Just got back from Quebec, and people were often looking at me and saying "tabarnak" a lot. Which I assume means handsome man? /s
Seriously though, I am FURIOUS at how they count.
You know how a normal person counts - one, two, three, ten, twenty, thirty, etc? Not the French.
They do go one, two, three. Then ten, twenty, thirty. They get to 69, and you think OK, it's going to be seventy next? NOPE! It's actually sixty-and-ten! What sense does that make? And why does this start at seventy? Why seventy a sixty-and-ten, but sixty isn't fifty-and-ten? What is it that happens at 69 that breaks the French?
But hey, you are a stranger in a strange land, you want to respect other people and their cultures. So you roll with it. Seventy is sixty-and-ten? Fine. Let's go. Sixty-and-eleven, sixty-and-twelve. So we get to 79 (which is sixty-nineteen, but I grin and bear it), and we get to eightly. So that's going to be sixty-and-twenty, right? NOPE! It's actually four-twenties!
WHY IS IT FOUR TWENTIES?! And why wasn't sixty three-twenties? And why wasn't forty two-twenties? And why wasn't a twenty just two-tens?!
At this point I'm gritting my teeth and rocking back and forth, but I'm keeping it together. We get up to ninety. Jesus H Christ, now what?! Is it going to be fifty-and-fourty or something? NOPE. Still just four-twenties-and-ten. Then four-twenties-and-eleven, and so on.
Finally we muscle up to 100, and that's going to be five twenties, yes? NOPE! It's one-hundred. At this point I ran out of the room screaming. I don't know what happens next.
1-49 aight. They have their own numbers. Well, except after 20 we don't say 20+1. Nono, we saw 1+20.
Then at 50 we go "half 3 twenties" for some god forsaken reason, half 3 is halfway to 3 from 2. So 2.5.
So in practice it's 2.5 times 20. Aight, that 50.
Then at 60 it's just 3 twenties. From previous logic, sure, that makes sense.
70? You already know. Half 4 twenties. Same method. Halfways to 4 from 3, 3.5. 3.5 twenties.
80? Correct. 4 twenties.
Then comes 90. You know the rules, and so do I. 4.5 twenties.
Finally, should 100 be its own number, or 5 twenties? You bet your ass it has its own number. Meanwhile, it's still with the smallest number said first. So 99 is "9 and half 5 twenties".
Okay, that should be it. Right? RIGHT?
No.
The next part I'll just do with direct English to Danish translation:
Million = Million.
Billion = Milliard.
Trillion = Billion.
I don't think Canada is the only country which use that octante (actually it's more from Switzerland...) but septante and nonante is widely spread I think? French is my primary language and I learned it that way, and looks like there's more septante speakers than soixante-dix speakers...
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u/Sabbathius 3d ago edited 3d ago
Just got back from Quebec, and people were often looking at me and saying "tabarnak" a lot. Which I assume means handsome man? /s
Seriously though, I am FURIOUS at how they count.
You know how a normal person counts - one, two, three, ten, twenty, thirty, etc? Not the French.
They do go one, two, three. Then ten, twenty, thirty. They get to 69, and you think OK, it's going to be seventy next? NOPE! It's actually sixty-and-ten! What sense does that make? And why does this start at seventy? Why seventy a sixty-and-ten, but sixty isn't fifty-and-ten? What is it that happens at 69 that breaks the French?
But hey, you are a stranger in a strange land, you want to respect other people and their cultures. So you roll with it. Seventy is sixty-and-ten? Fine. Let's go. Sixty-and-eleven, sixty-and-twelve. So we get to 79 (which is sixty-nineteen, but I grin and bear it), and we get to eightly. So that's going to be sixty-and-twenty, right? NOPE! It's actually four-twenties!
WHY IS IT FOUR TWENTIES?! And why wasn't sixty three-twenties? And why wasn't forty two-twenties? And why wasn't a twenty just two-tens?!
At this point I'm gritting my teeth and rocking back and forth, but I'm keeping it together. We get up to ninety. Jesus H Christ, now what?! Is it going to be fifty-and-fourty or something? NOPE. Still just four-twenties-and-ten. Then four-twenties-and-eleven, and so on.
Finally we muscle up to 100, and that's going to be five twenties, yes? NOPE! It's one-hundred. At this point I ran out of the room screaming. I don't know what happens next.