mr.moderino

[mellow tree]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[tranquil flame]

Septante, huitante, and nonante used to be used regionally in some parts of France, actually. Eventually the French standard shifted for everyone to use soixante-dix, quatre-vingts, and quatre-vingt-dix.

Keep in mind that neither system is inherently better… if you grow up with one, that one will be easier for you to understand

[tawny fjord]

^^^

What is to be improved, anyway?

It's inconsistent, sure, but languages and especially dialects are inconsistent

[regal fog]

If I say Quatre-Vingt I feel you would be wondering ''Ok either 80 or 90 is about to come out''. I was just thinking in theory wouldn't the swiss system be superior cause in theory in my mind its simpler?

I am wondering if anyone else thinks this or if I'm actually wrong and the French french system works fine

[tawny fjord]

If I say ‘twenty three’ do you expect to see ‘23’ or ‘20, 3’

[regal fog]

Easy, 23 (Twenty-Three)

[tawny fjord]

Why?

[regal fog]

Cause all my life when you say twenty three I know you're referring to 23 automatically

Twenty and then three, 23

Makes perfect sense to me so far

[tawny fjord]

Not really

You can totally hear ‘twenty three’ for ‘20, 3’

What matters is the space between

It’s similar to quatre-vingts

[regal fog]

It's confusing when they say Quatre-Vingt Quinze for 95 which means 80+15 I think and then 80 is Quatre-Vingt Cinq? I think for 85

[tawny fjord]

If you just hear « quatre-vingts [pause] dix-huit » that’s 80 and 18
If you hear « quatre-vingt-dix-huit » without a pause, that’s 98

Same principle between hearing ‘twenty [pause] three’ and ‘twenty three’

[regal fog]

Ok whats the advantage of this versus English

[regal fog]

Ahhh

[tawny fjord]

There’s none

But there’s no downside as well

It just is

[regal fog]

thats good to know

also apologies if i go afk randomly for an hour and a half, morning chores i do read the messages

[tawny fjord]

It’s harder to learn, sure, but there’s really nothing wrong with it, language-wise

It’s inconsistent sure but languages are inconsistent anyway

It’s a holdover from when French used to count in multiples of twenty since 70 is 60 plus 10 (soixante-dix), 80 is four 20s (quatre-vingts), and 90 is 80 plus 10 (quatre-vingts-dix)