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French numbers ... arg | ||
Tags: Number System | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6449 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes  Studies: German | Message 9 of 23 03 December 2012 at 5:46am | IP Logged | ||
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No sympathies here.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5383 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 10 of 23 03 December 2012 at 3:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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There is enough regularity that it's really not that bad once you are used to it.
With 60 and 80, you count up to 20 (well, 19). I've always heard it was a remnant of an old vintesimal system (which counted in groups of 20 instead of 10). Don't forget that in 21 to 29, we say the t in vingt, but not in 80. Although I've heard t in 80+ in Africa. Not sure where else. And in Canada, most people have never heard of septante, huitante, octante and nonante. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4709 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 11 of 23 03 December 2012 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is a vigitesimal system, and it's used in Breton as well (except for 50 which is half-
hundred). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5383 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 12 of 23 03 December 2012 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | ||
Ah... thanks for setting me straight. As an aside, when I lived in Burkina Faso, one of the languages there (Mooré) used a system that counted in 40's. As you can imagine, counting money was a huge headache since the money used the decimal system. So people just used French to count money! Edited by Arekkusu on 03 December 2012 at 4:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6911 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 23 03 December 2012 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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As many have said, things get easier the more you practise and the more exposure you get. Reading aloud can help (otherwise you'll keep seeing 73 as "seventy-three" etc.). Instead of reading random numbers off a list, you can work on your "story" (I'm ... years old, I was born in..., I started learning French in..., I was ... years old when..., I live in ... Downing Street, I moved there ... years ago). That's usually the main topic when you meet a new person, and numbers (age/year/ are bound to be part of that conversation. Unless you'll actively avoid them.
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| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4709 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 14 of 23 03 December 2012 at 8:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Looks like I got it wrong: it's spelled vigesimal. Well, we know where that source of
confusion comes from. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Spinchäeb Ape Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4472 days ago 146 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 15 of 23 04 December 2012 at 9:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Been working on it the past few days. It's starting to get easier. Thanks.
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| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4846 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 16 of 23 05 December 2012 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Try counting in Danish or Russian. After that, you'll love French!
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