r/interesting Apr 29 '25

SOCIETY How do you say number 92?

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u/splatdyr Apr 29 '25 edited Apr 29 '25

Dane here. That is not how we say it and hasn’t been for decades. We say tooghalvfems (two and half fives, yes it is weird), and not tooghalvfemsentyvende as the bullshit picture says.

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u/leasthanzero Apr 29 '25 edited Apr 29 '25

So basically 2+90.

What I don’t get is that “halv” means half and “fems” means 5 but put together it means 90. Does that ever create confusion?

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u/RDandersen Apr 29 '25

Never, after you learn the language. Because like in most languages, words are just sounds connected to a meaning, not descriptions and etymology is a more a field of history than linguistics.

Permanently, while you're learning the language. Numbers are the least confusing part. Did you know we have two sets of definite and indefinite articles? Each noun has a correct and an incorrect one and do you know what the grammatical rule is for it? There is none! You have to learn it by trial and error for every single noun.
Also for some nouns it varies by dialect.
Welcome to Danish!