Why are German numbers backwards? 

German has a word for confusion that might arise from this, because of course it has. "Zahlendreher" refers to accidentally switching two digits in a number when writing or speaking.

As a native german I never had problems until I got fluent in english. Now I actually really struggle to say numbers in the correct order, cause I keep mixing up the systems.

I've seen the "German" style of counting in several older British novels. Both Arthur Conan Doyle and H. Rider Haggard use it. I also noticed that their sentence structure sometimes is more "German" than I would expect in modern English!

Liked the topic, like the video. I think it's very interesting that English does the same for the "teens", like fourteen which is "4-10". English changes its system after twenty, German just keeps on doing that. And as a German native speaker, I never even realized that we did it differently until my later teens, let alone ever affected me in any way.

Same in Dutch. I never heard about anyone having problems with it or wanting to change it. It's never going to happen, just like in German. This isn't a problem, just another system. It's only a problem to peope that don't know it and think it is a problem. I switch between counting in Dutch, English, German, French without effort.

I'm an accountant in Germany, and yes, the weird way to tell numbers can make problems. As far as I know, there are more errors like "Zahlendreher" in accounting in German speaking countries.

Fun fact, Slovene also uses the German counting system and it really confuses other native slavic speakers when they learn Slovene, although the words for the digits are very similar. The number 21 is "Ena-in-dvajset" (1-and-20) in Slovene and "Dvacet jedna" (20-1) in Czech and "Dvadcjat Odin" (20-1) in Ukrainian and Russian Edit: I didn't know that Czech also uses the German counting system alongside the one used by most languages

In Slovenia, we also do the numbers backward, as Germans. And we also have duality, besides plural and singular, when you talk about two "things". It makes learning the language absolute joy :-)

One thing I’d like to mention: the “und” (and) connects the individual numbers pretty well in German. “Einun’zwanzig” really turns into one word, because of the “eins” turning into “ein” and “und” being abbreviated to “un’” (swallowing the “d a little”), while “Zwanzwigeins” still sounding like it’s made up of two words, with the “g” in “Zwanzig” breaking the word into two (sonically). The flow’s just different.

As a German native speaker, I never ever had any problems regarding the numbers. But then I decided to learn and study Japanese. And now, I do have a problem. If I read or speak a lot of Japanese, I find it hard to switch back to the German number system. Interestingly, this doesn't happen to me when speaking more English.

When I dictate a number to my collegues I tend to stick to just read the numbers as if they were single digits from left to right. This helps a lot against any confusion, especially with my natively french speaking collegue.

When I did my first aid training for my driver's license, I learned that people usually switch to their native language when counting. One of the participants of the course was a French native speaker and so she always counted in French while doing chest compressions on the doll. The fact that English used to count the same way as German became apparent to me when I recently read Pride and Prejudice, which was first published in the early 19th century. Whenever someone's age is mentioned, it's one-and-twenty, for example.

6:20 It should be pointed out that the old "one-and-twenty" system is still perfectly acceptable in Norwegian, at least in speech. The older you are, the more likely you are to say one-and-twenty than twenty-one.

A tiny thing nice to mention is what was written in the middle of the rotary dial of the first automatic phones in Germany : "Please compose the phone number digit by digit in the order it is written, not pronounced"' (written in German, of course) => to be seen in the Telecommunications museum, at the 1st floor above the Bahnmuseum in Nürnberg !

It's a bit odd that you describe the Germans as doing something weird following the number 20. But it seems to me that it's the English that are suddenly changing methods. In the teens, they also say the numbers backwards: seventeen, eighteen, nineteen instead of tenseven, teneight, tennine. Edit: oh never mind, you made that same point later on. Edit2: also, it's the same in Dutch as it is in German, which shouldn't be surprising.

Some things to be set straight here ! Both Germans, and us Dutch speakers use not only the Arabic digits, but also our their numberstructure. As you mentioned correctly, they read from right to left, BUT with the exception of the numbers. These are read from left to right, just as we do! 100 is written ١٠٠ and 2.345 is written ٢.٣٤٥. Even more : in Arabic the numbers go like this : 1 wahed, 2 itneyn, 3 talata, 4 arbah, 5 chamsa…. For the multiples of 10, the suffix -een is added. So 30 is talateen, 40 is arbaeen, 50 chamseen. The word “and” is “wa” in Arabic. So you 31 becomes wahed-wa-talateen and 43 is talata-wa-arbaeen, exactly the way we do it!

The Germans had many great mathematicians (Kepler, Leibniz, Gauss, Euler, Moebius, Cantor, Jacobi, Weierstass, Kronecker, Riemann, Klein, Hausdorff, Noether, Weyl, and many more) and contributed greatly to the development of this science. As you can see, their way of counting has never been a major problem.

As a Vietnamese speaker, I find both systems contrived, because in Vietnamese, at least in normal speech, numbers are always read only by its digits, so no "-teen" or "-ty" or "hundred" business. For example, the year 1968 would be read as "one-nine-six-eight", pretty simple. Of course there are words for hundred, thousand, etc. and they would be read as such in formal texts (1968 = "one thousand nine hundred sixty eight"), but colloquially, no one would ever do that.

The title was so confusing to me at first, I couldn't understand how they are backwards. My native tongue is Arabic, in arabic, just like in German, numbers from 21 and up are read as 'small number and twenty/thirty etc" so while I've been speaking english and french (same as in english) since I was a child; the numbers in German seemed very natural to me when I learned them just last year lol As for mental calculations, I don't find any of these languages more comfortable than the other to be honest, maybe because I learnt how to count in french basically at the same time I did arabic, and both of these languages have the same systems as english and German respectively

I am from Germany and it has actually been a problem for me sometimes, but only in one case: if i try to use an snack automat and i need to type the number in. I always stand in front of it and need to think a second our two in which order i need to press the numbers. Anything like a pin is not a problem, probably because i dont remember them as one big nummer (one thousand two hundred and thirty four ) but just the digits (one two three four ) Ps: not my actual Pin

I just want to point out that despite numbers in Arabic are written smallest to largest, it is read in the exact same way that German is. I don't know if it was historically read from smallest to largest but as far as I'm aware its always been read from greatest to smallest with the exception of tens and ones.

One can argue, that German numbers stay consistent with those teens, that are, as you mentioned, also backwards in English when you count teen as ten. It should be tenthree, tenfour, tenfive…., shouldn’t it? 😉

"Backwards" English numbers were still occasionally used in poetry at last as late as 1971 (e.g. in the lyrics of Jethro Tull's "Mother Goose").

The hardest part for foreigners seems to be understanding telephone numbers. Because we tend to mix both systems. Try to write down the number: null eins sechs drei siebzehn dreihundertsiebenundsiebzig dreiundvierzig. 😃

Gwych - diolch! So good to see Welsh get a mention. The 'classic' twenty counting system is Celtic and probably the root for French's twenty's too - as it's probably a Celtic substratum in French. Welsh started switching to the excellent decimal system, as you said, abou 80 years ago as Welsh medium education began to grow. As English had been the only medium of education until then (Welsh was banned) Welsh-speakers, even essentially monolingual ones, would count in English, in the middle of a Welsh sentence for anything much above 10 (it seems many Indians and Africans do this when speaking their own native language from what I can pick up in films and youtube). The decimal system had always been around but the classical was seemed as more, well, classical and was also used in the Bible of 1588. It's no mostly used for saying the time, things like significant birthdays or other occasions but people would never say that there was "dau ar ddeg ar hugain" people at the party, it'd be " In 1865 a group of Welsh people founding a Welsh colony in Patagonia with the intention that everything would be in Welsh - as Welsh was banned from official use in Wales. This means that all schooling, book-keeping, law courts were in Welsh in Patagonia when it was illegal in Wales. The Welsh in Patagonia soon found that the classical counting system was too combersome for maths and so adopted the decimal system. When, at the beginning of the 20th century Welsh people from Wales learnt that children were being taught maths in Welsh they were amazed as many in Wales thought it was impossible to do so in Welsh.

I am Dutch and we use the same system as in Germany. I never experienced anybody having trouble with it. I did notice that my father would write 157 in the order 1 first, the 7 second and the 5 third. I found that weird, but he said that it was the way he learnt it in school in the 1920's.

As I was a student in Germany ages ago, I worked for some months in the Library. Students had to write on a piece of paper the reference number of the book they wanted to get. It happend at least a pair of times every day, that I couldn't find the book on the shelf, then I tried in the "wrong" way: the reference number was, for example, 456, but the required book was not there, then I looked for it as 465 and "Eureka!", there it was!! Obviously the students looked for the books in the register, but they copied it in the wrong way. I definitively support the change into the twenty-one system!

Dutch adopted the same counting approach as German. I am a Dutch speaker but was born and raised in New Zealand. When I lived and worked in Amsterdam I was confused when people read out telephone numbers two at a time in reverse order. I was used to the English approach of reading out telephone numbers, typically three or four digits at a time in order from left to right. This approach was also adopted by Dutch speakers in New Zealand. I would have to ask speakers in the Netherlands to give me the numbers one digit at a time to avoid making errors.

Finnish also used to do the "backwards" numbers (and actually still does for 11 - 19, since the numbers literally translate to "1 of 2nd", " 2 of 2nd", etc.), and it was still in use relatively recently too. I own a lot of old books, from 1930s - 50s, thatuse the "backwards" numbers at least for numbers 21 - 29. Yet nowadays nobody does that, and I didn't even know it ever was a thing in Finnish before seeing it used in old books. It should actually be pretty easy to switch the numbering system since it's not like you'd have to redo any signs or anything, and even if people are used to the older way of saying numbers they would probably understand what you mean if you said "einhundred zwanzig und ein" instead of "einhundred einundzwanzig", even if they would consider it grammatically incorrect.

technically, the 'teen' numbers are also backwards in *both* languages: thir-te(e)n / drei-zehn: (3+10) and the same for all other teen numbers. It just misses the 'and' between the tens and ones for the numbers 21+. And that happens when writing a comment before having finished the video :D (you say so in 5:30+)

More interesting than I imagined! 😁 Thank you! I moved to an English speaking area many years ago. Even after getting comfortable with the language, for counting and arithmetics in general, I still switched to my first language in my head. Decades later, even the numbers can be in English now, EXCEPT for the multiplication table! It's strictly native language. If you ask me in English what is x * y, I still have to do the translation in my head. In fact, number representations and most of the my mental arithmetics are now not even in language but in a visual/abstract form. It's just easier that way. I suppose, it's probably the same for most bi- or multilingual people...

I always wondered about this. Thanks!

This was great to watch; thank you! The information, your delivery, and the casual mood of the editing all just hits perfect. Great job, rewboss!

I don't just find it easier to do maths in German (my native language) than English. Even when I just read an English text, I still read the numbers as German (unless they are written out as words). Sometimes that even happened while reading to other people, which led to confusion more than once, when the audience didn't understand German.

Interesting about the origins of this, thanks! As a native German I can confirm that it sometimes is confusing, especially when writing down spoken numbers and when using English a lot as the second language.

OMFG ... THANK YOU!!! I was looking for this information for ages! Originally I was curious about the Dutch language - then thought maybe I should learn German and Dutch at the same time due to ressemblance .... and then found your beautiful and brilliant video🤩🥰 I'm over the mon with this info.

As other Danes have commented, yes we also have the units before the tens in Danish. In Old Norse both ways were possible, and Danish settled with the same as neighbouring Germany while Swedish went with the tens before the units. Danish also forms the numbers 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 in a way which is *etymologically* vigesimal (base 20) but contrary to popular belief, Danish numerals are not vigesimal but perfectly decimal: the units only go from 0 to 9 between each ten. Unlike French which renders 74 as 'sixty-fourteen' (vigesimal), Danish says 'four and half-past-three-t[imes-twenty]' (decimal - and way simpler, right?). We don't actually perceive our tens as half and whole twenties in spite of their etymology but their names are indeed very irregular. But when I was in school we also learned the 'Scandinavian' system with regular names for the tens and the tens before the units, because 1) we should be able to write cheques - where numbers were always written out with letters with regular tens and the tens before the units, and 2) we should be able to speak with Swedes and Norwegians. Cheques died out before I grew up, but I still automatically switch to 'regular tens before units' when I hear Swedish or Norwegian around me. Danes may also use them in improvised festivity songs (an important cultural artefact) if it fits better with the rhythm. When I was younger, the 50 Crowns banknotes also used to say 'femti kroner (five-ty Crowns)' instead of 'halvtreds kroner (half-past-two-t[imes-twenty] Crowns)' as they do now. This was never used colloquially, though, but because of the cheques nobody found it strange to see it on the money. I would prefer reverting to it for the sake of Scandinavian unity.

Edit: Lol, I didn't even watch the video before commenting. I now see you already mentioned it. 😅 At least I added some context as to why. We used to have it the other way around in Norway as well. Some still say the numbers "backwards", especially those of the older generation. But in 1951 the government introduced the first so far only language reform for spoken language. This aimed at making people say numbers from left to right, so that the switchboard operators and others could more easily write down phone numbers.

Vielen Dank für diese äußerst interessante Rewboss-Folge! Ich möchte auf einen Aspekt hinweisen, der vielleicht auch einen Einfluß ausübt, und das ist die Sprechrhythmik. Man tue einmal folgende Übung: Zähle mit leiser Stimme von 21 bis 60 oder so, Hauptsache, es geht über mehrere Zehnerfolgen. Betone dabei möglichst deutlich die Einerstelle (also die normale Wortbetonung beachtend) und zähle so schnell du kannst, bevor es undeutlich wird. Dann tu dasselbe auf Englisch. Du wirst merken: Bei der deutschen Zählung nimmt man dabei vor allem die Einerstelle wahr, die "-undzwanzig" läuft dabei fast wie ein Grundrauschen, eine Art "reminder" im Hintergrund mit. Das ganze fließt leicht dahin. - Nun die englische Übung. Auch wieder die natürliche Betonung, möglichst schnell und rhythmisch, aber noch verständlich. - Man wird feststellen, der Rhythmus ist ein ganz anderer: DA-dit-dit-dit-DA-dit-dit-dit (deutsch) gegenüber dit-dit-DA-dit-dit-DA (englisch). Jetzt wäre die Frage, ob diese Zählrhythmik einen Einfluss auf die Entwicklung hin zu einer der beiden im Urgermanischen offenbar gleichzeitig vorhandenen Zählweisen hatte. Ob also gewissermaßen der "Zahlen-Rap" im Englischen besser zu dessen Betonungsstruktur passt und im Deutschen vielleicht zu wiederum dessen Betonungssystem die andere Variante. Es ist dabei davon auszugehen, dass in früheren Epochen ohne Rechenhilfsmittel tatsächlich mehr gezählt wurde als heute.

We do this in parts of Norway too, mainly in coastal areas, and very much so in Bergen, where I live.

In Dutch the system is the same as the German system. When I learned two-digit numbers as a child, at some point it occurred to me that we wrote them backwards from how we said them. If I remember correctly, I once pointed that out to my mother. She said that's just the way it is and since then I learned all the numbers as they were. Maybe that's why when I learned numbers in different languages, I automatically took the system used in that language as the way that number is in that language. So I didn't think of English as the 'right' way I would have thought of it if I would've learned it earlier, just as the way English is. Interestingly, when I find myself doing calculations, I find myself going to the result quite fast and translating that in the language I want the result in.

I know people who write the digits down in the order they are spoken. So for 123 they would write: 1, then 1 3, then 123.

Here in Norway, older people (40+) tend to use the older system (five and twenty), while younger people use the new system (twenty-five). There are no communication issues, everyone understands both systems, so I definitely think it's possible for the system to change in Germany.

In Czech for example, we use both systems, the "twenty one" system is viewed as the most formal one and historically used in the central region of the country, which was more developed and had more popupulation in cities, and the "one&twenty" being used traditionally in the less urban regions (many of them bordering Germany or Austria). I for example use both systems, the "twenty one" for common calculations and names, and the "one&twenty" when regarding prices and age. We also use two systems for numbers between 1100-1900, similarly as in English, we can say for example the number 1543 as either One thousand five hundred fourty three, or Fifteen hundred fourty three. In theory, one could also say One thousand five hundred three and fourty or Fifteen hundred three and fourty, but these two are nowadays considered very odd and archaic. I personaly use the "teen system", since both are formal and the teen is more common in everyday language. But from my own experience, I must say, Slovaks have a harder time understanding these systems, since neither "one&twenty" nor "teen" systems are existent in the Slovak language. For those who don't know, Czech and Slovak are fully mutually inteligible languages. Both language have the normal teens of course (11-19 in this case), with them being number-náct/násť (11 - jedenáct |jeden-náct| / jedenásť |jeden-násť|, 19 - devatenáct |devět-náct| / deväťnásť |deväť-násť|)

Both ways make sense, and it's perfectly fine to use either one imo. German just happened to adopt the one we have now, but personally, I don't have any issues with it whatsoever. If anything, I more often than not confuse my numbers in English, because I'm more used to my native German way of doing it. My japanese teacher complained about that a week ago or so too lol

I remember being a young boy in school, writing the numbers in the same order I spoke them, so writing down "123" was like I first wrote a 1, left a gap, wrote the 3 and filled the gap with the 2. So, to school child this system might cause inconveniences, but not for adults knowing how to calculate. In the end there is still the "Kommuntativgesetz" which states that 20 plus 1 is equal to 1 plus 20.

I think thanks to German, Czech also adapted this backwards counting. But we use the classic way as well. For example: 25 can be read as "dvacet pět" (twenty-five) or "pět a dvacet" (five and twenty) and I think that's cool

Interesting and thank you for this explanation! i always wondered why it is like it is :-)

Quite interesting about how we also use similar numbers for the teens (13-19). I never noticed that. But it's not only the spoken representation of the number, as they use different separators for thousands and for decimals. (1.234,56 vs 1,234.56). That's not too hard to get accustomed to. Then I got to a German math textbook and the approach used in German schools for multiplication and addition is very different. In some operations the German methods are a bit easier with practice, but I still fall back to English when under pressure.

Here I am happy to be Czech. In Czech, we have both of these systems. The normal reading from left to right is official, but the German style always was pretty widely spread unofficially and if somebody uses it in any communication, nobody is surprised. 🙂

3:25: I'm an Arabic speaker and we don't read the numbers from right to left, we read them just like in German. So 21 "Twenty one" would be "one and Twenty" in arabic but 123 "One hundred and twenty three" would be "One hundred and three and twenty"

I learned a lot thanks to this video!

Czech language use both systems, you can say "twenty-one" or "one and twenty".

I'm Norwegian, born in 1958, several years after we changed, but I still sometimes use the old system. I don't think about it myself, but younger people sometimes tells me I'm saying numbers wrong, since they actually don't understand. For me to say "en og tyve" or "tjue en" is just about my mood I guess. 😆

There is actually an organisation called "zwanzigeins", that encourages a straight left-to-right speech. Actually not a totally bad idea, but I think it is similar to modern keyboard layouts: There might be better layouts, but using what you know is easier and does not require re-thinking.

I learned German in my teens and just found the way numbers are spoken out “different”, never confusing or difficult. Of course, I never had to deal with numbers in German in a professional or work environment. Maybe in those situations it would be confusing for someone whose first language is not German.

Interesting, when I do math I never do it in a "language" - I just do it visually - like imagining the shapes of the numbers instead of their names...

Personally, I find the german way in terms of addition and subtraction within the 10 to 100 range more efficient since you know faster if you need to carry the one. Like you hear the one-and-fourty minus three-and-twenty, you immediately process that it needs to be one lower, the same principle if you need to calculate six-and-twenty plus seven-and-thirty, you just immediately know that you have to add one more while you already calculate the first digit. With the english way, you need to know both numbers in full or you need to go back mentally to check if there is no mistake. When you calculate twenty-three plus thirty-eight, you count the 20+30, but then you have the 3+8 which adds another 10 to the 50. I know it's not much time you save and the calculation is easy enough, but with basic addition and subtraction it's a better way to carry the one.

As a german myself our 1 and 20 method always confused me a decent amount. Especially when someone tells you to write down a number because for the double digit values we have to start at the back and so on. This got even worse when I started learning english and since I live my life ~30% with english that confusion has really only increased. I have tried and will continue trying to actively use the 20 and 1 method but the results have not been very successful so far.

I think a good example for such a switch over generations is a recent trend in how people dictate sequences, like phone numbers: I (25) dictate digit by digit, because it means the person on the other end can just write as i dictate without having to do any mental processing, older people on the other hand (my grandparents generation) dictate numbers. so, i would dicate 1-2-3-4-5-6, where as my gradparents would dictate 123-456 (or 12-34-56), which in german means the other person has to remeber at least one digit because the have to wait for the next one before they can write anything down. And even in englisch, this means more spoken syllables and more effort in filtering out the relevant information. This change has ocurred completely organically over just two generations, so a switch from the 1and20 to the 20-1 system is probably entirely possible, and maybe even inevitable. Whether its necessary, idk. But it would make some things more convenient, and i dont see much of a downside

“Four-Teen” does cause problems because it sounds so similar to ‘forty’ (ditto for all the ‘teens’). I cannot even begin to count how many conversations I have heard where one side asked: “Forty or fourteen?”.

1:02 at this point, English switches up the order, not German. 19 = nine and ten, 21 = twenty and one

In Romania we have the twenty-one system, however we had denominated our currency in 2005 so that 10000 old romanian lei = 1 new romanian leu, and as you've mentioned towards the end of the video, the way we "say" values really depends on the generation. Kids would use the new system, 1 leu, 5 lei, 10 lei, etc. People like me born into the old system but were young enough when the switch came would use both, however combined rather than separate. I would say 1 leu, 5 lei, 10 lei, however for 100 lei I say "a million", for 500 lei I say "5 million", but for "odd" values like 4775 lei, I'd say 4775.. Old people would usually use the old system, and often they would confuse the actual values, calling 5000 a 5 lei banknote (instead of the actual old 50000 value). However depending on how old they are, they generally use the new values up to the 10 lei threshold, afterwards using the old system (like 500 thousand for a 50 lei banknote) Can we still understand each other? Yes.

3:00 ”There’s no limit to the number of numbers we can write.” Googology begs to differ.

I do recall that when I was a student at elementary school (in Germany), I used to write down numbers starting with the last digit. For instance, when I wrote the number 92, I started with the 2 and then finished with the 9 to the left. It wasn't really a problem, though, but the teacher did notice and I'm assuming that this wasn't too uncommon.

I have some questions: - Why do German use the 3 word gender system, why not 2 like French? - Why are they sometimes completely different from French? E.g. Sun: Le soleil (M) & Die Sonne (F) Thanks in advance.

Cool explanations !!! Makes sense... Loved your switch to teens - never thought of that... Thumbs up...

This is a lovely video that simply reinforces that I have to learn the current system, to my own dismay.

Am I the only one not using language for calculations at all? I always picture the numbers as symbols in my head, basically what I would do with pen and paper. I never thought of bringing language into the mix there.

When I see a number, I actual "read" it from right to left, since I can't "say" the left-most part without knowing how many digits follow. Also, addition is typically done from right to left. So, I'd argue reading from right to left is "obviously" better. The problem is that numbers bigger than 100 are spoken in a weird mixed order in German.

I think German is consistent: 16 = sechszehn (6 and 10) 26 = sechsundzwanzig ( 6 and 20) English is inconsistent: 16 = sixteen (6 and 10) 26 = twenty-six (20 and 6)

Since I tried some calculation tricks to get faster "im Kopfrechnen" I started use the "twenty-one-system" for my own without even knowing that this was a real discussion. I'm going on by using the old/normal system in my daily life but every time I'm using some calculaton methods it's just faster to write the result the way it was calculated: mostly from left to right, digit by digit and without jumping back and forth

You mentioned the old nursery rhyme with four and twenty blackbirds. Has there been the backward system in England until the early 20th century? I have read rather every novel by Agatha Christie in original English and was surprised that this backward system was used quite a lot in direct speech.

I thought of the French system during this video, and I believe in Belgium and Switzerland they use a more logical system, saying 'septante' for 70, 'octante' or 'huitante' for 80 and 'nonante' for 90

4:33 I believe in the stats and it I aknowledge that it can confuse people, but I wanted to nuance by putting my personal experience in. So I'm an Alsatian native speaker and grew up with French at school and almost everywhere outside of my home, so although my mother tongue is Alsatian (an Alemannic dialect) I master French better, especially for math, counting, and complicated stuff I only learnt at school in French. It would be very complicated to do maths in Alsatian or German compared to French and would require much more time. But appart from that, I find some specific "math tasks" easier in Alsatian than in French, precisely because the unit is said before the decimal: add 2 digits number up, and counting in order quickly between 20 and 100. 1. When I add two-digit number, I always firstly add the unit together and buffer it with +1 to the decimal or not, and then I resolve the decimal (that's how i learnt it). In this case, I can speak my buffering unit outlout and simply add the decimal later which is literally the normal way of saying. 　Example: 26+38=? _sechsezwànzich + ààchtedrissich màcht -> sechs + ààcht = _*_vier_*_ (+1decim) [6+8=13] un zwäi + drej (+1) = _*_sechs_*_ [2+3+1=6] -> viere+saachzich_ (vierundsechzig) 64 　Which would be a little less practical in French, so for example when I play boardgame and we need to count the points, I usually count in Alsatian. 2. About counting in order, it's mainly quicker cause I can just ommit saying -undzwanzig -unddreißig between the 1-9 unit so it's quicker. 　Example I would count from 19 to 31 like this: _niinzeh, _*_zwànzich,_*_ äins, zwäi, drej, vier, finnef, sechs, siwwe, ààcht, niin, _*_drissich,_*_ äins_ 　Which again wouldn't work in French cause we first say the decimal But again, It can be more confusing, especially over 100, and in this case, I also tend to prefer French, maybe mostly because I was taught it in French and I'm used to it Last funny thing, when I spent more time speaking Alsatian at home, with friends, or just when I was working in Germany, suddenly when I was about to read a number in English, it happened quite frequently that I would say it inverted, but in a weird way. For example I would read 48 as eightyfour or 27 as seventytwo, because in my head, when I switch to [insert Germanic language] I switch the thing I'm saying first, but since foureighty is really not natural, it's eightyfour that comes out. But the opposite can also happen, for example when I spent time in the UK or listened to a lot of English while not speaking that much Alsatian, then when I speak again and say a big number, I sometimes have to think about it more than usual.

In the Czech common speech reverse ordering occures too, as German used to have influence on Czech language. But is seldom used during computing.

First off, number words are part of the language, not something abstract you can easily change by decree (and in this case, there is not even a political motivation for trying). For myself, I'd say that I have no problem whatsoever using either the English or the German/Dutch system. Writing down numbers from dictation is slightly more complex, perhaps, but proper stress placement makes it easier. However, I tend to memorize PIN codes and phone numbers as a sequence of two-digit figures, e.g. dreizehn-dreiundachtzig-sechsundneunzig, works better for me since there is an element of rhythm. As for sums etc., I believe I do them independently of a particular language, it is more of a visual thing. Some nerds have watches with binary number displays (all ones and zeroes), so I guess you can get used to anything.

Changing that in German might prove as harder and having Brits completely ditch the imperial measuring system for good. If you are to really bring it forward, then it's indeed something that starts at school. So I assume vierundzwanzig would turn into zwanzigundvier. BTW, this time I really noticed a difference in the sound of the video but it might have to do with you having removed the background music. I quite liked the music, it was a trademark of your videos but sure, experiment and see what works best.

This hits very close to home. I grew up bilingual (in Germany) and from a young age until today I have to completely focus on numbers in German when I speak them out loudly. Recently I had to announce jersey numbers at a hockey game in front of 3000 people from low to high and I messed up as soon as I got too comfortable. 😅 Also happens when speaking about prices or how much people owe me, which brings some laughs sometimes. Funnily enough me problem starts in the Thirties. The twenties are mostly fine.

I loved this topic, also because it brought back memories - I did my military service with a signal unit, and we participated in Nato maneuvres where the language was obviously English. The addresses of the units we send messages to were essentially long numbers. Not enough sleep, a high-stress environment, and only school English led to the inevitable - numbers got switched around and messages misdirected. Which is why on one nice day, a small French police station ("neutral" traffic control) with just two officers got the orders to "oppose advancing 5th Orange tank division and if possible destroy it" - to which they replied that they'd try their best, but as the sergeant had problems with his back again, they were not too sure they'd manage... That aside, you could also have used Gaelic as an example for a change happening before our eyes - the old system has aspects of both German and French - that is the traditional system uses a vigesimal base like French, with base twenty, and then the German word order : dhà air fhichead (two-and twenty) and dhà dheug air fhichead (two-ten and twenty) The modern system is decimal, and English word order: fichead 's a dhà (twenty-two) and trithead 's a dhà (thirty-two) Both systems coexist at the moment, but the new decimal system is likely to replace the older one over time. There are a couple of other unusual features in Gaelic - separate rules for numbers when applied to humans, and also some differences when counting sheep. And when counting things, the numbers are split: tri cait deug, literally three cats ten, is thirteen cats

i, as a native german speaker, actually do tend to have problems with our counting system, as in, i have issues saying numbers, which usually results in me just saying the digits.

I definitely had (and have) problems with the German numbers. I am a native but somehow I always struggled with that. I am also pretty bad at 'kopfrechnen' (mental arithmetic), mostly because I always need to sort my numbers before I can do the math. I know a few people with similar struggles but I would say most people are fine.

6:20 Regarding the Norwegian switch, it was forced via the school, but you still hear occasionally people using the "old" system, even switching back and forth. It seams like some people use it to emphasize the number. It sticks out like a sore thumb if you reverse the ordet.

Norway officially abandoned the system, but in oral speech it's very present to date. Danish uses the German system, but spiced it up by adding their own 20-system on top of it, applicable from 50 and onwards.

As a native German, I switched to the 100 20 2 system, because it helps me visualize simple calculations, minimizing the amount of "Zahlendreher", especially when visualizing 3+ row calculations. I've got some weird looks in school for it when I wasn't yet comfortable switching between both systems, but that rarely happens nowadays.

Recht interessant! As a native English speaker who learned German well..and lived in a German speaking nation for two years, I had no problem counting back change back in the day when that was common. Then again, I never had a problem with math, so maybe it all depends on how good one is in math?

In British English, some people used to say “five and twenty” when telling the time (as in “five and twenty past”). My grandparents’ generation used to say it (born early 20th C.).

I did German at A-level and never thought this was particularly odd, and as you mention, it's not without parallels in English. When you're adding up, you start with the units anyway.

I remember that in elementary school some of us wrote the numbers in the order they appear in the spoken word. So when hearing (or thinking) einhundertachtundzwanzig they would write the 1, then leave a space and write the 8, and eventually the 2 between 1 and 8 to make it 128. I found that counter-intuitive in those days, but now I understand the logic behind it.

As a native Telugu speaker (South Indian language), we say 10+4 and not 4+10 like English does. As a child i found it hard to understand but eventually grew on it. Coming to Germany, it created more confusion but i grew on it as well in 5 years. I use all 3 languages easily and sometimes do mix up 3 languages when other person is also capable of understanding. I push it up a notch with my brother and use 4 th language Hindi in it as well. All these happen involuntarily and sometimes confuses others. Even a mix of English and German, fascinates my German friends. In my opinion there should be standardised rules like how we have cm and inches. Since I even know Sanskrit as 5th language, i see a lot of common points and differences between each language and i just live with it. I understand most South Indian languages though due to similarity to my native. I never understood French, Chinese and Japanese though. It was complicated af.

Very good explanation. Thanks. I think we don't usually have any problems with these numbers, because numbers linguistically are perceived as the name for a certain quantity, That is: We don't count when naming numbers. The same occurs in other languages, I guess.

As someone who is dyslexic I find it extremely weird to think about doing maths in a language. Dyslexic people do not (or often) don't have an "inner voice", which I understand it to be like talking to yourself, I've talked to people about it and they say they have to tell themselves the problem and they have to jump around saying different parts. When I look at a maths problem I just instinctively know the answer immediately. I think it's to do with not having to think talk the problem through which is wasted time.

PIN-Number - Personal Identification Number-Number. Might be worth it to do a video on acronyms.

The English do the same. From 1 to 12, all numbers have their own names. From 13 to 19 are also English numbers backwards. Germans do that from 13 to 99. 19 = nineteen - teennine, neunzehn - zehnneun But in math, I've gotten into the habit of remembering the numbers in strict order. 123 is one-two-three. Eins-Zwo-Drei, nicht einhundert-und-drei-und-zwanzig

From about 5:54 It sounds similar to the arguments that's been going on for decades in the UK about going metric. 😁

Working at a german hotel, we often use the decimal system you mentioned. When naming roomnubers in particular we say "three-two-five" (325, in german "drei-zwei-fünf"). Easier to work with

So I just realized this is causing a problem for me as well. I'm a native German speaker working in IT and everytime a customer or colleague is giving me a number I always struggle writing them down when told the "german way" while getting the numbers one-by-one is way easier, which obviously works like the "english way" of counting.

I know people who struggle with this including my self. I remember having to think about how to say a number out loud when for example sharing my results to math problems in class. I still have to concentrate when saying numbers out loud although in my head there value is perfectly clear to me. In school I just pronounced numbers my own way in my head and these days I do calculations and other number related things in English mostly mentally but sometimes out loud as well to the constant puzzlement of my fellow germans. 😂 while German is my native I tend to think in English a lot of the time anyway especially when I’ve been listening to audiobooks reading books in general or watching a lot of Netflix and the like all of which I do predominantly in English But English seams to have become my sort of internal language anyway in which I also dream quite often. Thanks for the video this is indeed a very interesting explanation for this almost life lol struggle of mine.

We still use both systems in Norway. It used to be confusing to me when I was younger, but over time you get used to hearing both ways of saying it. Saying "half two" would also confuse me as it's more common to say "one and a half", but again, over time you get used to it, and these days I find myself using the old system more and more.

As a native-tongue I have to say that you really nailed the pronounciation!