GollumHow to say the number 92
federalreverse-oldWhat’s going on in Denmark?
ChaoticNeutralCzech#
🇩🇰
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
70
halvfjerds
80
firs
90
halvfems
100
hundred
SourSweetChaosWe also do this in germany
Ja, ich spreche auch ziemlich gut Deutsch. Ich würde aber lieber die Angelsächser mit meiner Fähigkeit „čtvrt“ (tschtwrt) zu aussprechen beeindrucken.
Username checks… oh sorry, I forgot where I am, for a moment.
*czechs
Yeah, this is why I chose it – it represents me well. And not only is feddit.de the fastest Lemmy server for me, I spend lots of time with the Germans because Czechs are fine with Reddit and czech-lemmy.eu is empty.
Now I followed your link and was overwhelmed by my intuitive understanding of the subtleties of the Czech language … even better than reading Dutch … until I noticed the “translate” in the URL :'-(.
Haha sehr gut ;)
Thats pretty common in terms of time. I’m not going to say something is “half five” to say it coststwo and a half dollars though. I understand that with French and Danish you arent actually doing the math and just think of that string the same way i think of “ninety two” but it’s still difficult to wrap my head around.
Just to make something clear, in this system, which isn’t really used, half five would be 4.5, not 2.5.
TIL that it not French with the weirdest way to count. I still don’t really get the Danish way. Even with your explanation.
It’s not really an explanation, just a table where I leave the linguistically inclined to figure it out. The point is, the “s” at the end is short for “×20” and “half fifth” is short for ●●●●◖ = 4½ (four and half of the fifth).
Thanks. Do you know the history of that?
abecedeMaybe the Danish don’t just count with their fingers to 10, but include their toes… So 10 fingers + 10 toes = 20?
"Four score and seven years ago" from the Gettysburg Address… Many languages have or had words for counting in 20’s. They’ve just mostly gone out of fashion.
Funny enough, I grew up saying “quarter of eight” to mean 19:45. It took until my mid-20s to realize its probably a regional thing because, after I left Philadelphia (my home city) and moved to Chicago, everyone thought I meant 20:15.
Oh! That might explain the confusion with my Alabama colleagues… in New England “quarter of” is 15 minutes before the hour (19:45) and “quarter after” is 15 minutes after the hour (20:15). That might explain why my colleagues in Alabama were surprised when I left a meeting at 9:45 when I had clearly warned them I had a hard stop at quarter of ten!
Interesting distinction none of us picked up on!
Mmm, American using 24h time. I know nothing else about you but this gets you +0.5 on an attractiveness scale.
MeldrikWe play on Hardcore mode.
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 “two and nine ten”.
Why don’t we just change it to the more sensible system then? Because language is stubborn.
I like our weird numbers tho 🥰
They're lovely, aren't they?😀
30 (tredive) you cited seems to be the exception, as it’s not “halbtots” or something.
Indeed, fyrre (40) is also clearly relative to four (or fourth), it only kicks in at 50.
You can recognize the numbers where this system is in place by the ‘s’ at the end, which is a remnant of the “-sindstyve” ending meaning “times twenty”.
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.
When you need a math degree for basic communication
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.
–
[Edited: Usage is not regional]
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.
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-halvfems”.
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.
I am dumb. I confused this with dreiviertel vs. Viertel vor.
Even then there’s a pretty clear difference.
Good comparison here giga.de/…/dreiviertel-10-viertel-12-wie-spaet-ist…
„Dreiviertel 10“, „Viertel 12“: Wie spät ist es wirklich?
Während man in weiten Teilen Deutschlands auf die Frage nach der Uhrzeit eine Antwort wie „Es ist Viertel vor 1“ erhält, gibt es einige Regionen, wo es plötzlich heißt „ Es ist ¾ 1“. Wer bei dieser Angabe Fragezeichen und keine genaue Uhrzeit im Kopf hat, findet hier Hilfe.
sqwI’ve run into Americans for whom “half two” means 13:30. I like it but it confuses everyone.
I only know Quebecois French, how does Belgian French say 92?
And yall give us shit about using imperial measurements
For what it’s worth, the US doesn’t use imperial anymore. It’s “US Customary Units”. It’s mostly a mix of metric and units based on metric. The US uses volts, amps, watts, and seconds which are metric. The inch, by definition, is 25.4mm. I’m not sure how the US gallon (less volume than the Imperial gallon) is defined. Food content is given in calories and grams.
I’m also not sure how temperature is defined. Originally, temperature units were set so that fresh water boiled exactly 180 degrees above it’s freezing temperature. To avoid negative numbers, zero Fahrenheit was set to the freezing temperature of sea ice.
LatecoereUS doesn’t use imperial anymore.
They never did to begin with. US customary units descend from older English customary units. During the 19th century the British government redefined some things in some weights and measures acts and that was called the Imperial system because of the British Empire. US never used Imperial as they were happy doing their own independent shit.
US customary and Imperial units differed a bit until the 20th century. In the 30s there was an ‘industrial’ inch agreed upon, the 25.4mm as you said, but weights still differed. In the 50s there was a conference where the US, UK and some commonwealth countries agreed upon a standardised international yard and pound, the international yard being 0.9144 meters and the international pound 0.45359237 kilograms, defined in metric as you said. Liquid measures were not standardised for some reason so US and Imperial gallons still differ.
The formal definition of Fahrenheit is based on Kelvin these days.
I've always found the Danish numbers intriguing. I understand the whole "halvfem-sinds-tyve"- thing and the other ones of similar origin but I can't wrap my head around "elleve" and "tolv". Do you remember the origin of those?
Not really, but they’re essentially the same as the German “elf” and “zwölf”, so we probably got them from the same place as them ;)
Wiktionary suggests the common proto-Germanic root of eleven/twelve, elf/zwölf are likely to have been “ainalif” and “twalif” - “one left over” and “two left over”.
It’s literally the same in English as well, eleven and twelve are clearly related.
samus12345You can thank Proto-Germanic for that.
joneskindI have to admit, as a French myself I found relief in that discovery. And thank you very much for the explanation.
I was confused by the “2 and” at first, then I realize you put the smallest part of the whole number first. It makes perfectly sense if you count in base 20.
We also have an habit to count in base 12 and half 12 in France. Like “half a dozen” (6) or “one dozen and half” (18), but only for multiple of 6.
I will now say “quatre vingtaine et demie” instead of “quatre-vingt-dix” just to tease my fellow Belgians (who say “nonante” and “septante” instead of “soixante-dix” et “quatre-vingt-dix”)
The weird numbers only start at 50.
60: tre sinde tyve ( three times twenty) 80: fire sinde tyve ( four times twenty)
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.
HamartiogonicTemperature in fahrenheit is just as arbitrary as celsius. Fahrenheit makes sense from the perspective of human experience while celsius is very relevant to water. It’s really handy if you live in a area with snowy winters. Celsius is standard all around the world, while Fahrenheit is used in a handful of places.
When we talk with other people in fx English we use their numbering system, and not our own
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 😊
CookieJarObserver
Jordan LundYou better have your operations in order!
Are all German numbers like that?
Only 21-99, after that you say the hundred (thousand, million, etc.) first.
No, it gets more confusing the more numbers you add.
34563
4+30 thousand
+500
3+60
Ow my brain.
You probably did, but then you did the sensible thing and (mostly) changed it around. You can read some 19th century novels and find stuff like “I am two and twenty years old”.
Mostly because it’s still the old order for the teens. 1616 could be read as sixteen hundred sixteen, right?
I don’t think I’ve seen people read 1616 as sixteen hundred sixteen. You could read 1600 as sixteen hundred, but when there are numbers in the tens and ones spots I don’t see anyone using it. The whole thing using sixteen-hundred is weird to me, it’s one thousand six hundred sixteen.
I’ve heard it lots of times (sometimes just as “sixteen sixteen”) - mostly for years though.
And it seems like Wikipedia agrees:
In American usage, four-digit numbers are often named using multiples of “hundred” and combined with tens and ones: “eleven hundred three”, “twelve hundred twenty-five”, “forty-seven hundred forty-two”, or “ninety-nine hundred ninety-nine”.
Hmm is that actual English usage or an author thinking in German and translating badly (there were lots of German immigrants to North America).