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> four-twenty-ten-seven … yup, 97, of course As others said, French speakers parse "four-twenty-ten" as ninety. Nobody thinks about this in term of 4 * 20 + 10
by yodsanklai 5y ago
> four-twenty-ten-seven … yup, 97, of course
As others said, French speakers parse "four-twenty-ten" as ninety. Nobody thinks about this in term of 4 * 20 + 10. Although, I remember that it confused me a little bit when I learned how to count.
That being said, I'd be in favour to switch to the Swiss/Belgian/Canadian way and replace "quatre vingt dix" by "nonante".
- monsieurgaufre 5y agoI'm a french canadian and I've never in my life heard someone use "septante/octante/nonante". I understand the difficulty while learning French but, as a native speaker, we don't even think about it.
- belval 5y agoSad fact: French Canadian don't use the (much better) Swiss/Belgian septante/octante/nonante and the awareness in Quebec just isn't high enough to hope for a switch. It's a shame because soixante-dix, quatre-vingt and quatre-vingt-dix are confusing to write (I probably made a mistake somewhere).
- glandium 5y agoNote that Belgians ans Swiss don't agree on 80. It's huitante on one side and octante on the other (but I don't remember which is which)
- belval 5y agoInteresting, I knew Swiss said octante and my Belgian friends all say octante as well. Perhaps it's a regional thing?
- Biganon 5y agoSwiss person here. This "octante" idea needs to die. In my 30 years in French speaking Switzerland, I've never heard or read "octante" ONCE. It might be used in Belgium, but I'm not even sure about that.
- belval 5y agoNot to be that guy that argues with a Swiss about how Swiss talk but we get broadcasts from "RTS Un" (I think that's what it's called) and the announcers most definitely say "octante". I also followed a few Swiss YouTubers a few years ago and they all said "octante" as well. Maybe it's a regional thing? EDIT: Actually now that I dug up a bit more stuff it does seem like "huitante" is the one? Maybe I am just remembering wrong, feel free to ignore my ramblings.
- Biganon 5y agoI will indeed feel free to ignore your ramblings, because you're thinking of "huitante" :-P
- yodsanklai 5y ago> French Canadian don't use the (much better) Swiss/Belgian septante/octante/nonante Sorry for the mistake (I did check on wikipedia before adding Canada do the list but got it wrong). > the awareness in Quebec just isn't high enough to hope for a switch. Same in France. I believe most of us regard "septante/octante/nonante" as amusing and exotic sounding. Sadly, I've never heard anyone advocating for a switch.
- Dylan16807 5y ago> As others said, French speakers parse "four-twenty-ten" as ninety. But only 90 and 97-99 have "quatre vignt dix". 91-96 are written as "four-twenty-eleven" through "four-twenty-sixteen". So you can't really avoid the complexity, because only half of the numbers in the 90s have '''90''' as part of the word.