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 “two and nine ten”.

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.

When you need a math degree for basic communication