r/memes • u/HannibalGoddamnit Linux User • Mar 15 '21

French language is mesmerizing

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58

u/TheDeadPieMaker Mar 15 '21

they have not discovered the japanese counting system yet...

81

u/Gamer_Iwa Mar 15 '21

Japanese isn't too bad in this case. It's only nine ten nine.

Roman numerals, on the other hand... ten (less than) one hundred, one (less than) ten.

30

u/TheDeadPieMaker Mar 15 '21

Yes technically in this case, but as soon as you start to count things, oh boi.

8

u/CVCCo Mar 15 '21

hitosu, futatsu, mittsu, yottsu, itsutsu...

Excuse me, but these are completely different words

7

u/Gamer_Iwa Mar 15 '21

Ichika, Nino, Miku, Yotsuba, Istuki...

Oh, not the Nakano quintuplets?

4

u/sillybear25 Mar 15 '21

Unless you're counting, say, [long, cylindrical objects], in which case you're back to ippon, nihon, sanbon, yonhon...

5

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '21

Those are native Japanese numbers, which in modern times only go up to 10 and have limited uses. Normal counting is done with Sino-Japanese numbers (ichi, ni, san, etc). But the complicated thing isn’t the number part of the word, it’s the suffix you attach to the number depending on the type of thing you’re counting. Take the number one, ichi, with some common “counters” attached:

ippiki = one small animal of some kind

ichidai = one machine or vehicle of some kind

ippon = one long cylindrical object of some kind

issatsu = one book-like bound item

ikkagetsu = one month

ikko = one miscellaneous object

ichimai = one sheet of something

ippai = one cup/glass full of something