Numbers US and UK

Peter Simpson

Peter Simpson

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
Hmm interesting...
 
Take a look to the french language: quatre-vingt-dix-neuf = 4 x 20 + 10 + 9 for "99" :D
 
KMatle said:
Take a look to the french language:
Click to expand...
It depends where.
In the frech speaking part of Switzerland we count a bit differently.
Switzerland / France
60 soixante / soixante
70 septante / soixante dix
80 huitante / quatre vingt
90 nonante / quatre vingt dix

Another funny thing is between German and other languages:
German / English / French
21 ein und zwanzig (one and twenty) / twenty one / vingt et un (twenty and one)
 
And going back to our common roots..Latin:
Decem, viginti, triginta, quadraginta, quinquaginta, sexaginta, septuaginta, octoginta, nonaginta, centum.
21 = viginti unus (like 20 + 1)
29 = undetriginta (like 30 - 1)

BTW, have a look at translations in Esperanto..a funny experience indeed, since it looks like someone putting together random constructs from a few languages!
 
In Germany we have different dialects, an phrases. For numbers, too. Any dialects in France or Switzerland?

Here in Cologne f.e. you can say "Hei(a)ermann" for 5 Bucks (only elder people understand that). In the early days that was the price for a prostitute. She talkeld to the men like "Do you want to go to bed with me" which is Heia = go to bed, Mann = Man.
 
"Hei(a)ermann"
I heard this some decades ago in Düsseldorf in a Jazzbar when the musicians got a 5 Mark bill.
I understood "Eiermann" and didn't know where it did come from.

In Switzerland :
100 balles > 100 francs
une brique > 1000 francs

In France they have similar expressions.
 
I din't know that, too unless one day I had to pay 5 Marks at an old parking garage. The cashier told me this with a big smile on his face.

Cologne is a funny place. The romans build it and some centuries the french troups came in. Of course the soldiers took a look to the girls and invited them with "Visitez ma tente". What the mothers undestood was something like "Fisimatenten" which is now a winged word for "don't make stupid things".

The romans builded Cologne and the rhine river was some kind of natural border to the neighbours, the germans which didn't like to cooperate. So the "left" side of the river is the "good" side, the other is called "Schäl' Sick" which stands for "blind side". Another explanation is that earlier the ships were pulled by horses which had bliendfolds to the "blind side" to prevent them to get confused.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top