Re:Why are German numbers backwards?
by jmchuster on Wednesday December 01, 2021 @03:03AM
(#29401765)
Ah, yes, shorthand, which the language loves. So the shorthand here is that if you don't add a unit qualifier then by default it's the next largest power of 10. So, "1,500,000" can be shortened from "1 million 5 hundred thousand" to "1 million 5", based on the theory that you're much more likely to use "1,500,000" in real life than "1,000,005". So then of course, to handle the latter use case, you now have to add the qualifier "1 million 0 ten 5", and then we shorten that of course to "1 million 0 5".
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Re:Why are German numbers backwards?
by thaumasiotes on Wednesday December 01, 2021 @11:44PM
(#29412650)
> "1,500,000" can be shortened from "1 million 5 hundred thousand" to "1 million 5"
Is this actually true? There is no "million" form in Chinese. Powers-of-1000 separators don't make any sense in the language either[1]. 150,0000 is, fully, 一百五十万 "one hundred five ten 10,000". And you obviously can't shorten that to 一百五 "one hundred five" because that's 150, not 150,0000. You could try saying 一百五万, but I don't think that makes much sense.
[1] The incompatibility between the Chinese number system and the English number system has resulted in Chinese speakers in America innovating the unit-of-salary "K". 工资几十K？ One K is, of course, USD 1000.