10-9-100-4-20-10-9

[Kitty]

10-9-100-4-20-10-9.  That's 1999 in French, i.e. dix neuf cent quatre vingt dix neuf (apologies for wrong spellings, hyphens etc).

Crazy or what?  My son was born that year so, when asked, I often just say 'l'annee avant le millennium'.

[Danny]

Cathy,

That should be mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, I think

You should have practised abstinence for a year- it makes thing easier. Our son was born in deux mille deux

Danny

[Chancer]

Dont bother with the mille, or even the neuf cent if you wish, unless you and your son have the secret of eternal youth!

[Kitty]

[quote user="Jane and Danny"]

Cathy,

That should be mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, I think

[/quote]

Clair will know the answer.  If that's right, it makes it look even worse 1000-9-100-4-20-10-9.

[Ron Avery]

Danny is 100% correct. That is 1999 in French, its the fun of numbers over 80, just wait until you do phone numbers!

The first tape we had of phone numbers read at normal French operator speed, most of us had far too many numbers in our answers as you write them as you hear them, there were 18 numbers in mine.[:-))]

Instead of quatre-vingt-trois  (83), a lot of us had  written 04 20 03 and for soixante-dix-sept (77) we had 60, 10, 07.  The number should have been 04 64 10 83 77, many of us had 04 64 10 04 20 03 60 10 07.  Its fun isn't it[:D]

[Suze01]

[quote user="Jane and Danny"]

Cathy,

That should be mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, I think

You should have practised abstinence for a year- it makes thing easier. Our son was born in deux mille deux

Danny

[/quote]

Dix-neuf cent or mille neuf cent are both correct.

[Cendrillon]

"just wait until you do phone numbers!"

[:)]

Was anyone else on this forum a French telephonist in London for the GPO?

[Ron Avery]

Dix-neuf cents is an straight English translation of 1900. If you are learning French properly it is not correct.  Its like the post codes, the correct way for 11020 for example is onze mille vingt,  but onze zero deux zero or onze zero vingt would be understood but not strictly correct.

[cooperlola]

My o/h always has terrible trouble when discussing car type numbers with our French petrolhead friends.  They have no idea what a Porsche neuf-onze is!!

[raindog]

Everyone I know says neuf-cent-onze coops [:)]

[Clair]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]Dix-neuf cents is an straight English translation of 1900. If you are learning French properly it is not correct.  Its like the post codes, the correct way for 11020 for example is onze mille vingt,  but onze zero deux zero or onze zero vingt would be understood but not strictly correct.[/quote]

Beg to differ..

As Lisloise says, both mille neuf cent and dix-neuf cent are perfectly correct.

Dix-neuf cent... tends to be used for dates rather than numbers.

As for postcodes, the first two digits should be read separately, as they refer to the department number:

01300 is zéro un trois cent, 19200 is dix-neuf deux cent, 50100 is cinquante cent, although zéro mille trois cent (and others) would be perfectly understood.

I have never ever heard a postcode read by its individual digits.

[Kitty]

Clair wrote:  I have never ever heard a postcode read by its individual digits.

You would have if you lived in this household!  I often do it for clarity and the French go along with it,.as I joke about the ridiculousness of their numbers.

I agree about telephone numbers, Ron and others.  I stopped my French Telecom answerphone for the reason that I couldn't write the numbers down in time.

[Danny]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]Dix-neuf cents is an straight English translation of 1900. If you are learning French properly it is not correct.  Its like the post codes, the correct way for 11020 for example is onze mille vingt,  but onze zero deux zero or onze zero vingt would be understood but not strictly correct.[/quote]

Ron, as Angela says, sometimes there is more than one way of being 'correct'

round here (46150) it is common to hear some say 'quarante six cent cinquante' but also common to hear 'quarante six mille cent cinquante'

Stricly speaking, the postcodes might be made up of numbers but they don't correlate to any amounts whatsoever. It is just convention for some to include the 'mille' when saying them.

Anyway, there is no getting away from the fact that French numbers in the 70 - 90 area are stupid. Maybe in time it will progress to this:

"Belgian and Swiss French use septante, huitante and nonante in place of the standard French words for 70, 80, and 90"

not in my time though, I think

Danny

[cooperlola]

I was once chatting to a Belgian about this, and was told that their version is older - and used to be used in France.  Is this true?

[Patf]

As for phone numbers, I always ask the french person to say the chiffres un par un and this is easier. But no good for the dreaded France Telecom recorded messages.

[Gardian]

OH is now perfectly accustomed to reeling off our phone number in French when asked.

Her problem arises when she gets asked what our number is by another Brit - "Quatre vingt douze - what the hell's that?" 

[powerdesal]

[quote user="cooperlola"]

I was once chatting to a Belgian about this, and was told that their version is older - and used to be used in France.  Is this true?

[/quote]

Apparently true, I was informed by my French language teacher that they are still in use in some parts of France, but very localised.

[Iceni]

[quote user="Jane and Danny"]

round here (46150) it is common to hear some say 'quarante six cent cinquante' but also common to hear 'quarante six mille cent cinquante'

[/quote]

And round here (46120) most say

karranta seece saw (or sometimes sang) veng

say bong, ehh ?

John

[allanb]

It seems to depend on how the speaker mentally divides the number into groups of digits.  

Since the first two digits in a zip code are always the department number, I think most French speakers divide it that way, so they think of 37250 as 37-250 (so: "trente-sept / deux cent cinquante").

If the number is not a zip code, but a product reference or a file number or something, you would be just as likely to hear 3-72-50 ("trois / soixante-douze / cinquante").   Which makes it very confusing.

Phone numbers are usually broken up into pairs of digits and I try to remember UK numbers that way also, mainly because if you get a recorded message from France Telecom about an unanswered call, that's how the number will be given.