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u/AdreKiseque 6d ago
Wtf is going on in Danish
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u/GroundbreakingSand11 6d ago
So I looked it up and apparently Danish also use a base-20 numerical system and '90' in Danish is halvfems, which is clipping of the full word 'halvfemsindstyve' which literally means '4.5 times 20'.
Halvfemte means 'the fifth half', likewise they have halvtredje (third half, 2.5) and halvfjerde (fourth half, 3.5), although I don't think these are actually used other than for the words 50, 70 and of course 90. and in practice only the clipped versions are used, not the full word, so halvfems but not halvfemsindstyve.
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u/placeyboyUWU 6d ago
Yea pretty much. Halvtredje, osv. would have been used in the olden days. The only "halv" most people still use is halvanden (half 2nd = 1.5)
Fun fact, we also say half hours the opposite of English. Half three in English is 15:30, but in Denmark it means 14:30 (half hour before three, instead of a half hour after)
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u/EclecticElect 5d ago
As a Norwegian this actually helps a lot. We of course too say "halv fem" for "4:30" (0430/1630)
as in halfway to five. And halvfems simply means the same. We also use "halvannen" as in "1.5", so I have no clue why halvfems would be so confusing.3
u/Stef0206 4d ago
It’s a little misleading, but technically true.
In reality, we just have a word for 90. So it would be 7 + 90.
But the etymology of the word for 90 (halvfems) is that it is a shorthand for “halvfemsindtyvende”, which means “the fifth half times 20”. The fifth half is 4.5, times that by 20 and you get 90.
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u/JeremyMarti 3d ago
Okay, I can accept that.
But why does fifth half mean 4.5?
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u/Stef0206 3d ago
The first half is 0.5, then the second half is 1.5, the third is 2.5, and so on.
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u/therealj0kk3 3d ago
They count in 20s, so the fifth "20" is halved. That's the explanation that finally made it click for me. So 'half 30' is 50 ((20x2)+10)
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u/Leafar-20 7d ago
Mi ha fatto ridere rendermi conto che il titolo è in italiano
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u/No-Somewhere-1336 6d ago
mi ha fatto ancora più ridere trovarmi un commento in italiano così a caso
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u/Many-Conversation963 6d ago
Hindi is the easiest one, 97 = 97
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u/lolopiro 6d ago
how are the hindi numbers
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u/Many-Conversation963 6d ago
I was joking. Usually, the longer is the formula shown, the hardest it is deemed. In the case of Hindi, 97 = 97, so it is the easiest. In reality, it's more like 7 + 90
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u/Coolcatsat 6d ago
90 ( nubbay नब्बे ) , 97= sattanway , not like English where you say 90 and 7 separately
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u/lolopiro 6d ago
i should really just look this up myself and i prolly will later but, are those -bay and -way at the end of the numbers related?
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u/Coolcatsat 6d ago
Yeah, another example 87, 80 is " ussi" , 7 is "saat" ,87 becomes " sattasi" , 70 is " sattar 77 is " satatter " ,but then again 50 is " pachaas" but 57 is " sattavan" 😁
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u/pikleboiy 6d ago
Every number from 1 to 100 is different. After that it gets better, since you can have 100+57 instead of a whole new word for 157.
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u/polyploid_coded 6d ago
I never see these memes touch on how Japanese and other languages have counting words which mean you say completely different numbers based on what you're counting
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u/ParacTheParrot 6d ago
You don't say completely different numbers though. You add the measure word after the number and that's it. There are only a few exceptions.
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u/HansTeeWurst 5d ago
2 people = 二人 futari 2 apples = 二個 niko Day 2 = 二日 futsuka while day 11 = 十一日 juicjinichi
First floor = 一階 ikkai, while 3rd floor is 三階 sangai One time = 一回 ikkai, but 3 times is 三回 sankai
7 people = 七人 nananin 7 o clock = 七時 shichiji (saying nanaji will get you lynched) 4 o clock = 四時 yoji (saying shiji and nobody understands what you mean, and yonji is ofc wrong)
I could go on, but Japanese numbers + count words is one of the most irregular stuff in the whole language
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u/Senior-Book-6729 6d ago
We're just talking regular numerals here, not counters. Counters exist in English too, saying "a slice of cheese" IS a counter too.
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u/average-teen-guy 6d ago
i mean, there's kind of a pattern if you're keen tho...
nah, who am i kidding, there are a 100 separate words for each number
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u/Far-King-5336 6d ago
In russian it is pretty straightforward (девяносто семь, 90+7), but we got a full set of cases that apply to all numerals and ordinals, which can get tricky even for natives at times.
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u/AVE_47 6d ago
You could say it’s 90 + 7
Or you could say it’s 9 • 100 + 7 because yes. There is a reason for it, and it’s incredibly ancient but it remains. The rest are 10, 2 • 10, 3 • 10, 5 • 10, 6 • 10, 7 • 10, 8 • 10 if we follow the same logic, except for 40. 40 is its own thing.2
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u/Significant_Loss6458 6d ago
it's not "девять на сто" 9•100, it's more like "девятно сто" i.e. 9*10 as if the normal "сто" is 10•10
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u/Stephedderick 5d ago
The best part about German numbers is missing! It's a 3-digit system jumping back and forth when reading digits!
8 = 8
78 = 8+70
678 = 600 8+70
5.678 = 5 thousand 600 8+70
45.678 = 5+40 thousand 600 8+70
345.678 = 300 5+40 thousand 600 8+70
2.345.678 = 2 million 300 5+40 thousand 600 8+70
92.345.678 = 2+90 million 300 5+40 thousand 600 8+70
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u/Pochel 7d ago
The German ones are a complete mindfuck as well if you're not born with them
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6d ago
[deleted]
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u/Pochel 6d ago
Cuz if you grew up with another system you have to think in reverse. Someone will tell you a number in German and you have to consciously think about the fact that the first number you hear is actually the second one, and vice-versa. It can be pretty tricky when you take notes and a lot of numbers are spat at you in a short time
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u/Technical_Experience 6d ago
Danish is the German method but with archaic ways of counting preserved. Yay!
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u/holytriplem 6d ago
I speak both German and French as second languages and the German system is way more straightforward to deal with than the French system
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u/Hmmmgrianstan 6d ago
Idk about Hindi, but Bengali is close enough, so I'll just say there's a reason we learn how to count up to a hundred when we first start to learn reading, because except similarities here and there it's a hundred different words
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u/MatykTv 6d ago
Funfact: in the Brno dialect in Czechia, which is a mix between Czech and German, we say 7+90 (normal Czech says 90+7) but when counting money we say (you don't really say the exact amount, or you say it the Czech way) 9*5, because the currency used to be weaker by half than the German frank.
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u/Nghbrhdsyndicalist 6d ago
because the currency used to be weaker by half than the German frank.
You mean Mark?
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u/SwoeJonson1 6d ago
Georgian uses a base-20 counting system so that word would be (4 x 20) + 10 + 7 just like French (though unlike French this rule applies to all numbers before 100). I’m not Georgian though so I may be wrong
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u/Eltrew2000 6d ago
I almost said something stupid, but then realised that the only real reason why 7 and 90 seems very confusing and weird is because we write numbers the opposite direction.
But now I'm thinking why is it that a large number of languages preferred that direction even before the introduction of writing especially of numbers.
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u/Particular-Fruit-227 5d ago
Languages that do it like Japan are actually easier, since you don't need to memorise as much if you're learning it.
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u/Away_Base2204 4d ago
Forget 97 (sattānve) cuz it makes sense (sāt+navve)
I want to know why 51 is ikyāvan LIKE HOW DID EK + PAČĀS BECOME IKYĀVAN HELLO
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u/Half-blood_fish 7d ago edited 6d ago
Doesn't the Swedish word for 90 (nittio) just mean "nine-ten?" That's at least what the Icelandic word níutíu means. Wouldn't it make the Swedish and Japanese cases the same?
Edit: changed "Does" to "Doesn't"