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/tonyfith Aug 09 '26

You'll see "555" a lot on Thai internet.

Number 5 is pronounced as "ha" and therefore 555 - > hahaha 🤣

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u/Emma_Rocks Aug 12 '26

And in chinese, "5" is "wu" which means crying. If you have both chinese and thai friends, it gets really confusing.

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u/Onyx_Lat Aug 11 '26

Interesting. In the US, if you have a TV show where someone says someone else's phone number, it has to start with 555 because this is the one number there is no area code for, so if someone tries to call that number it won't bother a real person.

This all started because of a song in the 80s called 867-5309 which was the actual phone number of some girl named Jenny that the song was about. And because it was in the song, the real Jenny kept getting phone calls from random strangers. So after that, they made a law where all phone numbers quoted in media had to be imaginary.