People make fun of French numbers, and it’s not undeserved. But have you heard of Danish numbers‽
79, “nioghalvfjerds” translates to English as “nine and half fourth”. “Halvfjerds” being implicitly short for “halvfjerdsindstyve”, which translates as “half fourth times twenty”, where “half fourth” implicitly means “three plus half the fourth” (i.e., 3.5).
That is so much more insane than 83 being “four twenties three”.
if it’s any consolation, native danish speakers don’t think about it like this, you just kinda memorize what each multiple of 10 is called. although the etymology does appear a little when using ordinals, e.g. 72nd in danish is tooghalvfjerdsindstyvende (two and half four twenties), but i think most young people would just say tooghalvfjerdsende (72 + ordinal suffix)
Plus we have that whole thing where the only way to know if any definitive noun uses the “en” or “et” suffix (or the same as a separate word in front of the noun if it’s indefinite) is to know already 🤦😄
Sure, but in most cases, there’s something loosely related to rules and logic about it.
In Danish, the grammatical genders aren’t 'male, female, nongender". There’s nongender and multigender, and ABSOLUTELY no reason for anything being one or the other 🤷🏻
If it makes you feel better, grammatical genders in Norwegian are arbitrary too. There are no rules or tricks to help you figure out if a noun is masculine, feminine or neuter. :S
Ah yes this table is such a masculine table, such a good example of how all tables manifest masculinity, by um, having uh, legs and um.
Describing any noun gendering in any language reads like a “we have been played for absolute fools” meme.
People make fun of French numbers, and it’s not undeserved. But have you heard of Danish numbers‽
79, “nioghalvfjerds” translates to English as “nine and half fourth”. “Halvfjerds” being implicitly short for “halvfjerdsindstyve”, which translates as “half fourth times twenty”, where “half fourth” implicitly means “three plus half the fourth” (i.e., 3.5).
That is so much more insane than 83 being “four twenties three”.
As someone learning danish now, yup this is hell and the worst numbering system. And no, other Scandinavian countries don’t do this shit.
if it’s any consolation, native danish speakers don’t think about it like this, you just kinda memorize what each multiple of 10 is called. although the etymology does appear a little when using ordinals, e.g. 72nd in danish is tooghalvfjerdsindstyvende (two and half four twenties), but i think most young people would just say tooghalvfjerdsende (72 + ordinal suffix)
Yeah, I actually don’t mind the 10s as much. It’s not that many to remember. But it’s quite fun to complain about :D
Plus we have that whole thing where the only way to know if any definitive noun uses the “en” or “et” suffix (or the same as a separate word in front of the noun if it’s indefinite) is to know already 🤦😄
Grammatical gender.
Which is a thing in many languages. And many languages have more than just the two in Danish.
Grammatical gender is a thing in a shitload of languages.
Sure, but in most cases, there’s something loosely related to rules and logic about it.
In Danish, the grammatical genders aren’t 'male, female, nongender". There’s nongender and multigender, and ABSOLUTELY no reason for anything being one or the other 🤷🏻
If it makes you feel better, grammatical genders in Norwegian are arbitrary too. There are no rules or tricks to help you figure out if a noun is masculine, feminine or neuter. :S
Ah yes this table is such a masculine table, such a good example of how all tables manifest masculinity, by um, having uh, legs and um.
Describing any noun gendering in any language reads like a “we have been played for absolute fools” meme.
Relevant username
Yup, am a Danish Dane of Denmark born and bred 😁
I’m a simple man, someone mentions the delicacies of the Danish language, I post this video.
I immediately knew what video you posted and said “Kamelooso” in my head
Stephen Miller walks into Donald Trump’s office, “sir, bad news, we heard three Brazilian people were shot by ICE accidently”.
“oh no…how many is a brazilian?”
It is too late for me to understand that text but I’ll come back at it after I’ve slept.
Thank you Mason for finally telling us what the numbers mean
Mason?
https://youtu.be/HcqCOVFn9bw
Old black ops 1 meme 😁