In Spanish, "dedos" means "digits". There are no especific words to "fingers" nor "toes", the word "dedos" is used in both, and if you want to distinguish them you have to add "de las manos" or "de los pies"
We have especific words for each digit on the hand, though.
I always had a problem, when translating foreign texts to Spanish, with the very big amounts, beyond the million.
Because I know, for example, that in many countries 1,000,000,000 (10^9) is a billion, but in Spain a billion is 1.000.000.000.000 (10^12).
Same in French. 1,000,000 = un million; 1,000,000,000 = un milliard; 1,000,000,000,000 = un billion.
I don't know for sure above that.
And about the French and the Basque languages counting by "twenties", I think it must have something to do with the humans having twenty fingers.
One franc used to be twenty "sous" (the "cents" of the time although of course they weren't called cents since you didn't need a hundred of them to get one of the main currency), although that might have come from the number of digits. So a lot of things were counted in twenties because that meant one franc.
Incidentally, French uses the word "doigt" which means digit, and "toe" is often said "doigt de pied" (foot's digit) because "doigt" usually mean the hand's (or all. But if you don't specify, it doesn't mean just the toes).
But there is also a word, "orteil", that means toe.
However, there isn't a word that means "finger", as in, only the hand digits.
In Spanish there's a word very similar for that, "millardo", but almost nobody uses it, most people just says "mil millones" (a thousand millions), or, incorrectly (due to the English influence), "billón".
Oh, that's true, I remember my French aunts talking about that. They had a lot of difficulties to adapt themselves to the change from the old francs, with "sous", to the "new" francs (new at that time), with cents.
I'm 5'4" (162cm), which I guess is on the shorter side of average for a female. For some reason I often don't really notice how tall people are... I'll generally assume that even 6'+ men are "a bit" taller than me until I see a photograph of us together and realise that I barely reach their shoulder.
One franc used to be twenty "sous" (the "cents" of the time although of course they weren't called cents since you didn't need a hundred of them to get one of the main currency), although that might have come from the number of digits. So a lot of things were counted in twenties because that meant one franc.
Pre-decimalisation, the UK had shillings, 20 of them made up a pound. They still had pence as well, 12 of them in a shilling - so it was 240 pence in a pound rather than the 100 it is today. I wonder if people were better at basic arithmetic back then.
Incidentally, French uses the word "doigt" which means digit, and "toe" is often said "doigt de pied" (foot's digit) because "doigt" usually mean the hand's (or all. But if you don't specify, it doesn't mean just the toes).
But there is also a word, "orteil", that means toe.
However, there isn't a word that means "finger", as in, only the hand digits.
In Italian, I was taught "diti" for fingers and "diti dei(?) piede" for toes (a bit hazy on the conjunction... and the other words for that matter). Don't know if there is a specific word for toes as well.
I have actually been told I am rather tall, but that is just due to my long legs. But I am actually rather short, my little brother is towering over me, and it hurts my neck looking up at him.
I meant average, but towards the lower end of what would be considered average in Australia. I phrased that very poorly.
This is pretty interesting, a table of average heights around the world. The average for Australian women aged 18-24 in 1995 was 5'5". That cohort is a fair bit older than me, I wonder if the average for that age group would have increased at all 15 years on.
I'm 163cm, which would also be 5'4''. I was one of the tallest in my class, boy or girl, when I was eleven, then everyone else caught up to me.
I had the opposite experience - I was one of the shortest in my group of girlfriends at high school, most of them were 5'7" or more.
On the subject of the fingers/toes thing, I spoke to my colleague from Hong Kong about it this morning. Apparently in Cantonese it's pretty much the same as in English. There are separate words for "fingers" and "toes". There are also individual words to identify each of the fingers (like we would have "thumb", "index finger" etc), but no special words for individual toes.
And he says that the direct translation of appendix is something like "blind intestine". I thought that was kind of cool.
In Spanish there's a word very similar for that, "millardo", but almost nobody uses it, most people just says "mil millones" (a thousand millions), or, incorrectly (due to the English influence), "billón".
I just thought about it, and I realised how it goes for bigger figures. Adding three zeros each time, we have million, milliard, billion, billiard, trillion, trilliard.
The "et" are added for pronunciation. So, when it's a vowel after. You say "trente-et-un' but "trente-deux" because the "et" got inserted there due to it being harder to pronounce otherwise. So typically before "un" and "onze", not before anything else.
80 is different because if you said "quatre-vingt-et-un" it would sound like "4x21" instead of "4x20+1". So it's a result of the counting in twenties.
But it's interesting how I don't think of these things until people point them out.
In turn, I've always found English dates incredibly weird because 1985 is "nineteen eighty five" instead of "a thousand, nine hundred and eighty five". It's a bit hard to process how it's told as two different numbers.
None of the names include "finger" in them since it's implied. You can't actually say "doigt pouce" or "doigt index" or "doigt majeur", people probably wouldn't even get what you're talking about (well, maybe for majeur onwards, because these can be used as adjectives. But pouce and index are just nouns and can't be used as adjectives anyways).
I just thought about it, and I realised how it goes for bigger figures. Adding three zeros each time, we have million, milliard, billion, billiard, trillion, trilliard.
Oh, maybe it's the same in Spanish (millón, millardo, billón, billardo...). I have to check it out.
None of the names include "finger" in them since it's implied. You can't actually say "doigt pouce" or "doigt index" or "doigt majeur", people probably wouldn't even get what you're talking about (well, maybe for majeur onwards, because these can be used as adjectives. But pouce and index are just nouns and can't be used as adjectives anyways).
In Spanish, the names are:
pulgar (thumb)
índice (index)
corazón (middle finger, literally "heart")
anular (ring finger)
meñique (little finger)
You can use the words alone, the "finger" meaning is implied, but unlike in French, you can also say "dedo pulgar", etc... And is advisable to do that when talking about the middle finger ("dedo corazón") when the context don't make clear if you are talking about finger or about inner organs...
Well, i think speaking 92 like quatre-vingt-douze (4x20+12) is just weird and not this practical. But i have to confess that in german things also could be enhanced as it's indo-germanic and we first spell the lower number 2 and then 90. Maybe it would be better doing it the other way around but still it's less messed up than in french. :O)
That remembers me how confused I was in my first English lessons when they taught us how to say what time is it.
In Spanish, we first say the hour and then how many minutes are past or lack from that hour (10:15="diez y cuarto", 12:20="doce y veinte", 8:45="nueve menos cuarto") and I had a hard time learning to say it all the way around (a quarter past ten, twenty past twelve, a quarter to nine...)
I'm Dutch, which according to Puzzlebox's list are one of the tallest people around, and I'm above that average.
So in short, to the question in the topic: Not me!
That remembers me how confused I was in my first English lessons when they taught us how to say what time is it.
In Spanish, we first say the hour and then how many minutes are past or lack from that hour (10:15="diez y cuarto", 12:20="doce y veinte", 8:45="nueve menos cuarto") and I had a hard time learning to say it all the way around (a quarter past ten, twenty past twelve, a quarter to nine...)
Oh, wow! I had completely forgotten about that! I remember now I had a lot of trouble with that too.
My main problem was that while I always remembered that "past" meant "after", I tended to think that "to" meant "after" as well.
Sometimes I still say "It's five minutes before nine" or "it's five minutes after nine" so I'm sure I get it right.
The funny thing in French, which might be the same in Spanish, is how you can omit the hour if you assume the person knows it.
So, instead of "il est dix heures moins le quart" (it's ten hours minus a quarter, literally) you can just say "il est moins le quart" (it's minus a quarter), which I guess can sound weird.
Of course, in English you can say "It's a quarter to" without the hour, either...
Oh, I remember how weird it was to remember not to say "hour" at all. Like, I'd always put "o'clock" everywhere before, but you can just say "it's five" or "it's ten minutes past one", or really, even "it's ten past one", and you don't specify minutes or hour. That and "I'm 25" without specifying "years old", meaning you often say numbers in English without saying what they are at all. You can't do that in French.
I wonder who here is man enough to fit my shoes! Their short feet! Short manly feet! I wonder if a real man can take the pain of squeezing into them! No one fits my shoes, no one!
I'm on the shorter side of average ... but I don't know exactly at what height, since I've not been measured in years.
After reading the thread, I have just realised that in German we have a word for fingers and one for toes but there is no word summing them up like digits.
We have names for the fingers as well and interestingly we name the two outer toes of each foot as 'großer Zeh' (hallux) and 'kleiner Zeh' (digitus minimus) while the other toes are nameless.
Well im 5'7 but i do feel short. I wanted to grow to 6'2, but sadly my mom is short, my dad is about my height and none of my brothers made it past 5'7.
I'm 6'3", but i'd rather be short. Then i'd have smaller feet, and would actually be able to buy shoes in normal shops. Size 13 (UK) FTL.
Not necessarily. I'm short and have a horrible time shopping for shoes so I generally just buy whatever happens to be in my size if I can find it. Usually, though, I just keep repairing my current shoes since my favorite brands stopped carrying shoes in my size. T_T
I'd rather be slightly taller with my abnormally small feet because then I would be able to find my size in places other than the children's section. I really don't like tiny rocket ships on my shoes.
I really don't like tiny rocket ships on my shoes.
Ooh, I would probably buy those. I like footwear that makes people stop and go, "Hey, nice shoes!" Even if it is occasionally, "Hey, nice shoes... *snicker*"
Not necessarily. I'm short and have a horrible time shopping for shoes so I generally just buy whatever happens to be in my size if I can find it. Usually, though, I just keep repairing my current shoes since my favorite brands stopped carrying shoes in my size. T_T
I'd rather be slightly taller with my abnormally small feet because then I would be able to find my size in places other than the children's section. I really don't like tiny rocket ships on my shoes.
Well, kids shoes don't have VAT on them (in the UK anyway), plus, i would love to have a pair of light-up shoes again. Anyone remember those? They lit up when you walked. *sighs*
Well, kids shoes don't have VAT on them (in the UK anyway), plus, i would love to have a pair of light-up shoes again. Anyone remember those? They lit up when you walked. *sighs*
My main problem with kids shoes is that they don't have Pumas, which are my favorite brand. I never had light up shoes (though I was always really envious of the kids who did...also the shoes with the wheels in them ).
It's just that now what I really need is a flat, black, flexible shoe with lots of toe room so that I can use it for fencing. Puma has stopped making my size and has changed the style of their shoes to a very uncomfortable, stiff style that hurts my feet. This bugs me because if I was a half a size bigger I could get Converse instead (which meets all my qualifications).
I dislike that in Canada, my size is different for men or women's shoes (or I guess in junior if they have some my size?). In France you get a size that just depends on your size, and no matter where you buy it's the same. Now I have to remember lots of different sizes.
Although the men's one is the one I use the most considering I can never find nice looking, comfortable women's shoes. Sometimes I can't even find flat shoes to begin with, and that's my most important requirement for shoes.
Comments
We have especific words for each digit on the hand, though.
[5'1" ;n; AT 16 WAH]
Same in French. 1,000,000 = un million; 1,000,000,000 = un milliard; 1,000,000,000,000 = un billion.
I don't know for sure above that.
One franc used to be twenty "sous" (the "cents" of the time although of course they weren't called cents since you didn't need a hundred of them to get one of the main currency), although that might have come from the number of digits. So a lot of things were counted in twenties because that meant one franc.
Incidentally, French uses the word "doigt" which means digit, and "toe" is often said "doigt de pied" (foot's digit) because "doigt" usually mean the hand's (or all. But if you don't specify, it doesn't mean just the toes).
But there is also a word, "orteil", that means toe.
However, there isn't a word that means "finger", as in, only the hand digits.
I'm 5'4" (162cm), which I guess is on the shorter side of average for a female. For some reason I often don't really notice how tall people are... I'll generally assume that even 6'+ men are "a bit" taller than me until I see a photograph of us together and realise that I barely reach their shoulder.
Pre-decimalisation, the UK had shillings, 20 of them made up a pound. They still had pence as well, 12 of them in a shilling - so it was 240 pence in a pound rather than the 100 it is today. I wonder if people were better at basic arithmetic back then.
In Italian, I was taught "diti" for fingers and "diti dei(?) piede" for toes (a bit hazy on the conjunction... and the other words for that matter). Don't know if there is a specific word for toes as well.
I'm 163cm, which would also be 5'4''. I was one of the tallest in my class, boy or girl, when I was eleven, then everyone else caught up to me.
50 - cinquante
60 - soixante
70 - soixante-dix
80 - quatre-vingt
90 - quatre-vingt dix
31 - trente-et-un
71 - soixante-onze
81 - quatre-vingt un
91 - quatre-vingt onze
:
I meant average, but towards the lower end of what would be considered average in Australia. I phrased that very poorly.
This is pretty interesting, a table of average heights around the world. The average for Australian women aged 18-24 in 1995 was 5'5". That cohort is a fair bit older than me, I wonder if the average for that age group would have increased at all 15 years on.
I had the opposite experience - I was one of the shortest in my group of girlfriends at high school, most of them were 5'7" or more.
On the subject of the fingers/toes thing, I spoke to my colleague from Hong Kong about it this morning. Apparently in Cantonese it's pretty much the same as in English. There are separate words for "fingers" and "toes". There are also individual words to identify each of the fingers (like we would have "thumb", "index finger" etc), but no special words for individual toes.
And he says that the direct translation of appendix is something like "blind intestine". I thought that was kind of cool.
I just thought about it, and I realised how it goes for bigger figures. Adding three zeros each time, we have million, milliard, billion, billiard, trillion, trilliard.
The "et" are added for pronunciation. So, when it's a vowel after. You say "trente-et-un' but "trente-deux" because the "et" got inserted there due to it being harder to pronounce otherwise. So typically before "un" and "onze", not before anything else.
80 is different because if you said "quatre-vingt-et-un" it would sound like "4x21" instead of "4x20+1". So it's a result of the counting in twenties.
But it's interesting how I don't think of these things until people point them out.
In turn, I've always found English dates incredibly weird because 1985 is "nineteen eighty five" instead of "a thousand, nine hundred and eighty five". It's a bit hard to process how it's told as two different numbers.
About fingers, the names in French are:
pouce (thumb)
index (index)
majeur (middle finger, literally "main/longest finger")
annulaire (ring finger)
auriculaire (pinkie, literally "ear finger")
None of the names include "finger" in them since it's implied. You can't actually say "doigt pouce" or "doigt index" or "doigt majeur", people probably wouldn't even get what you're talking about (well, maybe for majeur onwards, because these can be used as adjectives. But pouce and index are just nouns and can't be used as adjectives anyways).
pulgar (thumb)
índice (index)
corazón (middle finger, literally "heart")
anular (ring finger)
meñique (little finger)
You can use the words alone, the "finger" meaning is implied, but unlike in French, you can also say "dedo pulgar", etc... And is advisable to do that when talking about the middle finger ("dedo corazón") when the context don't make clear if you are talking about finger or about inner organs...
Well, i think speaking 92 like quatre-vingt-douze (4x20+12) is just weird and not this practical. But i have to confess that in german things also could be enhanced as it's indo-germanic and we first spell the lower number 2 and then 90. Maybe it would be better doing it the other way around but still it's less messed up than in french. :O)
In Spanish, we first say the hour and then how many minutes are past or lack from that hour (10:15="diez y cuarto", 12:20="doce y veinte", 8:45="nueve menos cuarto") and I had a hard time learning to say it all the way around (a quarter past ten, twenty past twelve, a quarter to nine...)
So in short, to the question in the topic: Not me!
Oh, wow! I had completely forgotten about that! I remember now I had a lot of trouble with that too.
My main problem was that while I always remembered that "past" meant "after", I tended to think that "to" meant "after" as well.
Sometimes I still say "It's five minutes before nine" or "it's five minutes after nine" so I'm sure I get it right.
The funny thing in French, which might be the same in Spanish, is how you can omit the hour if you assume the person knows it.
So, instead of "il est dix heures moins le quart" (it's ten hours minus a quarter, literally) you can just say "il est moins le quart" (it's minus a quarter), which I guess can sound weird.
Of course, in English you can say "It's a quarter to" without the hour, either...
Oh, I remember how weird it was to remember not to say "hour" at all. Like, I'd always put "o'clock" everywhere before, but you can just say "it's five" or "it's ten minutes past one", or really, even "it's ten past one", and you don't specify minutes or hour. That and "I'm 25" without specifying "years old", meaning you often say numbers in English without saying what they are at all. You can't do that in French.
I'm not really that short...but I am short.
And no, I don't play basketball, dammit.
Map when you walk it you walk with a swoop and they think you look like your dodging players for a basket?
After reading the thread, I have just realised that in German we have a word for fingers and one for toes but there is no word summing them up like digits.
We have names for the fingers as well and interestingly we name the two outer toes of each foot as 'großer Zeh' (hallux) and 'kleiner Zeh' (digitus minimus) while the other toes are nameless.
So question is 5'7 short or tall or avg?
But I think it's fairly average or on the slightly short side of average.
Not necessarily. I'm short and have a horrible time shopping for shoes so I generally just buy whatever happens to be in my size if I can find it. Usually, though, I just keep repairing my current shoes since my favorite brands stopped carrying shoes in my size. T_T
I'd rather be slightly taller with my abnormally small feet because then I would be able to find my size in places other than the children's section. I really don't like tiny rocket ships on my shoes.
Ooh, I would probably buy those. I like footwear that makes people stop and go, "Hey, nice shoes!" Even if it is occasionally, "Hey, nice shoes... *snicker*"
My main problem with kids shoes is that they don't have Pumas, which are my favorite brand. I never had light up shoes (though I was always really envious of the kids who did...also the shoes with the wheels in them
It's just that now what I really need is a flat, black, flexible shoe with lots of toe room so that I can use it for fencing. Puma has stopped making my size and has changed the style of their shoes to a very uncomfortable, stiff style that hurts my feet. This bugs me because if I was a half a size bigger I could get Converse instead (which meets all my qualifications).
Not really short, but my girlfriend is like 4'11 -- she's short.
Although the men's one is the one I use the most considering I can never find nice looking, comfortable women's shoes. Sometimes I can't even find flat shoes to begin with, and that's my most important requirement for shoes.