• @[email protected]English
    1•1 year ago

    Yeah, but I’m used to that, it’s the same in German (and it sucks, especially for people with dyslexia), no, what I meant is the way they actually count.

    You know, like 99 in French is „quatre-vingt-dix-neuf“? „4 (times) 20 (plus) 10 (plus) 9“.

    Which I always thought the most idiotic way ever to come up with counting? Until I learned about the Danish…

    Ever wondered why 50 in Danish is „halvtreds“? Because „halv tredje“ means… „half-third“? Which is 2 1/2.

    Are you sitting? „Halvtreds“ is short for „halvtredsindstyve“, which literally means „half third times twenty“.

    2 1/2 * 20 = 50 🤡

    Same with 70, 90…

    • @isthingoneventhisEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      Yeah the mathing bits I knew were from something older, the entire equation I don’t remember offhand. French has been mostly repressed.

      I’m more upset about time verbage being absolutely fucked and … crap I think it’s 30 minutes… into the hour instead of before? It’s so confusing and I get it backwards constantly because who fucking counts time like that even.

      Like half til 6 (or however you say it idk) is 5:30 and not … 6:30 or some asinine BS. I will take strange ye olde numbers over that shit any day. I just default to 24 hour time because I absolutely cannot be assed and it’s very dumb. I’ve explained it very poorly but hopefully it makes sense lol. And they use quarter/half past like please… please stop, just tell me weird numbers.

      • @[email protected]English
        1•1 year ago

        Hah! Yeah, I understand, but I’ve been hearing this in spoken English as well, „half seven“ instead of „half past six“, though in school I was taught only the latter existed.

        It’s like this in German as well, and it’s also regionally different, but once you get it it’s actually nice:

        In most parts of Germany (and where I grew up) and in Standard German you tell time (literally) as:

        Six, quarter past six, half seven, quarter before seven, seven.

        In the south of Germany it’s: six, quarter past six, half seven, three quarter seven, seven. This never made sense to me, until…

        … I moved to East Germany, where it’s: six, quarter seven (!), half seven, three quarter seven, seven.

        Imagine my face, I never even had heard of this before I moved there 😂

        I immediately picked this up because it rolls off your tongue way easier in German than the standard way. And it’s mindblowingly logical. I love it:

        You just need to imagine an hour as a cake: one quarter of seven, half of seven, three quarters of seven, seven. Genius.