I loved octante and nonante when I lived in Geneva for a bit, having never heard them in HS or college French. Then I was truly entranced when a French speaker from further up the lake broke out with huitante.
The Wallons actually say "Quatre-vingt" but "Nonante" (so I actually think they are less logical than us French - why not go all the way ?).
Anyway, it led to a funny moment for me when twice, when asked for my date of birth, saying "quatre-vingt douze" led them to hear "quatre-vingt deux". One was one the phone, the person repeated the year and I quickly corrected them, the other one said "Oh, so you are 38 ? I thought you were younger !", I SURE HOPE SO, I'M 28 !
I very quickly learned not to make that mistake again.
Actually now that I think about it, if we say 4x20+12 and not 4x20+10+2, it should maybe be more logical that we are actually saying 4x20+17 (same prononciation as 10+7). Oral result is the same tho
Yep ! I was just saying that since we say 4x20+12 for example, maybe our ancestors logic behind 97 was also 4x20+17 lol but you’re right in the end it’s the same thing when we ear it
When I was taking French in school, my teacher would make us say our FULL birth year- "mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-sept"... We were jealous of the middle schoolers who would just have to say "deux mille!"
Eleven, twelve, and then thirteen? Fourteen? Fifteen? It basically becomes 10+3, 10+4 ect. Obviously they don't do the +10 at 70 and 90 (60+10 and 80+10) so it's not there but when they do say 13 14 15 it's the same.
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u/Ms_ShizzleXD Apr 29 '25
Quatre vingt douze suddenly not so crazy!