Gregory's Server@Isocat @cmconseils The Danish and the French are quasi-vigesimal, but the Danes start at fifty (halvtres) where the French don’t start until seventy (soixante-dix). Both French and Danish agree that “four twenties” equals eighty (firs; quatre-vingt[s]).
|
3 comments
@cmconseils @Isocat If you had said “nonante-et-un” literally anywhere else in France, and especially anywhere in Belgium/Switzerland/Québec, they would have understood you just fine. @thealmostbear @cmconseils Oh, he understood me just fine the first time; comprehension wasn't the issue. |
@thealmostbear @cmconseils Yeah. About 12 years ago a snotty Paris taxi driver pretended not to understand me. I'm not fluent, but taxi conversations are well within my capability; I recited the address smoothly and with a pretty-damn-good Parisian accent. He left the car in Neutral with his foot on the brake at the curbside and stared straight out the windshield as though I weren't in the car.
Yup: his problem was I said "Nonant-et-un" ("Ninety-and-one"). Once I said "Quattre-vingt onze" ("Four-Twenty Eleven") instead, he suddenly understood just fine every word I said.
@thealmostbear @cmconseils Yeah. About 12 years ago a snotty Paris taxi driver pretended not to understand me. I'm not fluent, but taxi conversations are well within my capability; I recited the address smoothly and with a pretty-damn-good Parisian accent. He left the car in Neutral with his foot on the brake at the curbside and stared straight out the windshield as though I weren't in the car.