talk topic when people from all over Germany come together.
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When we say "half two" we also mean 13:30. It's a pain when in Britain.
And yeah, I guess in pronouncing you'd say 92 as "to'å'l'fems" rather than "to-og-halv-fems".
It's pronounced "toh-år-hal-fems".
That's 3 syllables, because the first two are glissando, but even the most rural person needs some consonants between the rest to make any sense.
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So the Danish can do this bullshit with everyday numbers and it’s cool because language , but I mention that it’s 70 degrees outside and everyone starts arguing about metric?
Everything is arbitrary, I’m gonna go build a dresser in multiples of rabbit foot while you all figure something out.
Danish people are environmentally damaged by the flatness of their country and the rest of Scandinavia pitty them. We will take care of this. We will teach them how to speak. Soonish.
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And to confuse even further, the cardinal number (ninety-two) is "to-og-halv-fems" in Danish without the *20. But if you need the ordinal number (92nd), then we add in the x20 as in "to-og-halv-fem-sinds-tyvende". Danish is very easy and transparent 😊
I like our weird numbers tho 🥰
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| # | 🇩🇰 |
|---|---|
| 1 | en |
| 2 | to |
| 3 | tre |
| 4 | fire |
| 5 | fem |
| 6 | seks |
| 7 | syv |
| 8 | otte |
| 9 | ni |
| 10 | ti |
| 11 | elleve |
| 12 | tolv |
| 13 | tretten |
| 14 | fjorten |
| 15 | femten |
| 16 | seksten |
| 17 | sytten |
| 18 | atten |
| 19 | nitten |
| 20 | tyve |
| 21 | enogtyve |
| 22 | toogtyve |
| 30 | tredive |
| 40 | fyrre |
| 50 | halvtreds |
| 60 | tres (threes) |
| 70 | halvfjerds (½fourths) |
| 80 | firs (fours) |
| 90 | halvfems (½fifths) |
| 92 | tooghalvfems (twoand½fifths) |
| 100 | hundred |
In Czech, we say „čtvrt na osm“ (quarter to eight), „půl osmé“ (half of eighth) and „tři čtvrtě na osm“ (¾ to eight) to mean 19:15, 19:30 and 19:45, respectively, so I kinda get it.
Similarly, in German, 🕢=„halb acht“.
TIL that it not French with the weirdest way to count. I still don't really get the Danish way. Even with your explanation.
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We play on Hardcore mode.
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Also: the green (at least with English) should be (9 × 10) + 2
English is 90 + 2. Ninety is its own distinct word.
French is similar to English (base ten) but after 60 it gets weird and then at 80 switches to base 20 until 99.
70 in French is 60 + 10 80 and above in French is 4 × 20 + what ever number is needed to get there.
So to say 102 in French, you'd say four-times-twenty-plus-twenty-two.
I don't believe you.
EDIT: What in the actual fuck. You were right. 😳
No. 102 in French is "cent deux".
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nine ten? (nineteen ;) )
Man and here I thought the English system was kinda screwy, where at first it's in base 12 and base 20 at the same time what with having special unique names for all digits up to twelve, and then thirteen through nineteen are also uniquely weird, then at twenty we decide "man fuck that" and then it's in base 10 until we repeat that pattern every 100, ie "one hundred seventeen." Or then we occasionally do stupid things like "seventeen hundred" instead of "one thousand seven hundred."
It just now hit me that "teenager" is an inherently English construct because that weird partial second decade we have. I'm curious, how does that work in languages? Like, in French they have special words up to 16 and only do "ten-seven, ten-eight, ten-nine." You spend seven years as a teenager in England but only three in France.
Germanic languages share this. German has neun, zehn, elf, zwölf, dreizehn, vierzehn...
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In Hungary we don't even have a separate name for 11 and 12, just 10 + 1 and 10 + 2. But at least we messed up the billions, it's called 'milliárd' and the trillion is 'billió'. We were so close to making it perfect.
*sigh* That's normal across Europe, including the UK until recently.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales
Anyway, don’t tell me Hungarian is sensible when second (unit of time) is “másodperc”.
But at least we messed up the billions
No, you folks did it correctly. It's everyone else who messed up: How big is a billion?
1 million squared is a billion. 1 million cubed is a trillion. (1 million)^4 is a quadrillion. And so forth with pent-, sex-, sept-, oct-, etc. Milliard, billiard, trilliard, etc. slot in between the powers of one million.
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Kamelåså
I’m not sure what’s more asinine, the colors chosen for this map, or the ~~Dutch~~ Danish.
Edit: worth it for the joke
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There's also they way it's said in Basque which is 4 x 20 + 12.
🇬🇧 ninety
🇫🇷 quatre-vingts-dix
🇩🇰 HALVFEMS
So what is going on in Walloon and Swiss French? Is it just the Parisian dialect that is messed up?
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You missed the traditional Celtic systems.
Welsh should be both 9 x 10 + 2 and 2 + 10 + 4 * 20.
And Irish – I didn't get it, they seem to have a modern 9 x 10 + 2 system, an old vigesimal and one for age?
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Something rotten...
Seriously, have trouble enough with numbers anyhow. The French system is far more than my little brain can compute, so I pretend to have learned the language from Belgians.
But who knows, maybe the Danish system would have tipped my infant brain into having a better grasp of some concepts?
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Are all German numbers like that?
No, it gets more confusing the more numbers you add. 34563 4+30 thousand +500 3+60
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Yes, Germans say numbers like that. (It only applies to the tens tho)
Roughly translated you'd say two-and-ninety (without the minus, I just made those so it doesn't look that cursed)
It's mainly because at least in German it flows better than ninety two would. There have been pushes to accept ninety two as well but acceptance has been and continues to be scarce.
Man I'd love for that to catch on, mostly so it's easier to learn. Kids get confused by the order all the time. It's even shorter in some cases.
Also, the reverse order makes dictating phone numbers such a pain.
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this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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