Normal children usually gain fluency in their native language by age 5. Danish children need to wait until age 7.

It’s kind of funny how aware Danes are of their weird numbers system. I speak Norwegian and whenever I’m in Denmark they use the more sensible Norwegian number system to explain to me the prices of stuff (probably because I give them the deer in the headlights-stare whenever I hear something like “fem og halvfjerds”).

No kidding. It’s the sort of thing that makes you think about how different people process info differently

TIL that there’s actually (kinda but not really) a method to the madness that is our numbers 😄

Thanks for the link! While I was aware of the weird numbers in Danish, this gave a great explanation and I wish I had had this info when I was forced to learn French in school. The way this vigntisian system evolved is actually quite interesting and makes so much sense. Everything makes sense now. Wow.

In francophone Switzerland, they use septante, huitante, and nonante for 70, 80, and 90, respectively. Much more sensical, imo.

The other way around. We started with base 20 everywhere then simplified some of it.

During medieval times it used to be :
10 Dix (10)
20 Vingt (20)
30 Vingt et dix (20+10)
40 Deux-vingt (2x20)
50 Deux-vingt et dix (2x20+10)
60 Trois-vingt (3x20)
70 Trois-vingt et dix (3x20+10)
80 Quatre-vingt (4x20)
90 Quatre-vingt et dix (4x20+10)

Then they switched to base 10… But only up to 70 for some reasons in France. Belgium and Switzerland (and some parts of France) have gone all the way to 100 by using Septante (70), Octante or Huitante (80) and Nonante (90).

We’re not that different with the teens. We effectively say “seven ten”, “eight ten”, “nine ten”. You don’t think of nineteen as “nine+ten”, it’s just its own number. Well, the French take that one step farther.

Agree. But you can say “C’est quoi ?” too. More “street language” but it’s okay

French-Québec : “Kossé ça?”
French also : “C’est quoi?”
… or : “Qu’est-ce?”

Word for word of "qu’est-ce-que c’est ?” …
…goes like : "What’s this that this is?
…or : “What’s this which this is?”

“Qu’est-ce?” sounds like the english “Case”.
Since this is just one syllable it might be difficult to hear out of context.
Edit : Delayed 8h because of DDOS attack

In Portuguese we actually can say “O que é isso?”, basically the same as in Spanish, but I’d say I use more commonly “O que que é isso?”, which seems closer to French version. Funny, had never thought about it like that.

Although most French say “Qu’est-ce que c’est”, it is worthy to note that the proper/formal French is “Qu’est-ce?”. So strictly equivalent to “What is that”, word for word. :)

And the French is pronounced keskecè. Half the letters are silent because why not

Then ask someone who hasn’t learnt French how many syllables there are in “qu’est-ce que c’est ?” And watch the look of horror on their face when you tell them it’s just 3.

Normally I don’t support English imperialism, as the root of the majority of the modern world’s evils, BUT

was gonna say props to Switzerland and Belgium for having proper numbers :) idk why we don’t switch