• Whitebrow@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      57
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      5 months 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

      • einkorn@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        57
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        5 months 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”.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          43
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

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

        • Beryl@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months 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.

        • Smc87@lemmy.sdf.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

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

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          5 months 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.

          • Rinox@feddit.it
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            5 months 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)_/¯

      • Valmond@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

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

        Easy peasy!

        Edit: it wasn’t easy peasy.

    • Beryl@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months 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.

    • Wiz@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

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

    • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      5 months 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.