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[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 122 points 1 week ago

People make fun of French numbers, and it's not undeserved. But have you heard of Danish numbers‽

79, "nioghalvfjerds" translates to English as "nine and half fourth". "Halvfjerds" being implicitly short for "halvfjerdsindstyve", which translates as "half fourth times twenty", where "half fourth" implicitly means "three plus half the fourth" (i.e., 3.5).

That is so much more insane than 83 being "four twenties three".

[-] Dunstabzugshaubitze@feddit.org 29 points 1 week ago

and i thaught we germans were stupid with our numbers because we say stuff like "zwei und dreißig"/"two and thirty" instead of "dreißig und zwei" or "dreißig-zwei".

i wonder how stuff like this came to be, it must have been good for something to have stuck around.

[-] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 1 points 9 hours ago

I think that's because of Martin Luther. When he translated the bible he basically standardised the German language. So blame him.

Here's a short documentary on it. https://youtu.be/L5YZSZTO2tk

[-] RustySharp@programming.dev 20 points 1 week ago

Oh, you guys use little endian!

[-] Dunstabzugshaubitze@feddit.org 29 points 1 week ago

nope, because 132 is "einhundert zwei und dreißig" and not "zwei und dreißig und hundert" that it's inconsistent is what bothers me.

[-] hdzki@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 week ago

It's the same in Arabic! "مئة واثنان وثلاثون" = "hundred and two and thirty" Not sure about German, but the Arabic example can theoretically come with in any order. However, you almost never see it another way

[-] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 9 points 1 week ago

Spanish with the sanity again!

Ciento treinta y dos (Literally: Hundred thirty and two)

[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 5 points 1 week ago

Except no, because one hundred and twenty three is ein hundert drei und zwanzig (spaces added in for ease of comprehension for non-German speakers).

[-] RejZoR@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago

Slovenia also uses reversed reading of numbers. 32 is zwei und dreissig in German and we have dvaintrideset (twoandthirty).

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Compared to some of the ways numbers are put together in languages, German is positively simple and understandable.

Pretty sure it's some very old way of counting.

English used to do it the same way after all.

There's this nursery rhyme about "four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" that I can't remember the rest of. Except that the previous or next verse ended with "rye".

[-] frank@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 week ago

As someone learning danish now, yup this is hell and the worst numbering system. And no, other Scandinavian countries don't do this shit.

[-] themagzuz 2 points 6 days ago

if it's any consolation, native danish speakers don't think about it like this, you just kinda memorize what each multiple of 10 is called. although the etymology does appear a little when using ordinals, e.g. 72nd in danish is tooghalvfjerdsindstyvende (two and half four twenties), but i think most young people would just say tooghalvfjerdsende (72 + ordinal suffix)

[-] frank@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 days ago

Yeah, I actually don't mind the 10s as much. It's not that many to remember. But it's quite fun to complain about :D

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 week ago

Plus we have that whole thing where the only way to know if any definitive noun uses the "en" or "et" suffix (or the same as a separate word in front of the noun if it's indefinite) is to know already 🤦😄

[-] Arkthos@pawb.social 14 points 1 week ago
[-] Rothe@piefed.social 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Which is a thing in many languages. And many languages have more than just the two in Danish.

[-] Dumhuvud@programming.dev 8 points 1 week ago

Grammatical gender is a thing in a shitload of languages.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

Sure, but in most cases, there's something loosely related to rules and logic about it.

In Danish, the grammatical genders aren't 'male, female, nongender". There's nongender and multigender, and ABSOLUTELY no reason for anything being one or the other 🤷🏻

[-] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

Ah yes this table is such a masculine table, such a good example of how all tables manifest masculinity, by um, having uh, legs and um.
Describing any noun gendering in any language reads like a "we have been played for absolute fools" meme.

[-] Dumhuvud@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago

If it makes you feel better, grammatical genders in Norwegian are arbitrary too. There are no rules or tricks to help you figure out if a noun is masculine, feminine or neuter. :S

[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 6 points 1 week ago
[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yup, am a Danish Dane of Denmark born and bred 😁

[-] Obi@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 week ago

I'm a simple man, someone mentions the delicacies of the Danish language, I post this video.

[-] farting_gorilla@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

I immediately knew what video you posted and said "Kamelooso" in my head

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 week ago

Stephen Miller walks into Donald Trump's office, "sir, bad news, we heard three Brazilian people were shot by ICE accidently".

"oh no..how many is a brazilian?"

Thank you Mason for finally telling us what the numbers mean

[-] pseudo@jlai.lu 4 points 1 week ago

It is too late for me to understand that text but I'll come back at it after I've slept.

[-] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago
[-] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

"French 80" seems like a fun way to signal you like marijuana that didn't cross my mind before.

[-] rayf@lemmy.zip 18 points 1 week ago
[-] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

So, four score.

[-] germanatlas 13 points 1 week ago

79 is pretty funny in French

[-] rayf@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 days ago

Remember school where I learned to write number in full text. It's so long. Soixante dix-neuf I 79 Quatre-vingt I 80 Quatre-vingts un I 81 .. Quatre-vingts treize I 93 ... Cent soixante-dix neuf I 179

It's plain math

In French part Belgium and Switzerland, they use something that make more sense like Septante | 70 Septante Un | 71 Octante I 80 Nonante I 90

[-] Schmuppes@lemmy.today 13 points 1 week ago
[-] SpaceScotsman@startrek.website 20 points 1 week ago

soi-sante deez nuts

[-] germanatlas 16 points 1 week ago

Yes but it’s about the pronunciation

[-] mauubunzie_Kittyroll69420 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

catra-winged-dick-smurf core

[-] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 4 points 1 week ago

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I get this one

Counting in French ssuuuuuucks

this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2025
237 points (100.0% liked)

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