in which german is unexpectedly easy

[kindkit]

I've finally found one area in which German is superior to French (by which I mean, easier for me as a native English speaker). It's numbers. German numbers seem to work mostly like English ones, but French numbers make you do math. (ETA: They do in the standard French of France; apparently it is not universal and other varieties of French do it differently.) Well, numbers from 70 to 99. 70 in French is "soixante-dix," literally sixty-ten. 71 is "soixante-onze," sixty-eleven. 80 is "quatre-vingt," or four twenties. 90 is "quatre-vingt-dix," four twenties and ten, and so on up to 99, "quatre-vingt-dix-neuf," or four twenties and nineteen.

My French is not too bad, apart from not having a full adult vocabulary, but I still have to stop and think when hearing or speaking French numbers.

This is especially fun in the context of telephone numbers, because the French don't say telephone numbers digit by digit like American English speakers do, they divide them into groups of two. So if somebody's telephone number includes the combination 97, they will say "quatre-vingt-dix-sept," and the unsuspecting English speaker will write down 4 (quatre) and only then realize they've got it wrong, and have to go back and correct while their French interlocutor is now several numbers ahead. You can guess how I know this.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand all this is probably interesting to no one but me, but I was happy to find a context in which German is simple and straightforward. Unlike its ten million billion pronoun forms.

Comments

[conuly]

That's not universal in French, you know. My grandmother said "septante", "octante" and "nonante" her whole life. "Huitante" is also quite common. The "four score and seven" system is common in France, but not in Belgium or Switzerland. I'm not sure what system is common in Quebec, Haiti, Louisiana, or parts of Africa that were once under French control. It is also possible that places in France with strong regional dialects or other Romance languages (like Picard) might not use this system.

[lilacsigil]

I didn't know that about French! I only took one semester of it in Year Seven, so my French is pretty much limited to greetings and singing a song about being thirsty. I'm glad Japanese and Chinese are much more logical with their numbers (I mean, Japanese has 2-3 pronunciations for each number, but it's still ten-one for eleven, two-ten-two for twenty-two etc.)

[executrix]

German: where what comes between Fear and Sex is Fun!

[vilakins]

So illogical! I thought so too when I learned French.

[tree_and_leaf]

The French-French approach to numbers is bonkers.