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4.06pm
7 May 2017
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AppleScruffJunior said
Fun little thing to scare all of your German learners:A hundred is ‘hundert’
A thousand is ‘tausend’
All fine here.
A million is ‘million’
A billion is ‘milliarde’
A trillion is ‘billion’
A quadrillion is ‘billiarde’
A quintillion is ‘trillion’
Good luck, viel Erfolg!
Where’s the problem? Both have a system to their counting, and nobody really counts in those high numbers anyway. (unless you’re super rich or a mathematician…)
What’s really scary is how the French count (where 96 basically equals 4-20-10-6). Viel Erfolg damit! 🙂
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6.58pm
8 August 2019
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Spanish has the same dilemma. A ‘billion’ is a million times a million. And it can be confusing.
A friend of mine (who knows English) once read about Bill Gates being worth $108 billion and he thought he had literally 108 x a million x a million. Until I explained to him the confusion from translating English to Spanish and how billion amounts are different.
If you ask me personally, I believe we have the better system. Because why wouldn’t you call “1.000.000.000” a “thousand-million” instead of “billion”? And when you reach a million x a million you don’t have a name for it (or you have to come up with one, I’m sure they already have it). Anyway, the point is you English-speaking people always have to have your own measurments for everything and we the rest of the world think it’s… stupid
the watusi
the twist
9.24pm
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27 November 2016
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Our system is for every new group of three zeroes, there’s a new name. It makes it very easy to count…
million
billion
trillion
quadrillion
quintillion
sextillion
septillion…
I’m sure you see the pattern.
1 group of zeroes
2 groups of zeroes, etc.
So we’re using our normal prefixes. Sept = 7 (Septagon has 7 sides, September was the 7th month (until Julius Caesar got in the way), so septillion has 7 groups of zeroes)
Of course, the last 6 zeroes are the thousands, then hundreds, but you ignore those two groups for counting.
I find our system much better!
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10.11pm
8 August 2019
Offline Oh well
the watusi
the twist
3.08pm
7 May 2017
Offline And that system is from where?
I can see the confusion between german and english (the english billion which is called Milliarde is not the same as the german Billion) but as I said I think unless you’re working at CERN or NASA, billion/Milliarde is probably the highest number you’ll ever talk about as a normal folk anyway.
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3.50pm
Members
18 March 2013
Offline Bist du Deutscher @Monkberry Moon Delight ?
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5.09pm
7 May 2017
Offline AppleScruffJunior said
Bist du Deutscher @Monkberry Moon Delight ?
Nein, Schweizer. Du schon, wie es scheint? 
Queen says no to pot-smoking FBI members.
4.14am
Members
18 March 2013
Offline Schweizer? Dann sprichst du gar kein Deutsch 😉
Ich bin Irin und habe Deutsch studiert, aber benutze es selten. Im Moment benutze ich es nur um Dokumentarfilmen von dem Spiegel anzuschauen.
INTROVERTS UNITE! Separately....in your own homes!
***
Make Love, Not Wardrobes!
***
"Stop throwing jelly beans at me"- George Harrison
6.22am
7 May 2017
Offline AppleScruffJunior said
Schweizer? Dann sprichst du gar kein Deutsch 😉
Kein Kommentar… 
Aber deutsch ist in der Tat ein merkwürdiges Mittelding zwischen Fremd- und Muttersprache für mich. Einerseits sind unsere alemannischen Dialekte tatsächlich von “normalem” deutsch etwa fast so weit entfernt wie z.B. niederländisch, und wenn ich mich mit meinen Freunden in Deutschland treffe ist es durchaus ein wenig ungewohnt bis anstrengend, möglichst exakt deutsch zu sprechen (und auch nicht immer ganz akzentfrei). Andererseits ist es natürlich die Sprache, in der ich mich vor allem schriftlich am besten ausdrücken kann, besser als im Dialekt der geschrieben keine einheitlichen Regeln kennt.
Queen says no to pot-smoking FBI members.
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