To be fair, in the time it takes for someone to say "4", you wouldn't be able to write down anything yet. :p "80 11" vs "91" could be a problem though, if the speaker doesn't distinguish the boundaries between numbers clearly enough.
Yup! I'm pretty sure the rhythm of speech would allow the listener to distinguish between numbers fairly easily, especially between 4 20 and 80, since we always pronounce the E at the end of quatre to say 80, but almost never to say 4.
To be fair, in the time it takes for someone to say "4", you wouldn't be able to write down anything yet. :p "80 11" vs "91" could be a problem though, if the speaker doesn't distinguish the boundaries between numbers clearly enough.
ReplyDeleteYup! I'm pretty sure the rhythm of speech would allow the listener to distinguish between numbers fairly easily, especially between 4 20 and 80, since we always pronounce the E at the end of quatre to say 80, but almost never to say 4.
DeleteThat's why we pause between numbers. We never say "80 11" as "91", there's always a long enough pause between the two numbers.
DeleteAnd anyway, I always do feel like I'm going on a battlefield when someone is about to tell me a number in a foreign language.
ReplyDeleteThere's a nice video about this kind of problem:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM1FFhaWj9w
ReplyDeleteQuatre vingt dix sept could have made it even worse.
ReplyDelete