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Originally Posted by Sweetpea
But eleven and twelve and thirteen are also oddly numbered in English. In Dutch, 14 is also not 4-10. From 15 onwards though, it's 5-10, 6-10, etc.
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Not quite oddly, it's just very old words, and today we can't "read" the meaning directly from the word. Eleven means literally 'one remaining' (after counting 10) and twelve means 'two remaining'. 'Thirtieen' is "three-ten" just spelled a little differently. The number names are not at all illogical, but it's sometimes remains of different systems than we have today, and the words are old and have changed a bit. BTW, the Dutch names most likely have the same roots as the English (and Scandinavian).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sweetpea
So, you have to be able to calculate in order to know the Danish counting words????
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Eh, no
I was just explaining the roots of the words used today, since you *today* can't directly infer the meaning of the names for 50, 60, 70, etc. You'd also have to calculate to figure out two-ten, three-ten, etc.
Think about it - when you learned to count, didn't you just learn the names for the numbers? Slite's "problem" was reading Danish based on being a native Swedish speaker. The languages are alike enough that we can, with a little effort, understand each other, but these exact words can be a small problem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sweetpea
Probably they were smarter and made the counting words easier  |
I don't know... is it easier for me to remember one or the other name? 'Halvtres' or 'femti'? Granted, the internal logic is not directly comprehensible to me, but then most words I use don't have any - to me - visible internal logic, words such as 'chair' or 'table' or 'dog'.