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The archaic way of enumerating things in prose “two and ninety” is the best part. Perfect comedic reveal.
I think it’s also used in archaic English ‘four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie’
Four score and seven years ago
The and is a bit weird but I do sometimes break large numbers down like that, for example if I’m looking at an address I won’t say 1050 I won’t say one thousand fifty ill say ten fifty.
no that’s 420 blackbirds. it’s a very high pie.
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The timing of “two… PLUS ANOTHER NINE WITH A ZERO AFTER IT” is something I’ll never experience in my native tongue.
Ha, never learn Danish!
To og halv fems!
Is it 180? 290? 92?
The last. Much like Americans with their dates, English would occasionally jumble up the unit order.
German still does this. The French are even worse.
Pray tell what is wrong with quatre vignt y douze?
Other than the fact that it has been decades since I took French and probably misspelled every single word there.
Their way of counting just makes it more frequent to encounter 420
The original ‘then everyone clapped’?
Nah, this is just how things go with traditional masculine circles. A certain level of aggression is both expected and respected, and harassing random strangers is seen as a harmless pastime, so long as it’s the ‘right’ strangers being harassed. Someone who responds with the appropriate level of aggression to the harassment is considered amusing and respectable, and, especially since men are conditioned in our societies to not show ‘weakness’ by things like ‘needing socialization’, expansion of social circles (temporary or long-term) can happen this way.
It’s honestly not a great social function, lmao, and luckily not as prominent as it used to be, but I can attest both by personal experience/observation and stories from family that it’s a real thing.
“Applause was brought forth by all onlookers to our exchange of wits”
Then someone stood up, and was President Theodore Roosevelt! Who proceeded to shake my hand.
Inshallah everyone clapped
I’ve gotten similar reactions by busting out spanish as a white as fuck gringo. One guy was making fun of my accent and i asked him how many languages he spoke. Shut him up real quick.
“fain” is new to me. This stupid language never ends.
you’d never get invited for coffee and smokes
Well, you take the rough with the smooth with English:
Smooth:
- verb conjugation rules are straightforward
- adjective declension is trivial - don’t do it
- easy to make most plurals, only a handful of exceptions to learn
- no grammatical gender
Rough:
- can’t have too many words that mean almost-but-not-quite the same thing
- spelling is the fever dream of a madman. In particular, eighteen or so vowel sounds represented by five letters, words transliterated from other languages that may or may not have their pronunciation changed, words that have had their pronunciation changed over the centuries but spelling hasn’t been updated. Because fuck you, that’s why.
- putting two words together to make noun phrases that don’t have the meaning of either word
- a plethora, indeed a veritable abundance, of strange grammatical forms
You mostly take the rough, to be fair.
English is simplified Germanic with French words, that never got a spelling reform.
Foul fowls of goose become geese
and yet moose are never meese
multiple mouse are mice
but house are never hice
Fain is very archaic, it’s not something that would be used anymore. Even back in 1906 it was archaic.
Genuinely thought it was an older spelling of “feign,” but have learned that they are homophones that have opposite meanings. Like a contronym, but phonetically… a controphone.
dude not cool
also reported for homophonia. be better.
cat with homophobia in her eyes
wait i know that word and i know how to parse it but i don’t know what the fuck it means. nobody tell me it is hidden in the coffee
I once haggled over a hat with some street salesman in Arabic. Managed to take it down from 10 to 8 dirhams. Then I felt bad from haggling over 50 cents with a guy that probably ears in a year what I make in a week. I still have the hat though.
Nah. They love the haggle. And he most likely still made a nice profit. If they announce 10, you can bet they still turn a profit at 4.
Yes, it’s a great game, and they like to play it (or to get paid more if you don’t know the rules. I was in a souvenir store in Barcelona, and there was no price tag on Gaudi-themed clock.
Me: Excuse me, what is the price for this?
Salesguy: [with a voice that can be used to announce a khalif coming in] FIFFFF-TY EUROS!
Me: Oh…could it be twenty though?
S: [his eyes shine up, I know the game] Not less than thirty five!
Me: Could we go thirty five and throw this other thing in?
S: It’s a deal
I’m leaving with some souvenirs, he is happy that he sold 15 euros worth of Chinese crap for 35, We’re both thrilled by our sparring.
In no hostility to my straw hat but desiring to shine before his friends
Killed him before he even started
From a book called Orientations by Ronald Storrs from 1937
I wish I had this level of eloquence in my youth, I wish it at an old age too.
Still, I was never a fan of “yo mama” jokes. Where I grew up, bring up someone’s mother in such manner as a sure way to start a melee. Except maybe for “your mom is hot” if it sounds more like a compliment.There was a similar anecdote in the book Now You See Me.
Reminds me of my old blue collar job when we used to poke the new guy at work to see if they’re on the level lol
“Ow, stop poking me, that stick is sharp!”
“…well he’s not on the level”
