7 ms·
As the comments point out, our counting system in English does precisely the same sort of thing, often: thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, etc., all name the
by Bud 5y ago
As the comments point out, our counting system in English does precisely the same sort of thing, often: thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, etc., all name the ones digit before the tens. And because of logic and ease of counting relatively small numbers of things. You can tell this is the reason since, once you get over 20, all this reverses: twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, etc.
It's the same pattern in French. Under 20: douze, treize, quatorze, quinze. Over 20: vingt et un, vingt-deux, vingt-trois, vingt-quatre, etc.
- gpderetta 5y agoFor some reason Italian flips at 17: sedici (16, six-ten), diciassette (17, ten-seven).
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- cameronh90 5y agoI think many English speakers would admit 11 through 19 are a bit of a weird case. It would probably make more sense if we went ten, oney-one, oney-two, etc. I imagine most English people subconsciously treat 13-19 as individually named as 0-12 are, rather than comprehending them as a composition of two numbers as 20-99 are. That said, based on the other commenters here, the mixed endian nature of German counting seems very strange to me, being able to generally read numbers the same way they're serialised on paper seems useful.
- dredmorbius 5y agoSo do eleven ("one left over") and twelve ("two left"), with a bit of stretch. https://www.etymonline.com/word/eleven https://www.etymonline.com/word/eleven https://www.etymonline.com/word/twelve https://www.etymonline.com/word/twelve