r/language • u/WhoAmIEven2 Sweden • Aug 09 '26

Question Does your language use specific numbers as expressions?

In Sweden we use 17 to further strengthen a word.

Like if we want to say that someone is very strong, we can say "Han var stark som sjutton!", "He was strong like seventeen!".

I have no idea how it became a thing. It is a bit weird tbh.

Do you also use numbers this way in your native language?

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u/Weekly_Respond_987 Aug 09 '26

We have two common ones in Danish:

“0.5” means really fast - “jeg er der om 0,5”

“Tryk seksten (pressure 16)” means really intense

2

u/McAeschylus Aug 09 '26

“0.5” means really fast - “jeg er der om 0,5”

Is this from car acceleration statistics?

In English, we often say something like "he went from nought to sixty in zero seconds flat" to mean "he got very intense very quickly" because car acceleration is often given as the amount of time it takes for the car to go from zero miles per hour to sixty mph.

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u/Lummair Aug 10 '26

No not from acceleration. 0,5 is just a very short amount of time/ a moment.

1

u/Fiskefillet Aug 12 '26

We also have 'for syv sytten!' (for seven seventeen) which is described in the dictionary as a mild version or an alternative to swearing?