1103
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] [email protected] 81 points 1 month ago

I guess we can blame the French's confusing number system for that.

[-] [email protected] 55 points 1 month ago

People seem to be angry at you for not knowing how the French count. My condolences. I found it funny tho. Have un upvote

[-] [email protected] 56 points 1 month ago

Well, I DO know how the French count and compared to English it IS highly confusing. You can hardly convince me that saying "Four times twenty and ten" is as straight forward as saying "Nine tens".

And just to be clear: I'm not some Yankee or Brit with a superiority complex, no, I am German, and we have our own shitty version of this: Instead of moving along the digits from highest to lowest, as in "Four hundreds and two tens and nine", we do "Four hundred and nine and two tens".

[-] [email protected] 42 points 1 month ago

Wow, it’s like US uses metric system for counting and y’all do “imperial counting”

[-] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago
[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

And don't even get started with Danish.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It supposedly comes from originaly counting in base 20 ( a.k.a : vigesimal system) in some proto-european language. There are traces of it in breton, albanese, basque and danish for example. Even in english, there is a reminiscence of vigesimal, in the "score", see for example Lincoln's Gettysburg Address "Fourscore and seven years ago..." means 87 years ago.

[-] vaultdweller013 7 points 1 month ago

But Basque isnt an Indo-European language its a Paleo-European isolate. Cultural mixing not with standing.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

What the hell is wrong with y'all?

[-] FlorianSimon 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It's less confusing if you think of 70 and 90 as separate words without trying to analyze what their constituting words mean.

But etymologically, sure, it makes no sense.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The dude was saying people are angry at you because they don’t understand, not that you dont understand.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Instead of moving along the digits from highest to lowest, as in “Four hundreds and two tens and nine”, we do “Four hundred and nine and two tens”.

English is less consistent, going from nine-teen to twenty-one. German stays consistent with its lower two digits.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

From 11 to 19 is always kind of weird in many languages. In Italian you go from essentially saying "one-ten" "two-ten"..."six-ten" to "ten-seven" "ten-eight" "ten-nine". Then it goes in like in English. Why? No reason ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Soixante-quinze virgule neuf vs soixante-dix-neuf virgule cinq.

Easy peasy!

Edit: it wasn't easy peasy.

[-] FlorianSimon 4 points 1 month ago
[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago
[-] FlorianSimon 2 points 1 month ago

That was close enough!

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

I wish I could give fourtwentytennine upvotes to help

[-] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It supposedly comes from originaly counting in base 20 ( a.k.a : vigesimal system) in some proto-european language. There are traces of it in breton, albanese, basque and danish for example. Even in english, there is a reminiscence of vigesimal, in the "score", see for example Lincoln's Gettysburg Address which famously starts with : "Fourscore and seven years ago...", meaning 87 years ago.

[-] loutr 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

As a frenchman who always found quatre-vingt weird but never bothered to find out why, thanks :)

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Mais je t'en prie :)

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

In English is this why we say fifteen instead of tentyfive?

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

I'm four-twenties-ten-nine percent sure that French counting is not confusing

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

No you can't, because the source has written it in the usual hindu-arabic numerals as 79,5 and not as "soixante-dix-neuf virgule cinq", you don't need to pronounce the numerals to copy them.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

It's still a good joke!

this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2024
1103 points (99.7% liked)

Technology

55960 readers
3019 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS