French-speakers in Belgium have a word for 70 (septante).
French-speakers in Switzerland have a word for 70 (septante).
French-speakers in France don’t have a word for 70. They say 60-10 (soixante-dix). Hearsay has it that they got to 69 and got distracted.
Listen the story being read HERE!
Weave a Web 
Thanks, Bruce — I needed that laugh today!
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Thanks – one of the few stories I didn’t make up!
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Always wondered!
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😀
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Straight from Cynthia’s beautiful ruminations about the sun to this – Rumour has it balance in all things is desirable 😀 😀 😀
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🙂
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The French spoken in Rwanda and Zaire also has “septante” which makes perfect sense. The word for ninety, likewise is not “eighty-ten” but “nonante” (an uncle). Language is so much fun, isn’t it? Very irrational, sometimes, like my decision to avoid the innuendo of that number between sixty-eight and seventy which looks like the yin-yang symbol.
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It’s like in English when we say “Oh” for “Zero” – which completely messes up any passwords with 0 and o and O.
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Just last week I was helping my 5 yo grand niece write her numbers. “Why do zero and letter o look the same?” She asked.
“They don’t” I replied and pointed out, “zeros are tall and skinny like an oval: 0 and the letter o is short and fat like a circle: o ”
“That’s why your name is Oscar? Cause you’re short and fat?”
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Give the child a Masters degree and tell her to start working on her doctorate!
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It also happens to look much like my astrological sign: ♋️
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I remedy that password confusion by writing zeros with a slash like the “do not” symbol: 🚫
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That’s fine if you’re born later than the fifties – but an 0 with a slash looks suspiciously like it trying to look Swedish/
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The sign looks like a frog to me.
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A great start to Friday night. Thanks, Bruce.
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But it’s Saturday’s story!!
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Only if you’re in some kind of interstellar worm hole.
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The vortex has a lot to answer for.
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That gets the weekend off to a roaring start!
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🙂
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Lol! The Finns just got tired. ‘Kuusikymmentäyhdeksän’
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Who wouldn’t get tired writing down all those letters…
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Regardless what it’s called, it’s a good age to reach. Language can be quite baffling sometimes. When I have learned various languages Make that romance languages) I have been baffled by the illogic of the grammar rules and realized I just had to accept them and move on.
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The days of our years are three score and ten. Beyond that, we’re on borrowed thyme. Sage words, indeed.
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Thanks, Keith. I’m clawing my way towards that numeral with a good eleven pills a day!
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Moi aussi, mon ami. However, thanks to a combination of losing weight and a quick rebore, my daily pill consumption is down from seven to two.
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Excellent! I take my pills in a particular order, but the tiniest distraction… um… where was I? 🙂
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When my students learn that septante exists, they never look back 🙂
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😀 The story was told to me by my partner who is a French-speaking Romanian!
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🙂
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How very French! I see you are on a geographical journey…
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LOL! I lived in French speaking Quebec for a couple of years and most couldn’t speak English but I waved my arms and pointed. Languages is not my forte.
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