4 ms·

“Pure numbers and French are not compatible” Yep that checks out

by metayrnc 11mo ago

Waterluvian 11mo ago
Sixty-ten-eight! Sixty-ten-nine! Four-twenties! 1999 == One thousand, nine hundreds, four twenties, ten, nine. I studied French in grade school over ten years and I love it. But the way numbers convert into language is wild. I tease it with love.
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
- Pooge 11mo ago
  Switzerland and Belgium got them right!
  - rkomorn 11mo ago
    As a French person who grew up going to a school in Belgium for a bit as a kid, I was quite amused by their numbers. My thought as a 6 year old was "aw, are soixante-dix, quatre-vingt, and quatre-vingt-dix too complicated for you?" Even now, while I think the French numbers make objectively no sense (even the countries that do count in 20s are at least more consistent than us), I can't help but find the Swiss and Belgian numbers "cute". Like "Baby's first 70 to 99". And for whatever reason, I don't have the same opinion about 70-99 in English, Portuguese or Spanish. Edit: just to be clear, I think my thoughts about it are absurd but they're too deeply engrained and decades old to shed completely.
  - HeinzStuckeIt 11mo ago
    It’s a well-known phenomenon that with the internet and modern media, large countries’ version of a language can affect the speech of the smaller countries using that language. Think kids in Portugal today growing up using lots of Brazilian words to their parents’ dismay, or americanisms slipping into UK speech. This makes me wonder if any young Vallon French speakers have started to pick up standard French higher numerals.
- Cosi1125 11mo ago
  > Sixty-ten-eight! Sixty-ten-nine! Four-twenties! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ze6ZMkT2Z4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ze6ZMkT2Z4 :-)
- cperciva 11mo ago
  "Four twenties and ten" is better than the Danish "five minus a half, times twenty".
  - Waterluvian 11mo ago
    That is so cursed. I love it!
  - card_zero 11mo ago
    Good grief, it gets worse. It's half third [ordinal] times twenty, ½ #3 × 20.
  - rkomorn 11mo ago
    But the history of why we stuck to four-twenties sort of makes it worse. We were allegedly headed to sanity but l'Academie was like "actually let's stick to soixante-dix, quatre-vingt, and quatre-vingt-dix".
- fajitaforce5 11mo ago
  US time: a quarter till 8.
  - layer8 11mo ago
    = 775¢

“Pure numbers and French are not compatible” Yep that checks out

Sixty-ten-eight! Sixty-ten-nine! Four-twenties! 1999 == One thousand, nine hundreds, four twenties, ten, nine. I studied French in grade school over ten years and I love it. But the way numbers convert into language is wild. I tease it with love.

deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
Pooge 11mo ago
Switzerland and Belgium got them right!
- rkomorn 11mo ago
  As a French person who grew up going to a school in Belgium for a bit as a kid, I was quite amused by their numbers. My thought as a 6 year old was "aw, are soixante-dix, quatre-vingt, and quatre-vingt-dix too complicated for you?" Even now, while I think the French numbers make objectively no sense (even the countries that do count in 20s are at least more consistent than us), I can't help but find the Swiss and Belgian numbers "cute". Like "Baby's first 70 to 99". And for whatever reason, I don't have the same opinion about 70-99 in English, Portuguese or Spanish. Edit: just to be clear, I think my thoughts about it are absurd but they're too deeply engrained and decades old to shed completely.
- HeinzStuckeIt 11mo ago
  It’s a well-known phenomenon that with the internet and modern media, large countries’ version of a language can affect the speech of the smaller countries using that language. Think kids in Portugal today growing up using lots of Brazilian words to their parents’ dismay, or americanisms slipping into UK speech. This makes me wonder if any young Vallon French speakers have started to pick up standard French higher numerals.
Cosi1125 11mo ago
> Sixty-ten-eight! Sixty-ten-nine! Four-twenties! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ze6ZMkT2Z4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ze6ZMkT2Z4 :-)
cperciva 11mo ago
"Four twenties and ten" is better than the Danish "five minus a half, times twenty".
- Waterluvian 11mo ago
  That is so cursed. I love it!
- card_zero 11mo ago
  Good grief, it gets worse. It's half third [ordinal] times twenty, ½ #3 × 20.
- rkomorn 11mo ago
  But the history of why we stuck to four-twenties sort of makes it worse. We were allegedly headed to sanity but l'Academie was like "actually let's stick to soixante-dix, quatre-vingt, and quatre-vingt-dix".
fajitaforce5 11mo ago
US time: a quarter till 8.
- layer8 11mo ago
  = 775¢