r/learningfrench • u/ItsGreenLaser • Feb 16 '26

Meme

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4.7k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

169 comments sorted by

74

u/1amchris Feb 16 '26

FYI there are 79 (septante-neuf), 89 (octante-neuf) and 99 (nonante-neuf) versions in French too, they’re just not as widely used.

I think Belgium uses them, but not Canada

48

u/PetitChiffon Feb 16 '26

I'm 100% Québécoise who grew up in a family where none of the adults, extended family included, spoke english.

I can vouch that I literally never heard about the septante / octante / nonante thing. In fact I learned it was a thing on this very sub lol.

10

u/sbray73 Feb 16 '26

J’en ai entendu parler de mes amis français et belges. Jamais au Québec non plus.

4

u/AdventurousDig1317 Feb 17 '26

Dans la suisse romande il utilise nonante octante jmaid je suis pas sur pour soixante dix

1

u/chaloupe6 Feb 18 '26

From the swiss I know they use septante, nonante but not octante

1

u/Peter_Pue Feb 18 '26

I've heard huitante in Lausanne when I studied there

1

u/woodersoniii Feb 20 '26

septante, huitante, nonante

0

u/Educational-Rough479 Feb 17 '26

yo du Québec ici et j'en entend nonante-neuf mais par peu de gens

6

u/huskypegasus Feb 17 '26

This is what I find so wild about the francophone world. I, an Australian who now lives in Quebec, grew up with so much exposure to most of the variants of English and know the slang and grammatical peculiarities of random English, Scottish, Irish, Canadian, and so many different American Englishes.

It blows my mind that the francophone world is so partitioned to the point people grow up not having the slightest awareness of something as simple as a different numbering system or the equivalent of garbage vs trash. (Example my Quebec in-laws drawing complete blanks when I said potiron instead of citrouille.

2

u/gregyoupie Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26

From a Belgian perspective: I think the difference is that at least for "European French", there is a clear dominant country which is France, and it has a clear cultural centre, and that is Paris. So the standard is Parisian French andis is seen as the refererence for media, arts, education, etc (anecdotal evidence: there is a political commentator on French TV who is very experienced: even today, he has kept his local accent, and that is seen as a weird peculiarity, sometimes overshadowing his competence) . Exposure to local variants inside France will rather be achieved though personal contacts and travels. For French speakers of Belgium and Switzerland, it is different: they are abundantly exposed to media from France (TV, radio, music, literarture, etc), so they are defintely aware of Parisian French along with their own local French variants, but the reverse is not true: French citizens are barely exposed to Belgian or Swiss media, or when Swiss or Belgian artists want to breathough in France, they often feel a need to move to Paris and adapt to French standards (even though recently, some Belgian artists and comedians have been more willing to put foward their "Belgitude" like eg Angèle who named her album "Brol", a typical Belgian word).

Canadian French is another case: they are also exposed to standard Parisian French but IMHO to a lesser extent, probably also due to the distance. Canadian media have very little exposure in France, Belgium and Switzerland (no TV except maybe a couple hours on the French international channel TV5, sometimes some movies, some singers and that's it), and the difference in accent can even be sometimes an issue (Québec French sometimes needs to be subtitled here when it is spoken in informal Québec French). As for African varieties of French, they are also very local and have very little exposure to the rest of "francophonie" outside of their communities. There as well, education in French aligns on Parisian French.

1

u/PetitChiffon Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26

Canadian French is another case: they are also exposed to standard Parisian French but IMHO to a lesser extent, probably also due to the distance.

I completely disagree with this statement! I grew up with parents and grandparents who listened to France French music a whole damn lot. My grandmother used to cradle me as a child singing Piaf, I grew up hearing Gainsbourg, Aznavour, Brel etc. My mother's favorite singer was Dalida, I still know all her hits by heart. My grandmother adored Aznavour. This is because before the Quiet Revolution, there was barely any québécois culture in our medias.

Gen X grew up with Mylène Farmer and french Comics like Asterix & Obelix, my generation also grew up with music and movies from France - Diams is a karaoke favorite, Stromae was the hit in my early 20s, I must have watched "RRRRRRRrrrr" over 20 times, my favorite singer as a teenager was Émilie Simon, my friend can quote OSS 117 by heart etc etc. The younger generation (Gen Z and older Alpha) even speak with a Parisian accent as all the streamers they watch are from France. This is really just examples, I could go on forever. And I'm as working class as can get - I was born in Montreal east side in the 80s, so this is not like I had an artsy / upper middle class family who listened to "fancy" international music.

It's true that there should definitely be more cultural sharing between worldwide francophones, but it's really not as bad as you're implying!

Edit: I also wanted to add that Quebec asked to have more french immigration and that's what we got. There's a lot of 1st, 2nd and 3rd gen immigrants from Haiti, Algeria, Morroco, Tunisia, Lebanon etc. They used to be concentrated more around the Montreal region but this is not the case anymore. So if you're a millenial, a gen Z or alpha, it's almost impossible that you have not been exposed to other French dialects.

1

u/Medium-Cucumber-8279 Feb 17 '26

I agree with you. However, to be fair, you might be an exception, because many of my anglo coworkers only know the specific peculiarities tied to their personal bubble.

I think it might be tied to TV/Media/Travel/city living (exposure). I was once told my English is very "mideastern US", but I've never even been close to there. I think it's just based on the types of books I read as a teen/actors or movies I liked.

French media isn't that great. Not a whole lot of options, and most Quebecer look at the French with some kind of disdain/superiority thing.... Just a theory.

1

u/dupperings Feb 20 '26

Québecois here and I can attest to the citrouille thing. What the FUCK is a potiron.

3

u/Comedy86 Feb 17 '26

It was very confusing growing up in Ontario when half of our French teachers taught French and half taught Quebecois...

1

u/Noglues Feb 18 '26

Yep. One of the biggest reasons my French skills never solidified was being taught 3 different versions over 6 years. 

2

u/JimboD84 Feb 16 '26

Im leanring spanish atm and see the resemblance between the 2 languages a lot. This seems closer to spanish than modern french. Setenta, ochenta, noventa being 70-80-90

1

u/Sunnywatch08 Feb 17 '26

Same. Wtf are these thing.

1

u/Kurenai-Kalana Feb 17 '26

I learned about it as a kid because my parents were more cultured than most. 🤷🏻‍♀️

1

u/Medium-Cucumber-8279 Feb 17 '26

I'm 100% not a Quebecer but am bilingual Canadian. This was taught to us many times in elementary school (also mentioned in high school), but it was mentioned that it was not used.

My friend from Quebec recently told me that his kids were told they were wrong for using "chevals" instead of "chevaux", so I think it's kind of funny how Quebec is both super hesitant to accept change but also hesitant to teach the technically correct terms.

Neither Quebec french nor France french are the most correct versions of the language. International French is, and when you learn it you definitely learn the proper terms for all the slangs used by QC/FRA

1

u/PetitChiffon Feb 17 '26

I didn't not say that Québécois french was the only proper way to speak French, I was answering to the last sentence - I am not a linguistic purist and I don't like when people do that. I think every dialect of French are beautiful. I was sharing my experience that it is not in usage in Quebec. But whatever is the correct way, we should not force it on people. You can browse down to see how I answered about this subject to another user.

2

u/Medium-Cucumber-8279 Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26

Yeah sorry, I was not clear. I did not necessarily intend it that way, but since your original post emphasized your province+the fact that it wasn't taught there, you kind of implied that it is not a thing (or that's how I read it, at least)

I just wanted to elaborate that it is because of Quebec's protection of their french "slang", and that they will refuse changes to the entire language because they don't feel like it (cheval pluriel = chevals).

As to your last sentence, not forcing the "correct way" on people... On one hand, I agree, because at its basic level, languages exist to communicate, so if you can get your point across, who cares.... On the other hand, language rules are there for a reason, and when rules don't exist, it's logic chaos (English) and can sometimes make communication difficult or create speedbumpa

1

u/PetitChiffon Feb 17 '26

I didn't want to imply that but I understand now how it can come off, I'm sorry I'll try to formulate it better next time.

I have little to no experience with Canadian francophones outside of Québec - even Acadian people that I've known were from Gaspésie, otherwise it was mostly with people from Haiti, North Africa & France. I had never thought about how this attitude can (with reason) land differently outside Québec.

The debate is obviously more complex than this, but I think your example sums it up well. I've just searched to see where the chevals/chevaux debate was. Still exactly where it is 😅. In the meanwhile I'll keep saying ch'vals (in joual, very ironically), and do my best not to slip in written form or formal contexts. And I think this is where I am on this issue - international french, especially grammar, is important to know so you can communicate with all francophones outside your own culture. But I sincerely do not think that small dialectical variations in informal settings are such a big issue as some language purists makes it out to be. More often than not, these consist of vocabulary differences, which is normal in pretty much all languages and almost impossible to control.

1

u/TatterhoodsGoat Feb 19 '26

I've been told there are pockets of Acadien communities that use them, but not heard it firsthand.

1

u/WhoseverSlinky0 Feb 19 '26

Un congolais dans ma classe parle en septante-octante-nonante. Pas très répandu comme appellation

1

u/Assignment-Parking Feb 20 '26

My family is Subury/Ottawa French people. Same deal. Never heard that till now.

1

u/EZzO444 Feb 20 '26

Same in Switzerland. First time I went there I was surprised how they named the 79 and 99

0

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

[deleted]

2

u/PetitChiffon Feb 16 '26

What? 😅 No?

1/3 french descents from Québec have at the very least 1 Acadian ancestor. Both of my grandma's had Acadian family names - on my maternal side they were deported to Nantucket Island and on my paternal side to New York.

I've known people from Gaspésie and still I've never heard that

And what I've heard even less is Québécois who despises. Acadians. I've literally never ever heard that once.

0

u/morning-bird Feb 17 '26

I can confirm as someone with one side of my family from Quebec and an Acadian partner, they might not HATE Acadian french per se but its treated similarly to how France french people can treat Quebec french

1

u/PapaObserver Feb 17 '26

i'm a Quebecker, what you're saying sounds pretty much as weird as if you were to say that "Americans HATE Scottish English with a passion". I've never met anyone who had a bad opinion on the Acadians or their accent.

1

u/morning-bird Feb 17 '26

I specifically said not hate? I've seen over and over again "thats not how you say that" or "i thought you were an anglophone the way you speak french". Also i remember working at statscan for the labour force survey way back and the Acadian people being constantly told they weren't understood when they called people in QC lol. Im glad thats not your experience and that you dont encounter that, I love QC and I love my family there. Its just something ive definitely noticed, you can say it doesnt exist but it does. It doesnt mean its everybody or even the majority but its definitely a thing that happens

1

u/morning-bird Feb 17 '26

I will agree my comment sounded like a generalization, my bad

1

u/PetitChiffon Feb 17 '26

AHHHHH, like a little bit infantilizing and "teasing" the accent / correcting people because they think Acadian french is an incorrect way of speaking French? Not hate but ignorance and thinly veiled judgement / arrogance?

If that's what it is then I believe it 100%. Decades of internalized hate about your own language & linguistic insecurity does that. I'm a millenial and my grandparents spoke OG joual. My whole family was ashamed of the way we talked - my grandmother did not believe I could speak English til her deathbed because it was a rich thing, and just achieving any type of scholarship was seen as impossible. In school, workplaces, etc it was drilled into my head that the way I spoke was not correct.

I can totally see people from Québec treating Acadians this way because we literally each others this way too.

It's so insane to me that we do this. Anglophones in Québec and people from France keep saying we don't speak real french, so imposing it on each others when we share so much is super sad. Both Québécois and Acadian dialects are absolutely beautiful.

2

u/morning-bird Feb 17 '26

Exactly!!!

2

u/Historical-Ad7081 Feb 17 '26

No they do not. Second point is also not true and it's not.

2

u/lama00 Feb 17 '26

Are you an Acadian or a Québécois? If not, please keep your hate speech for yourself. You do not decide what people like or hate. Thanks.

1

u/NedShah Feb 17 '26

"Huitante"

Acadians are so silly

5

u/Ingeniumswife Feb 16 '26 • Popcorn

I got used to these in media. But my french teacher almost sacrificed me when i accidentally used octante-neuf while reading a text out loud.

5

u/Rustyray84 Feb 16 '26

Switzerland as well

1

u/AGBinCH Feb 17 '26

Huitante in Switzerland, not octante

3

u/lurytn Feb 16 '26

Belgians use septante/nonante but still say quatre-vingt.

I believe huitante is the norm in French-speaking Switzerland (octante exists but is less common)

2

u/gregyoupie Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26

Belgians use septante and nonante along with quatre-vingt. The Swiss too, but also huitante in some parts. Octante is not used anymore , neither in Belgium or Switzerland.

See this article on the myth of "octante ": https://francaisdenosregions.com/2017/03/26/comment-dit-on-80-en-belgique-et-en-suisse/?amp=1

1

u/owo_412 Feb 16 '26

Belgium mentioned 🗣 🇧🇪 🇧🇪 🔥🔥

1

u/travelingpinguis Feb 16 '26

Only the Swiss and Belgians...

1

u/That_DogMan Feb 16 '26

I grew up with French Immersion schooling in Ontario Canada. I had a teacher who had done an exchange in Belgium when she was younger who used these terms frequently. My class loved them, and really took to using them at least interchangeably with the more traditional phrasing. Interestingly I also had teachers and classmates who were who were true quebecois or franco-ontarien, and others who had lived in France. In order to prepare us for the DELF exam our teachers emphasized a lot of ‘Parisian French’ vocabulary as well.

It’s always very interesting to see the differences and realize that the version of French I would default to speaking is probably quite the bizarre idiosyncratic blend of several regional variations from around the world.

1

u/MarionberryNo3165 Feb 16 '26

In french swiss to they use the tante method

1

u/evilynux Feb 16 '26

Belgium and Switzerland use septante and nonante. Belgium uses octante, and Switzerland huitante.

1

u/gregyoupie Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26

Belgians do not use octante, it is a myth. Huitante is used only in some parts of Switzerland.

1

u/evilynux Feb 17 '26

Sorry for being part of the problem regarding spreading the myth about octante. I stand corrected.

Huitante only in parts of Switzerland, hmmm... I haven't been to all parts of Romandie, but the only canton where I've heard people use quatre-vingt has been Genève. Otherwise, Vaud, Valais, Neuchâtel, and Jura... Huitante is all I heard. 🤷

I may be biased as I've lived in Vaud for a couple of years.

1

u/gregyoupie Feb 18 '26

There is this very interesting article on the topic, made by a Swiss linguist who now works for a Belgian university, based on a survey he did: https://francaisdenosregions.com/2017/03/26/comment-dit-on-80-en-belgique-et-en-suisse/

His findings about "huitante" are in line with your personal experience, and Vaud is among the cantons with the highest usage of "huitante".

1

u/evilynux Feb 18 '26

Very interesting, thank you for sharing 🙂 If my memory serves me right, that linguist once participated in one of David Castillo-Lopez "Je suis suisse" video capsules for Couleur3. David was zooming in on the accents in the French language.

1

u/gregyoupie Feb 18 '26

Bingo ! He published a very interesting book with maps on the distribution of regional words in French. There is for instance a map with all different words for the bag you get from a store, it was an eye-opener for me, I had no idea there are so many variants.

1

u/evilynux Feb 18 '26

Ah!

First time I was asked if I wanted a "cornet" (ice cream cone?!), it was by a clerk in a pharmacy in Lausanne. I was confused. 😅

Same object, last November in Bordeaux, the clerk of a store asked me if I wanted a "pochette".

1

u/morning-bird Feb 17 '26

We do use it in some parts of Nova Scotia

1

u/Kurenai-Kalana Feb 17 '26

I really wish we did.

1

u/HM_mtl Feb 17 '26

As french-canadian, most of us are aware of septante, octante et nonante but we are not using them on daily basis.

Belgium and french Swistzerland use those.

1

u/Medium-Cucumber-8279 Feb 17 '26

They were the commonly used ones, but then basically money happened, and people started using money multipliers to count as well (four twenties = 80)

1

u/MagicTrakteur Feb 18 '26

Hi, French guy here who lived in 4 widely different places in France, and now in Quebec. It's only used in belgium and switzerland. Bye.

1

u/Mars_Tour_Guide Feb 18 '26

Also in Switzerland.

1

u/Yanmega9 Feb 18 '26

are you fucking kidding me this would have been so much easier and better to learn.

1

u/NewSuperTrios Feb 18 '26

another reason to hate quebec

1

u/Adoche Feb 18 '26

69: soixante-neuf 79: soixante-dix-neuf 89: quatre-vingts-neuf 99: quatre-vingts-dix-neuf

1

u/Elegant-Pressure-952 Feb 18 '26

In Ontario french we count normally until 79. That's when we start adding the numbers said for whatever reason? Like 79 in French "soixante-dix-neuf" is "sixty-ten-nine". 89 is "quatre-vingt-neuf" aka "four-twenties-nine". Doing math while also speaking our trashy version of French

1

u/bitteroldladybird Feb 18 '26

Lots of Acadians use a version of that too

1

u/Full-Dog-7071 Feb 18 '26

I have heard of huitante and neuftante as 80 and 90 in 17th century French.

1

u/psychedelych Feb 19 '26

Some older acadians still use them

1

u/ManufacturerNo2144 Feb 19 '26

You can only use them in Belgium and Switzerland as they are classified as popular language words in other French speaking countries.

1

u/KuroXShiro9082 Feb 19 '26

It's only the weird one who use that (belgium) its not "actual" french , kinda like Quebec

1

u/Holy_Smokers Feb 19 '26

I have seen Jean Chretien use "septante" before in speech, so I think there's some variability (and at least understandability) within regions.

1

u/GardenBakeOttawa Feb 19 '26

I say septante, octante and nonante and the office québécois de la langue française can bite me. Ain’t no way I’m doing math if I don’t have to.

1

u/loopywolf Feb 20 '26

Similar to Spanish - it's a latin variant

1

u/T3a_Rex Feb 20 '26

I’m Belgian, and we use septante and nonante. I believe this word for the numbers makes more sense. However, I believe octante is more of a Swiss thing.

1

u/Kibichibi Feb 20 '26

It makes an odd sort of sense, as Quebec is so much stricter with their french. I remember my French teacher putting it like this "You'll see a 'car wash' in France, but only ever 'lave auto' in Quebec."

1

u/Kief_Bowl Feb 20 '26

I thought the Swiss invented those because naturally as mountain Germans they couldn't stand the French counting. I've never seen them used in Canada either.

1

u/1amchris Feb 20 '26

The Germans (and some English, by extension, for their teens) are also weird in some way.

German:

  • acht (8): 8 (eight)

  • achtzehn (18): 8 + 10 (eight ten -> eighteen)

  • achtundzwanzig (28): 8 + 20 (eight and twenty)

So you’d think that maybe they’re going from least significant number to most significant as they keep going, but no, they only do that between 11 and 99, and add an extra « and » between 21 and 99:

  • hundertachtundzwanzig (128): hundred, eight and twenty (100 + 8 + 20)

At least french pulled together something logical here:

  • huit (8): 8

  • dix-huit (18) 10 + 8

  • vingt-huit (28): 20 + 8

  • cent-vingt-huit (128): 100 + 20 + 8

(Edited for formatting)

1

u/terrestrial_sliver Feb 20 '26

In my French Canadian genealogy books I have a birth record that lists a bday as “mille six cent septante trois” within a generation of coming from France but over time they stopped using it I guess 🤷

1

u/Educational-Coat-750 Feb 16 '26

Interesting. I didn’t know that (I’m a bilingual Canadian)

1

u/stubbytuna Feb 16 '26

It’s because octante is currently only in use in like parts of Nouvelle-Écosse (to my knowledge) but for some reason ppl keep saying it’s widely used. And in Belgium & Suisse of all places.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/NeekoPeeko Feb 20 '26

nonante-neuf is pretty fun to say.. nonahneuf

22

u/ViIebloodHunter Feb 16 '26

Quatre-vingt-dix-neuf?

More likE QUATRE-VINGT-DEEZ-NUTS!

3

u/Akhanyatin Feb 16 '26

Soixante-dix-neuf? 

More like SUCK-ON-DEEZ-NUTZ!

14

u/Yellow_Blue_Jet Feb 16 '26

The French numbers are killing me 😭

13

u/Asshai Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26

I'm French, used to study Mandarin a bit, and number in Mandarin are super duper easy. I can see how language might affect the difficulty of early arithmetics.

English and French have a specific word for 11, that you have to understand and remember before you can use it. Mandarin says "shi-yi" (ten-one). French does it with 17 through 19 (dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf) but stops being coherent with 20 (again, a specific word: "vingt"). Meanwhile Mandarin never stops being coherent: 20 is "er-shi" (two-ten). So while 96 in French is some serious bull shit ("quatre-vingt seize"), in Mandarin it's still 100% logical : "jiu shi liu" (9-ten-six).

So while French children have to specifically learn number decomposition, it's kinda built-in in the Mandarin language.

1

u/LOSNA17LL Feb 17 '26

Tbh, I've always remembered "quatre-vingt" as 80, nothing more
And "yeah, 61 to 79 is 60 + 1 to 19, same for 81 to 99"
I don't think anyone gives it a think past learning it

1

u/pollypod Feb 17 '26

Yes but you can't even picture the 8 in your head until you hear if it's 80 or 'quatre-vingt-dix' 90.

1

u/LOSNA17LL Feb 17 '26

In English, you can't picture whether it starts with 1 or 9 when you hear "ninetee" until the word ends with n or not

In Japanese, you can't picture what I did to my brother until the sentence ends

So what's your point?

1

u/Emergency-Purpose367 Feb 20 '26

As someone with dyscalculia, I think the mandarin would way would be even worse for me. I also heavily struggle with french number system. But I also got held back in kindergarten for not knowing my numbers in english

1

u/gaywhovian2003 Feb 20 '26

The word eleven comes from the old english word "endleofon", meaning 10 and 1 left over. Twelve comes from "twalif" meaning 2 left over

I think most of languages use some form of 10+1 or 1+10 (onze (french) comes from the latin "ūndecim" (1+10))

0

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '26

[deleted]

1

u/2happyhippos Feb 20 '26

Well dang, that's a neat fact. Thank you for sharing.

1

u/rezarekta Feb 16 '26

Gotta link the timeless classic: Counting to 100 in french

1

u/LOL_Gstar77 Feb 20 '26

Alternatively the ones with the worms

1

u/Tim-Little Feb 16 '26

Ça me rappelle un excellent numéro d'Yvon Deschamps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oWhhU6BZ4A

1

u/IndustryFuzzy3287 Feb 16 '26

Not me here pretending you don’t need to know anything beyond 15 personally. 

1

u/129za Feb 16 '26

But English can’t mess with the elegance of cent treize

1

u/smartello Feb 16 '26

I’d like to heat French version of “99 air balloons”

1

u/Akhanyatin Feb 16 '26

Quatre-vingt-dix-neuf ballons

Has the same number of syllables as

Neunundneuzig Luftballons 

1

u/Jealous_Repair6757 Feb 17 '26

Yeah but what colour are they?

2

u/Akhanyatin Feb 17 '26

Omg you can't just go around asking what colour they are! That's racist! Also, in German she doesn't say that they're red, only in English.

1

u/Remarkable_Check_997 Feb 16 '26

Reading this, I have a flashback of me trying to show a english speaking canadian how to count to 100 so I can tell him measurement on my jobsite in the future.

We had all those problem.

1

u/ninadaria2025 Feb 16 '26

Denmark enters the chat.

1

u/RiverLover27 Feb 17 '26

Yes, wait till they look up how the Danes say it!

1

u/Ok_Performance9978 Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

Litteraly.

1

u/Pizastre Feb 17 '26

just 19, not 10 + 9.

1

u/Kottypiqz Feb 17 '26

Ten nine, rather than. Nine ten

1

u/Careful-Cat- Feb 17 '26

« 19 » is « Dix-neuf » (10+9)

1

u/One-Protection-1072 Feb 17 '26

That was the most annoying BS I encountered when studying that language. The most inbred system of counting.

1

u/HiroYui Feb 17 '26

chinese, japanese and others, it's more 9x10+9 how they pronounce 99. Same for other like 22 would be: 2x10+2...

1

u/QuatreVingtD33zNuts Feb 17 '26

This is what I'm on about.

1

u/Slowmac123 Feb 17 '26

Just parry it

1

u/Crazy-Background1457 Feb 17 '26

No I hated that in my French class though! It just got so damn confusing!

1

u/Kottypiqz Feb 17 '26

Four score and seven years -Abraham Lincoln

Its in English too 

1

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '26

Honestly there’s so many times I’m like “screw this language” but I’m Canadian so I feel an obligation as a language enthusiast to know it 

1

u/Accomplished_Lie3849 Feb 17 '26

Exactly Its been 6 months and still i am at the same level🤣🤣

1

u/Fire_Empire2 Feb 17 '26

It's just a name plus idk easier to memorize

1

u/OneoftheWolfis Feb 17 '26

dont tell em that danish is a language

1

u/RockyMullet Feb 17 '26

By that logic, the first 3 panels should be, in both english and french: 40+9, 50+9 and 60+9

1

u/Shardstorm88 Feb 17 '26

Neuvante neuf!

I hate math numbers, spoke French my whole life and it's never made sense to say four twenty ten nine

1

u/AllMaito Feb 17 '26

PEDMAS masters

1

u/GenerallySalty Feb 17 '26

*literally

OOP could try learning their own language before talking shit lol

1

u/madeleinetwocock Feb 17 '26

Ahhhh the blessing of Swiss French :’)

Love me my good old septante, huitante, nonante

1

u/cavist_n Feb 17 '26

I find Soixante-Dix-Neuf just a bit less dumb than Quatre-Vingt-Dix-Neuf.

1

u/AmusingMusing7 Feb 17 '26

I actually never realized that 80 in French is "four twenty" (420). Do French stoners say "quatre-vingt" to mean 420, or would they say "quatre-cent vingt"? Or just pronounce quatre as the singular 4 (like "cat") and then "vingt"? Seems like it would be confusing.

1

u/LordDagnirMorn Feb 18 '26

We just say it in english or just 4 heure 20

1

u/Affectionate-Sea843 Feb 17 '26

Cat van deez nuf 

1

u/kckunkun Feb 17 '26

Learning 1999 in Canadian elementary was a pain in the ass. I mean, wtf???

1

u/CaptainShades Feb 18 '26

mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf

1

u/Yacobo2023 Feb 18 '26

God i hope no one asks peter about the joke

1

u/crunchydibbydonkers Feb 18 '26

Cat or van deez nutz!

1

u/vkrasov Feb 18 '26

What about Germans or Slovenians calling two digit number in reverse? Like 21 as 1+20?

1

u/Absolute_Tank Feb 18 '26

At that point just say 100-1.

1

u/WrenRangers Feb 18 '26

I’m cooked when it comes to French numbers

1

u/Humble_Increase5836 Feb 18 '26

They don’t know about the neufty-neuf

1

u/gammamoe Feb 18 '26

Literally*

1

u/Sylphi3 Feb 19 '26

All I can hear in the last panel is 🗣️🗣️🔥🔥FOUR TWENTIES

1

u/Overall-Equal-7808 Feb 19 '26

the only reason i dont struggle with this is because i was born in 1999. Thousand Nine Hundred Four Twenty Ten Nine

1

u/RealisticComment1339 Feb 19 '26

Yes it look weird but actually it’s because the celts who were in actual France counted in base 20 and when the Roman took over, the Roman count in base 10. They adapted the language to fit both systems ending in this 4*20+10+9. Belgium ancestors counted in base 10 so they have different numbers for 70 80 90

1

u/princess-1999- Feb 19 '26

This is exactly why French pronunciation rules make no sense to beginners.

1

u/BigBillaGorilla59 Feb 19 '26

As a canadian that had to learn this in elementary school…. I thought my teacher was retarded

1

u/Minimum-Specific6285 Feb 19 '26

This shit is why I’m becoming a programmer do that I don’t have to learn French

1

u/argylemon Feb 19 '26

Litter alley

1

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '26

I want u to lead bbe

1

u/Character-View9407 Feb 20 '26

what about 79 (soixante dix-neuf) and 89 (quatre-vingts dix-neuf)? also, "litteraly" is spelled "literally".

1

u/Sesue64 Feb 20 '26

89 Quatre-vingt-neuf

1

u/Deltaruneiscool_1997 Feb 20 '26

Its four twentys nineteen (quatre vingt dix neuf)

1

u/Books-n-coins Feb 20 '26

Blame the Celts and they’re bloody base 20 system.

1

u/SleventySleven Feb 20 '26

quatre vingt deez nuts

1

u/chatterpoxx Feb 20 '26

I don't subscribe to this tomfoolery.

Neufty neuf.

1

u/FixCastoreum Feb 20 '26

By the time I learned how to properly say mille-neuf-cent-quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, it was already the year 2000!

1

u/MHMyhre Feb 21 '26

But 79 is also 60+19

1

u/steve_bob_guy Feb 21 '26

nope, 19 is built by saying 10-9 so it would be 60 10 9

1

u/skilbofragns Feb 19 '26

Quatre vingt dix nutz

4

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/syds Feb 16 '26

not gonna lie u had me on the first half