this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
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Funny: Home of the Haha
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What?
Edit: my research says that half-fifth is how they call 4.5, which is insane. Then they multiply that by 20, holy shit, they are mathematical geniuses. So:
7 + 4.5 * 20.
WHAT THE FUCK.
How about in telling time? Like half seven means 7:30 in British English but is 6:30 in Dutch and German
That one at least makes some sense: halfway to seven vs seven and a half. The more confusing ones are quarter seven (6:15) and three quarter seven (6:45). If you didn't learn to tell time with an analog clock it can throw you off since they are the opposite of eg quarter to seven. It's even worse - in German it's a regional thing, and they'll look at you as of you've grown a second head if you use a form they're not used to.
american time keeping for the win in this case.
Well i was talking about the lack of relative time. It is clear if you say 6:30
Half fifth isn't 4.5 but 90 because of 4.5 * 20. Its the same with half third being 50 and half fourth is 70.
Norwegian, but I was tought this by a dane.
Fems is the short as you say, but that isn't really possible to translate correctly. Thats why people translate it to fifth. The proper danish for a fifth is en femtedel. I might be mistanken here, but I dont think any dane would ever talk about 4.5 as halv fem (half five), but as fire komma fem.
The exception is when we talk about the time in the nordics. Then half passes four is half five.
Dane here. We don't use half-third to say 2½ except for the time of day, like half-twelve is 11:30.
The way we count is indeed that way though: halvfems is short for halvfemsindstyve, literally half-five-times-twenty, meaning ½5×20 = 4.5×20 = 90.
We don't use "fems" tough. That would mean femsindstyve which is 5*20 and we say a hundred of course.
So we have this:
There is a relic from this system still in use: halvanden (1 and a half). Though I doubt many people know the origin of the word.