There are many particularities of the French language that make it difficult for the native English speaker (or at least for me). For example, it is not a very phonetic language – i.e., what you see is very different from what you actually say or hear. (As a brief aside, English often has the same issues – think of how you’d pronounce words like “enough,” “would” and “thought” if you were learning them for the first time. That said, I feel like it’s much more of an issue with French.)
The particularity providing the motivation for this missive, however, involves the names that the French language ascribes to the numbers 70 – 99. Unlike English, which follows a similar pattern to that used for the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, French totally changes gears once one arrives at 70. Here are some examples with the literal translations:
70: soixante-dix (sixty-ten)
75: soixante-quinze (sixty-fifteen)
80: quatre-vingts (four-twenties)
85: quatre-vingt-cinq (four-twenty-five)
90: quatre-vingt-dix (four-twenty-ten)
95: quatre-vingt-quinze (four-twenty-fifteen)
I’m sure there’s some historical basis for this, but at first glance it seems kind of weird. Fortunately you get used to it after a while.
The particularity providing the motivation for this missive, however, involves the names that the French language ascribes to the numbers 70 – 99. Unlike English, which follows a similar pattern to that used for the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, French totally changes gears once one arrives at 70. Here are some examples with the literal translations:
70: soixante-dix (sixty-ten)
75: soixante-quinze (sixty-fifteen)
80: quatre-vingts (four-twenties)
85: quatre-vingt-cinq (four-twenty-five)
90: quatre-vingt-dix (four-twenty-ten)
95: quatre-vingt-quinze (four-twenty-fifteen)
I’m sure there’s some historical basis for this, but at first glance it seems kind of weird. Fortunately you get used to it after a while.
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