British Numbers confuse Americans - Numberphile
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Nor do I remember anyone using 'triple' in phone numbers, I suppose it's rare, and I'm afraid I use both 'Oh' and 'zero' for the noughts.
I tend to say twelve-hundred or nineteen-hundred rather than one-thousand two hundred, but if it's more than 2000 I don't think I'd say twenty-three hundred, it has to be two thousand three hundred. Oh if it was say 1235 I think I'd more likely call it one thousand and two hundred and thirty five not twelve hundred and thirty-five or twelve thirty-five (unless it's a year)
Since 2000 (the year two thousand) people have said the years differently. I tended to say two thousand and ten, two thousand and eleven, then maybe changed to twenty-twelve, two thousand and thirteen, twenty-fourteen. twenty-twenty-two!
I thought American phone numbers had hyphens in - don't they say 'hyphen' or 'dash' in between the sections of numbers? (they are written that way on TV)
Date: 2022-04-08
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Comments and reviews: 9
Andy
Very late to the party here I know but as a brit I have always counted elephants (or -one thousands-) and -Mississippi- is such an odd word I would never use it (not heard anyone use -Picadilly- either but quite like it. With house numbers I would say they USUALLY go odd one side and even the other, sometimes they go up one side and back down the other but over time with rebuilding, infilling etc they do become a bit random. In the coutryside where I live names are more common than numbers so good luck finding a house, especially after dark when signs are usually not visible and often the roads have no name either. The village I used to live in had a map of the whole villiage made with all the house names on it and fixed it to a sign outside the village hall - we had to direct many delivery drivers there.
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Very late to the party here I know but as a brit I have always counted elephants (or -one thousands-) and -Mississippi- is such an odd word I would never use it (not heard anyone use -Picadilly- either but quite like it. With house numbers I would say they USUALLY go odd one side and even the other, sometimes they go up one side and back down the other but over time with rebuilding, infilling etc they do become a bit random. In the coutryside where I live names are more common than numbers so good luck finding a house, especially after dark when signs are usually not visible and often the roads have no name either. The village I used to live in had a map of the whole villiage made with all the house names on it and fixed it to a sign outside the village hall - we had to direct many delivery drivers there.
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KillaBitz
I'm English, never heard of the Elephant or Piccadilly.
I was taught Mississippi. (seems fine to me, why force a British version on it when it's not any better)
Yes Triple 0 is a thing but I've never heard anything higher used (it would get difficult to comprehend quad zero I guess)
I think numbers like sixty four hundred are quite wrong but having said that I have started to adopt them in recent years.
If you can say 64 to the 100th the and mean a different thing to sixty-four, hundred this seems silly but I get that it feels nicer to say.
The worst is numbers like 3090 said like thirty, ninety to me but again I am slowly starting to use it more and more (even if its mostly with computer part names at the moment)
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I'm English, never heard of the Elephant or Piccadilly.
I was taught Mississippi. (seems fine to me, why force a British version on it when it's not any better)
Yes Triple 0 is a thing but I've never heard anything higher used (it would get difficult to comprehend quad zero I guess)
I think numbers like sixty four hundred are quite wrong but having said that I have started to adopt them in recent years.
If you can say 64 to the 100th the and mean a different thing to sixty-four, hundred this seems silly but I get that it feels nicer to say.
The worst is numbers like 3090 said like thirty, ninety to me but again I am slowly starting to use it more and more (even if its mostly with computer part names at the moment)
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NewburyPi
I've been told (but cannot confirm) that in Japan the house numbers on a street are assigned in order of the house's construction date. Regardless of where on the street the first house is built, that house will be number one. The 29th house built will be be number twenty-nine.
I was told this by a Japanese friend describing how to use the taxi service. At the airport, you take a taxi to the neighborhood. There, you transfer to a local taxi. The new driver will have knowledge of where to find your destination.
I feel this is true, as my friend was not one to kid about such. I would, very much, like to have this confirmed or denied.
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I've been told (but cannot confirm) that in Japan the house numbers on a street are assigned in order of the house's construction date. Regardless of where on the street the first house is built, that house will be number one. The 29th house built will be be number twenty-nine.
I was told this by a Japanese friend describing how to use the taxi service. At the airport, you take a taxi to the neighborhood. There, you transfer to a local taxi. The new driver will have knowledge of where to find your destination.
I feel this is true, as my friend was not one to kid about such. I would, very much, like to have this confirmed or denied.
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Rudi
In Germany when counting seconds people usually count in twenties, because in german these numbers have four syllables and in a certain rhythm it's about a second (I think)
Like this:
Ein-und-zwan-zig (21)
Zwei-und-zwan-zig (22)
Drei-und-zwan-zig (23)
And so on
Funnily enough these numbers are arranged differently compared to english numbers.
In German it's like saying -one and twenty- instead of twenty-one or -seven and fifty- instead of fifty-seven, which usually results in German people when starting to learning english to jumble up numbers very often.
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In Germany when counting seconds people usually count in twenties, because in german these numbers have four syllables and in a certain rhythm it's about a second (I think)
Like this:
Ein-und-zwan-zig (21)
Zwei-und-zwan-zig (22)
Drei-und-zwan-zig (23)
And so on
Funnily enough these numbers are arranged differently compared to english numbers.
In German it's like saying -one and twenty- instead of twenty-one or -seven and fifty- instead of fifty-seven, which usually results in German people when starting to learning english to jumble up numbers very often.
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Craig
Bizarre thing about having small numbers, in an area of my hometown I just recently found out that the houses in a row will all share the same number but will affix a letter on the end much like our flats do. So an area that has 140 houses in rows of 7. Will have the highest house number as 20 G Auchtermuchty road.
Yet, a painful experience I had when I moved out of my hometown to the city. I found out this practice of 12a 12b 12c ect. Is only used in modern flats, think 1960's onwards. The old tenaments have varied ways of listing the same flat.
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Bizarre thing about having small numbers, in an area of my hometown I just recently found out that the houses in a row will all share the same number but will affix a letter on the end much like our flats do. So an area that has 140 houses in rows of 7. Will have the highest house number as 20 G Auchtermuchty road.
Yet, a painful experience I had when I moved out of my hometown to the city. I found out this practice of 12a 12b 12c ect. Is only used in modern flats, think 1960's onwards. The old tenaments have varied ways of listing the same flat.
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Erin
So weird, here in UK I don't think I've ever known anyone to live at a house number in the hundreds, also even in the city I live in we nearly always have the odd numbers on the opposite side of the road so its easy, I dunno what he means about it going the opposite way (maybe a confusing london thing) I live at 74, I look opposite my house and they are 73, higher numbers are usually at the end of the road. American addresses seem so corporate and big, rather than cute house names with lil numbers
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So weird, here in UK I don't think I've ever known anyone to live at a house number in the hundreds, also even in the city I live in we nearly always have the odd numbers on the opposite side of the road so its easy, I dunno what he means about it going the opposite way (maybe a confusing london thing) I live at 74, I look opposite my house and they are 73, higher numbers are usually at the end of the road. American addresses seem so corporate and big, rather than cute house names with lil numbers
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00ctrl
Pretty sure the houses/buildings are numbered one side ascending and the opposite side descending because they are sequentially numbered, and cross the mid number at the end. So like 1, 2, 3 here, opposite 50, 49, 58 and at the end of the street you'll see 22, 23, 24 on one side and 27, 26, 25 on the other side.
If you do 100 blocks and 200 blocks, where on earth do the 190s houses/buildings go? hahaha
All this is to say the norm is bizarre depending on cultural perspectives
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Pretty sure the houses/buildings are numbered one side ascending and the opposite side descending because they are sequentially numbered, and cross the mid number at the end. So like 1, 2, 3 here, opposite 50, 49, 58 and at the end of the street you'll see 22, 23, 24 on one side and 27, 26, 25 on the other side.
If you do 100 blocks and 200 blocks, where on earth do the 190s houses/buildings go? hahaha
All this is to say the norm is bizarre depending on cultural perspectives
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Henk
10: 25, my street has this. It used to be a really long street with even numbers on one side and odd numbers on the other, starting at one and ending somewhere in the hundreds. Then the first 2/3rds of the street got demolished, and even later all the buildings on the even side got demolished, rebuild and re-numbered. So now you have the old side of the street with like 71 to 131 and the new side of the street with 1 to 61. This has confused a lot of delevery services.
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10: 25, my street has this. It used to be a really long street with even numbers on one side and odd numbers on the other, starting at one and ending somewhere in the hundreds. Then the first 2/3rds of the street got demolished, and even later all the buildings on the even side got demolished, rebuild and re-numbered. So now you have the old side of the street with like 71 to 131 and the new side of the street with 1 to 61. This has confused a lot of delevery services.
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Gary
I've heard -alligator- be used to space seconds before. I accept this one because it has the same rhythm as -Mississippi-. I'm actually vetoing -one thousand- as well. It does not have that Mississippi rhythm and it's clunky like the elephant style. Also I don't even use these myself, because when you do it with the rhythm it actually gives you a spacing of 1 1/2 seconds each time. Yes I know how long a second is after listening to a 60 BPM metronome.
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I've heard -alligator- be used to space seconds before. I accept this one because it has the same rhythm as -Mississippi-. I'm actually vetoing -one thousand- as well. It does not have that Mississippi rhythm and it's clunky like the elephant style. Also I don't even use these myself, because when you do it with the rhythm it actually gives you a spacing of 1 1/2 seconds each time. Yes I know how long a second is after listening to a 60 BPM metronome.
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