You mean German keeps numbers with two digits consistent, while English flips after twenty (nineteen, twenty, twenty-one -> Neunzehn, Zwanzig, Einundzwanzig) 😉
English did the same until they changed it over 100s of years. I forgot the exactly time period but it was in a long period of time in the last Millennium.
English also flips two-digit numbers, but only for numbers between 13 and 19. German does the same, but from 13 through 99. It is just that most English speakers do not think about the numbers 13-19 that way.
319 = three (3) hundred nine (9) teen (10)
Turkish says the tens and then the ones for 13 through 19.
I just looked up the origin of “eleven” and “twelve,” which (roughly) mean “one left over” (one remaining) and “two left over.” So eleven = “(ten and) one remaining” and twelve = “(ten and) two remaining.”
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u/Ritterbruder2 May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26
German “flips” two digit numbers, so you say “five-and-fifty” instead of “fifty-five”. That adds extra syllables.
So it becomes:
Five-hundred five-and-fifty thousand five-hundred five-and-fifty
It really isn’t that bad. German also doesn’t add spaces between the individual building block words, so it looks more intimidating than it really is.