this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
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Funny: Home of the Haha

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tbf I think in English it's more like... 9*10+7

I'm not a historian or linguist so there is a good chance I'm wrong, but I just kind of always assumed that "ninety" meant "nine-tens" - that the "ty" was an earlier form of, or was corrupted from, "tens".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Checks out:

from Old English nigontig, from nine + -tig "group of ten"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

20x4 + 10 + 7 appears stupid at first but is really the better approach. It teaches 100% of the speakers basic arithmetic by literally embedding it in the language and makes it easy to visualize fairly large numbers. Try imagining 97 of something in your head vs 20x4 + 10 + 7 of the same something.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

wait until you realize that "two hundred and fifty seven" means 2×100 + 5×10 + 7 of something and you have to imagine that every time you say 257 of something

how is it that the word "ninety seven" (9×10 + 7) doesn't count as embedding arithmetic into the language?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Swiss french use the 80s and 90s terms like in english

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