Re: The English/French counting system (WAS: number systems from conlangs)

On Mon, Sep 15, 2003 at 03:46:48PM -0400, Isidora Zamora wrote:
> FYI, Danish does something similar but not identical to French in counting
> in twenties and half-twenties.  There were a lot of numerical issues for me
> to get used to in speaking Danish.  They have a few interesting idioms for
> telling time as well, and one of these would cause me to show up for
> appointments at the wrong times until I had mastered it.
Tell me about it.  The British use of, e.g., "half eight" to mean
"half PAST eight" drives me nuts.  I automatically think of it in terms of
the German "halb acht", which means SEVEN thirty, and therefore used to
show up an hour early for meetings with my British boss before I got
used to it.

-Mark

Replies