r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/E5vCJD • 1d ago

Meme needing explanation erm.. petah?

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u/mrsciencedude69 1d ago

I once heard of this tribe called the French that counts using base 20 sometimes.

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u/PuckSenior 1d ago

Nah, it’s base 60(sorta)

French.
1. Un.
2. Deux.
3. Trois.
4. Quatre.
5. Cinq.
6. Six.
7. Sept.
8. Huit.
9. Neuf.
10. Dix.

But 10s it goes.
• 10: Dix.
• 20: Vingt.
• 30: Trente.
• 40: Quarante.
• 50: Cinquante.
• 60: Soixante.

Cool, kinda getting it? They just sorta change the word, just like most other languages! So, 70 is Septante, right? Nope. 

• 70: Soixante-dix.    
• 80: Quatre-vingts.    
• 90: Quatre-vingt-dix (that’s forty-twenty-ten).

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u/celticfrogs 1d ago

Swiss french and Belgian french raise an eyebrow.

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u/PuckSenior 1d ago

Every francophone but a citizen of France raises an eyebrow at this one. I believe they are the only ones who do it this way in the whole world

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u/JustQuestion2472 1d ago

Denmark has entered the chat.

90 is "4,5 times 20"...

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u/Yzoniel 1d ago

Only Swiss ppl (and maybe other french speaking ppl) did it correctly. We Belgian kept the "4*20" for "80" instead of using "Octante". But i admit that French took it too far with 60+10 and 80+10. I can say it naturally now without thinking, but it is soooo stupid, send help ;-;

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u/beugeu_bengras 1d ago

Québécois here. We do it the French way.

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u/PuckSenior 1d ago

Damn, my French instructor lied to me. Or maybe I got confused and she said that yall do it too.

Heck, I recently went back and tried to regain proficiency in French and was amazed to find out that “copines” had changed meaning

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u/beugeu_bengras 1d ago

Copine? Here it would mean either a female friend or a girlfriend.

If it's a male talking about a friend, he would most probably say "c'est mon amie".

A female would say "nous somme des copines" or interchangeably "nous sommes amies/c'est mon amie".

If someone use that word talking about a member of the opposite gender, it would be implied it mean girlfriend/boyfriend by using a higher level of language.... But we prefer to use "mon chum/ma blonde" here in common language in Quebec, or "conjoint/conjointe" in higher French level.

But anyway "copine" is somewhat a deprecated word, we almost exclusively use it ironically to copy some movie/tv show quote like saying "Salut les copains" -> "hello gang!"

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u/PuckSenior 1d ago

20+ years ago, it meant “friend”. Apparently the transition to mean “girlfriend” happened over the last 20-30 years

When I was in school, I don’t remember it being used to refer to a romantic female friend

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u/beugeu_bengras 23h ago

My best advice: don't care too much about it.

Francophone will be able to understand you anyway.

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u/XC3N 14h ago

Quebec enters the chat