“tenty-one, tenty-two, tenty-three …”
At least it’s not as complicated as the French way. You need to have a brain like an electronic calculator to interpret things like “quatre-vingt-dix-huit” or “soixante-douze”.
Vive l’entente cordiale - et vive la différence!
73 QRO de G3NYY
I believe I have heard the English phrase “four score and ten” which is the exact equivalent of quatre-vingt dix. Such phrases also require a human brain, which is indeed a computer. 
totally agree. I always struggle to understand when French numbers like 73, said as [60+13] or 96, said as [(4x20)+16] are told fastly. It must be good to develop a mathematical brain, I guess
I don’t speak German but I think it’s a bit simmilar, isn’t it?
In the US, schoolchildren all learn Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, which starts, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm
wunder
He knows about it and it is on the to-do list. But he hasn’t finished watching Coronation Street yet.
Bah, today’s youth! It’s done both on the DB and the source docs anyway.
I had no end of problems with the harder French numbers when I studied French at school many, many years ago. Before Christmas 2015 I spent 12 days in France and found that by having to use the numbers when talking to people they become much easier. Of course 5 months later they have all been forgotten again!
My French is terrible but I insisted on trying to speak French with all the shop staff, hotel staff, waiters etc. As soon as they heard my English accent they would all switch to English but when I asked if we could try to use French the result was wonderful. I was encouraged, helped, assisted and on occasion we’d switch to English whilst they tried to explain what I should say. I found it a wonderful experience that so many people in France tried to understand and help me speak French. I suppose they were surprised at an English guy making an effort when many English just don’t bother.
I bellieve that is EXACTLY why Napolean introduced that method of counting - to improve matematics among his subjects. I believe the older French language that was adopted in parts of Canda, does not use this method.
Ed.
LOL! In German they do everything backwards … 73 = dreiundsiebzig (three and seventy).
The world would be a boring place if we were all the same … hi hi!
Mind you, we used to do the same in English many years ago…
“Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie.”
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
“How many miles to Babylon?
Three score and ten.
Can I get there by candle-light?
Yes, and back again.”
(A very old English nursery rhyme.)
73,
Walt
I do delight in using e.g. “five-and-twenty” to/past for times. I got this from my Grandmother. I suspect it is seen as archaic.
How about the Welsh system(s)
The traditional style is quite complicated. Perhaps it’s no wonder that even in the Welsh-speaking heartland of Gwynedd it’s not unusual to hear the Welsh speakers swap to English numbers at the supermarket checkout!
Add on the completely different modern system that is now taught (which is nice and regular like Esperanto - but you’ve still got to worry about gender and mutation and all that stuff) and it’s really doing my head in!
Hi,
Getting this backing on topic, I have amended the G/SC region notes in the ARM due the deletion of Swyre Head G/SC-012 and this should be on the SOTA website soon.
Jimmy M0HGY
G - Association Manager