how to count in Your Language?

[Fjon]

The English language counts

1 ... 5 ... 10 = one ... five ... ten
11, 12 have special names: eleven, twelve
13 ... 15 ... 19 = thir-teen ... fif-teen ... nine-teen (so with teen instead of ten and some deflected prefixes thir/three, fif/five)
20 ... 25 ... 29 = twenty ... twenty-five ... twenty-nine
(twen-ty, thir-ty, four-ty, ... is similar to the prefixes in the teens)
... 99 = ninety-nine
100 = one hundred
101 ... 999 follow the principle "n hundred + rest as between 1 and 99"
1000 = (one) thousand
1001 ... 9999 follow the principle "n thousand + rest as between 1 and 999"
Etc.

Hope this helps.

For 1100-1900 we can also use, for example, fifteen hundred, seventeen hundred instead of one thousand five hundred, one thousand seven hundred.

Any other languages do this?

[Viperazzi]

I thought the "fifteen hundred instead of one thousand five hundred" is the American style. Nevertheless, they definitely use it all the way from 1100 to 9900.

There are also some old ways of saying numbers in Finnish, but I can't think of an example right now. I believe several other languages also have had different ways of saying these in the old days.

[Divine]

There are also some old ways of saying numbers in Finnish, but I can't think of an example right now.

You probably mean something like

21 = one of third (yksikolmatta)
22 = two of third (kaksikolmatta)
23 = three of third (kolmekolmatta)
etc.

It's basically the same way we still say the numbers 11-19: one of second, two of second, three of second etc. and it derives from perceiving the numbers in clusters of tens. So, basically we could say...

11 = one of second [ten]
32 = two of fourth [ten]
56 = six of sixth [ten]

...but we just leave the [ten] part silent.


Theres also a way to use this in spoken language (and it's rather common) when talking about amounts, and it's close to impossible to translate unambiguously in english, since it demands a partitive case.

Luokallamme on yli kaksikymmentä oppilasta. = There are more than twenty pupils in our class. (> 20 pupils)
...can also be said...
Luokallamme on kolmattakymmentä oppilasta = There are third ten pupils in our class. (21 - 29 pupils)

Käytin yli sata euroa CD-levyihin. = I spent more than one hundred Euros on CD's. (> 100 Euros)
...can also be said...
Käytin toista sataa euroa CD-levyihin. = I spent second hundred Euros on CD's. (basically 101 - 199 Euros)

The latter way to say it is perfectly usable in Finnish, but translated directly into English it doesn't quite work. It's mainly because of the usage of the partitive case in Finnish, which (when translated into English) looks the same as the nominative case.

[helloggs]

For 1100-1900 we can also use, for example, fifteen hundred, seventeen hundred instead of one thousand five hundred, one thousand seven hundred.

Any other languages do this?

Right, in German it is quiete the same, how could I only forget I about this? Probably because I don't do it this way... It is also not that commonly used as it is in English.

Yes, for numbers up to 1900 one can also say for example fuenfzehnhundert (=1500, five-ten-hundred), though I think that using it for numbers that don't end with double zero is very uncommon. (1534=fuenfzehnhundertvierunddressig, five-ten-hundred-four-and-thirty) Except when talking about years, analogue to English. No one would call 1998 the year "eintausendneunhundertachtundneunzig" (one-thousand-nine-hundred-eight-and-ninety). If you do, people will know you are ET

[Dakkus]

That "fifteen hundred" style is quite commonly used also in Swedish.
For example "on the 15th century" is "på femtonhundra talet" ("on fifteenhundred decade/century/millenia/...")

[Fjon]

I thought the "fifteen hundred instead of one thousand five hundred" is the American style. Nevertheless, they definitely use it all the way from 1100 to 9900.

I don't know where it originates from, but it's used here and in the UK quite a lot. I would say it's only really used for 1300-1900 (not 1100 or 1200, or anything higher than 1900), and only for numbers ending in two zeros as hellogs pointed out.

[Van Geel]

And what about French and Belgian numbers???

Belgian? Do you mean some kind of a mixture between the Dutch, French and German styles?

No, in Flanders we count in the same way like in Holland.

[androl]

Mandarin Chinese

一 (yi) one

十 (shi) ten

一百 (yi-bai) one hundred

一千 (qian) one thousand

一萬 (yi-wan) ten thousand

十萬 (shi-wan) ten ten-thousands

一百萬 (yi-bai-wan) one hundred ten-thousands

十百萬 (shi-bai-wan) ten hundred ten-thousands

億 (yi) one hundred million

十億 (shi-yi) ten hundred-millions

can't you say 一千萬 for ten million (lit: one thousand ten-thousands)?

[androl]

and as helloggs can't spell with his 26-letter keyboard, I repeat the German part

1 eins (from idg. oi-no-s)
2 zwei (from idg. duō, d->z, u->w)
3 drei
4 vier
5 fünf
6 sechs
7 sieben
8 acht (from Greek oktōu, meaning "the two hands without the thumbs")
9 neun ("new", being the first new number after the first two hands of four fingers)
10 zehn
11 elf (ein + lib, from the old word "liban" which means "to remain")
12 zwölf (zwei + lib)
so, 11 means, 1 is remaining after you take away 10???

13 - 19 dreizehn - neunzehn (threeten - nineten)
16 sechzehn (s is missing)
17 siebzehn (en is missing)

20 zwanzig (zween (old male form of two) + zig (from zehn))
21 - 29 einundzwanzig - neunundzwanzig (oneandtwenty - nineandtwenty)

30 dreißig (drei + zig)
40 vierzig (four-zig)
50 fünfzig (five-zig)
60 sechzig (s is missing)
70 siebzig (en is missing)
80 achtzig (eight-zig)
90 neunzig (nine-zig)

100 hundert (from old words hunda (old word from "ten times ten")+ raÞa ("number"))

101 hunderteins (hundred-one)
200 zweihundert (two-hundred)
1000 tausend ("Þūs hundi" "many hundred")
2000 zweitausend (two-thousand)
100000 eine Million (one million, from latin "big thousand")
2000000 zwei Millionen (two millions)
999999999 nine-hundred-nine-and-nine-ty millions nine-hundred-nine-and-nine-ty-thousand-nine-hundred-nine-and-nine-ty

10E+7 (ten millions)
10E+8 (hundred millions)
10E+9 eine Milliarde (one milli(first part of million)-ard(some other fancy French suffix to make it distinguishable))
10E+10 (ten billions)
10E+12 eine Billion (from bi=two, being the second "llion" number)
10E+15 eine Billiarde (again the different suffix to make it x1000)
10E+18 eine Trillion (third llion number, tri=3)

[daniellez]

For 1100-1900 we can also use, for example, fifteen hundred, seventeen hundred instead of one thousand five hundred, one thousand seven hundred.

Any other languages do this?

Yes, in Dutch we do this as well

[lazza]

Mandarin Chinese

一 (yi) one

十 (shi) ten

一百 (yi-bai) one hundred

一千 (qian) one thousand

一萬 (yi-wan) ten thousand

十萬 (shi-wan) ten ten-thousands

一百萬 (yi-bai-wan) one hundred ten-thousands

十百萬 (shi-bai-wan) ten hundred ten-thousands

億 (yi) one hundred million

十億 (shi-yi) ten hundred-millions

can't you say 一千萬 for ten million (lit: one thousand ten-thousands)?

I'm not sure whether you can or not! It might be understood, but I think that 十百萬 is more correct. As far as I understand it, traditional numbering did not really use 千 .... um... I think

[hoppa]

For 1100-1900 we can also use, for example, fifteen hundred, seventeen hundred instead of one thousand five hundred, one thousand seven hundred.

Any other languages do this?

Yes, in Dutch we do this as well

But usually it's only used when mentioning a date. In Flanders we never say: "in onethousand-threehundred-and-four we have beaten the French" but we say" in thirtheenhundred-and-four"

[eddydevries]

For 1100-1900 we can also use, for example, fifteen hundred, seventeen hundred instead of one thousand five hundred, one thousand seven hundred.

Any other languages do this?

Yes, in Dutch we do this as well

But usually it's only used when mentioning a date. In Flanders we never say: "in onethousand-threehundred-and-four we have beaten the French" but we say" in thirtheenhundred-and-four"

Actually we never say "one thousand five hundred" (etc.) but "fourteen hundred". It might be more correct officially, but we never use it (not only in dates but always).

[Craft]

[Timeout threw me out, entering the code didn't help... but here goes again my post:]

That "fifteen hundred" style is quite commonly used also in Swedish.
For example "on the 15th century" is "på femtonhundra talet" ("on fifteenhundred decade/century/millenia/...")

The same is possible in Finnish, too. Especially some senior Finns seem to say for example "vuonna yhdeksäntoistasataa ja neljäkymmentäviisi" which is "year nineteen hundred and forty five".

Now some Russian, which is not at all straightforward. Below, the stress is indicated by ´ , note how it shifts back and forth. I have indicated some noteworthy details with bold.

1 odín/odná/odnó/odní: (genders m/f/n/plural) one
2 dvá/dvé: (genders m/f) two
3 tri: three
4 tsetíre: four
5 pját: five
6 shést: six
7 sjém: seven
8 vósjem: literally something like more-than-seven
9 djevjat (pronounced djévit): nine
10 djesjat (pronounced djésit): ten
11 odínnadtsat: literally one-over-ten (odin-na-dtsat, ten in shortened form)
12 dvennádtsat: literally two-over-ten
... (the same onwards)
20 dvádtsat: two-ten
21 dvádtsat odín: two-ten one
... (the same onwards)
30 trídtsat: three-ten
...
40 sórok: (a special word for 40 with no connection to four or ten or other numerals)
41 sórok odín: 40 one
...
50 pjatdesját (pronounced pidisját): five-ten, but note that ten is now in different form that in 20-30's
...
60 shestdesját (pronounced shestdesját): six-ten
...
70 sjémdesjat (pronounced sjémdisit): seven-ten
...
80 vósjemdesjat (pronounced vósjemdisit): eight-ten
...
90 devjanósto (pronounced divinósta): means probably something like nine-but-not-hundred (devja-no-sto)
...
100 stó: hundred
101 stó odín: hundred one
...
200 dvésti: two-hundreds (note the form sti of word sto)
...
300 trísta: three-of-hundred (note the singular genitive form sta of word sto)
...
400 tsetíresta: four-of-hundred
...
500 pjatsót (pronounced pitsót): five-of-hundreds (sot is plural genitive form of word sto)
... (the same onwards)
900 devjatsót (pronounced divitsót): nine-of-hundreds
...
1000 tísjatsa (pronounced tísitsa): thousand (a feminine word)
...
2000 dvé tísjatsi: two of thousand (feniminine singular genitive form)
... (the same onwards with 3000 & 4000)
5000 pját tísjats: five of thousands (feminine plural genitive form)
...
1000000 millión: million (masculine)
...
2000000 dvá millióna: two of million (masculine singular genitive)
...
5000000 pját milliónov: five of millions (masculine plural genitive)


Ok, as you see, Russians speak about 1 in singular nominative, about 2...4 in singular genitive, and about 5-9 in plural genitive. This extends to nouns following numerals, too:

1 rubl = 1 rouble (masculine singular nominative)
2...4 rublja = 2...4 of rouble (masculine singular genitive)
5...9 rubljei = 5...9 of roubles (masculine plural genitive)

[groentje]

And what about French and Belgian numbers???

The Flemish (Dutch) way is already described. One remark: in Flanders, we say honderd en een, twee, drie... up to twaalf (101-112).

French has specific names for numbers up to 16.
1=un(e)
2=deux
3=troix
4=quatre
5=cinq
6=six
7=sept
8=huit
9=neuf
10=dix
11=onze
12=douze
13=treize
14=quatorze
15=quinze
16=seize

17=dix-sept (ten-seven)
18=dix-huit (ten-eight)
19=dix-neuf (ten-nine)
20=vingt (twenty)
21=vingt-et-un(e) (twenty-and-one)
22=vingt-deux (twenty-two)
...
30=trente
40=quarante
50=cinquante
60=soixante
70=soixante-dix (sixty-ten). In Belgian French, they use septante.
80=quatre-vingts (four-twenty)
81=quatre-vingt-et-un(e) (four-twenty-and-one). In Swiss French, they say ottante.
90= quatre-vingt-dix (four-twenty-ten). In Belgian French, they use nonante.

100=cent
101=cent-et-un (hundred-and-one)

200=deux-cents (2-hundreds)
201=deux-cent-(et-)un(e)

1000=mille
1001=mille (et) un
2000=deux mille
1000000=million