Reddit front page discussion Tuesday April 29, 2025
https://old.reddit.com/r/interesting/comments/1kal290/how_do_you_say_number_92/
Regarding denmark. Found on the red web
We say: to og halvfems which literally translates to two and ninety. Halvfems is just the word for ninety. The root of the word originates from a base 20 way of counting where the root of the English word ninety (9x10) originates from a base 10 way of counting. Its not like we do any math that way anymore, it’s literally just a word that through time has been shortened a bit. The full word would be halvfemsindstyvende like the full word for ninety would be nine tens
I knew French was insane but wtf are they doing in Denmark
Someone else already posted an explanation, but it just boils down to us Danes still using “snes” (or “snaes” in old english), which was the amount of dried herrings usually hung from a wooden drying rig/branch, which, of course, was 20 (edit: according to this source).
It’s totally disconnected from modern times and ought to be changed, but then again, some people still use the 12-hour clock, thumbs, and feet, so how bad is it really?
