• nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 day ago

    This is making my brain hurt. I need to try reading a few more times but, if I am understanding it correctly, the old Danish way of saying it is mathematically incorrect?

    Half-to-five == 2.5

    2.5*20 == 50

    Did I read that correctly?

    • TaTTe@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I’m not Danish, but I think he meant 4.5 instead of 2.5. It’s like halfway from 4 to 5, not from 0 to 5.

      A similar word exists in Finnish too, when going from 1 to 2: “puolitoista” translates to “half second”, like halfway to the second number, and is commonly used to refer to 1.5, BUT without any multiplication shenanigans.

      • VonReposti@feddit.dk
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        1 day ago

        Correct.

        • Half to the second (halvanden, still in use today) = 1.5
        • Half to the third (halvtredje) = 2.5
        • Half to the fourth (halvfjerde) = 3.5
        • Half to the fifth (halvfemte) = 4.5

        And so on. You might notice that I sometimes write it like “halvfemte” and other times “halvfems”. The latter is just the way it was spelled when used in a combined word (another fun quirk in Danish that we inherited from Germanic this time!). 90 is today spelled just “halvfems”.

      • Match!!@pawb.social
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        1 day ago

        for no particular reason, in English, 5:30 can be said as “half past 5” but never “half until 6”. (but “five thirty” is still more common)

        • tamal3@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Quarter-past the hour, and quarter-till, are still common. Though perhaps less common as we move towards digital clocks.