Why is 70 called "sixty-ten" and not "septante" in France? Because the French like to complicate their lives? In reality, there is an explanation for this usage. To understand it, we need to go back in history.
In the Middle Ages, people used a vicesimal counting system, that is, by twenty. So, people at that time counted like this: twenty-ten (30), two twenties (40), two nineties (50), three twenties (60), three nineties (70), eighty (80), ninety (90).
At the end of the Middle Ages, new words based on decimal counting appeared in the French language: trente, quarante, quinze, soixante, septante, octante, nonante.
With the arrival of the first dictionaries in the 17th century, institutions agreed on the use of numbers. Eighty and ninety from the old system were kept, but decimal counting was used for the rest. It was also at this time that the word seventy appeared.
The problem? The other French-speaking countries have made their own counting combination. Thus, in Belgium and Switzerland, 70 is pronounced septante and 90 is pronounced nonante. These are forms that are also found in some French-speaking African countries.
Read also: How to count in French?
10. French as the language of ballet: a surprising anecdote
Classical ballet appeared during the Italian Renaissance, but it was only in France, under the reign of Louis XIV, that it reached its peak. Since then, French has remained the language of new zealand whatsapp number data instruction for ballet steps and positions. Plié , grand jeté , entrechat , glissade , arabesque… No matter where you are, the language of classical dance is universal and French!
11. French is a mosaic of words of different origins.
The French lexicon is composed of three-quarters of words of Greco-Latin origin. The remaining quarter? It is a mosaic of terms from languages all over the world. If today our language is undergoing the "invasion" of English, it must be remembered that borrowing is not a new phenomenon. Far from it!
For example, French has drawn heavily from the Italian language since the Renaissance until the 1950s. Pizza, paparazzi, graffiti, tombola, but also sugar, from the Italian zucchero , itself borrowed from the Arabic sukkar .
There are also a huge number of words of Arabic origin. There are about 400 of them. For example, skirt and vest are Arabic words, as are alcohol, cotton and mattress. As for chance, in Arabic az-zahr , it refers to an old dice game.