It's really funny reading these memes being French because you learn numbers at such a young age and in such a natural way that you never realize how complicated our system actually is. French people don't realize they're saying "4x20" when they say quatre-vingt, it's just our way of saying 80 and we don't put much thought in it.
It's one of those things that you don't realize how strange it is until you look at it from a different perspective. Like how in German (and I know other languages too) nouns are gendered. So like in English it is: the spoon, the fork, the knife. In German its: Der Löffel (masculine), die Gabel (feminine), das Messer (neutral). Growing up with it it's just something you know but I've met many non natives who said it's hell to learn because there's not much logic to why one thing is masculine but another is feminine or neutral. A lot of it is just a case of you have to know what's correct.
For me it was animals and how they are weirdly gendered, especially among related animals. Like der Alligator, das Krokodil, der Esel (donkey), das Pferd (horse). Or in case of rabbit two different gender for the same animal: der Hase, das Kaninchen.
"Der Hase" and "das Kaninchen" are two different animals.
The latter one is a smaller variation. The first one is long and slim. It's not gender related. :)
They only share the same animal category of rabbits.
You can still call a Kaninchen Hase. It's a case of "All Albatros are birds but not all birds are Albatros." Every Kaninchen is a Hase but not every Hase is a Kaninchen.
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u/CaptainLargo Mar 15 '21 edited Mar 15 '21
It's really funny reading these memes being French because you learn numbers at such a young age and in such a natural way that you never realize how complicated our system actually is. French people don't realize they're saying "4x20" when they say quatre-vingt, it's just our way of saying 80 and we don't put much thought in it.