Help in English

[EC8010]

In the UK, we would interpret "undertake" as being a legal word that formally accepts a legal obligation to do something.

I stand corrected on the American time issue.

[SY]

And a final warning: someone who undertakes is NOT the same thing as an undertaker.

edit:

We say, "Twenty past four,"

We'd more likely say, "Four twenty," but that also connotes something else.

[ZERS]

Thanks for your help.

Regarding "undertaker", I know and I would say that most of the time, a customer is an undertaker for its supplier

[ZERS]

Originally posted by SY

what's up with those stupid French numbers? 97 is "four twenty ten seven." The Quebecois will sensibly say "nonante sept."

Well, I will highjack my own thread, but a bit of history. Taking into account my english, don't blame on me if something isn't clear

There are seveal hypothesis but the most agreed one is that, the futur "France" country, more than one thousand years before J.C was poulated by Celtics peoples.

This population used to count on a 20 digits basis. Why ? Because if you sum the numbers of fingers of your hands and feets, it's 20 !

Then came the latin people and it was a "language revolution" for Gaulle people (Asterix & Obelix ) , and the numbers became expressed on a 10 digits basis. At this time, septante, octante and nonante started to appear in our language.

In the 4, 5th century, the celts kings came back to create France and started to look into the very old books, written by celts people and they decided to push back the 20 digits basis in the french language.

Untill the XVII, a lot of french writters kept using this 20 digits basis. Therefore 80 is "Four Twenty, quatre vingt in french", 90 is "Four twenty and ten - quatre vingt dix in French"

After this date, it's very difficult to find out an explanation on why only 70, 80, 90 remains in the 20 digit basis in our language, whereas all other numbers are based on the latinan way of counting... Several hypothesis exists, but nothing really relevant. The most common one is that after the French Revolution, people wanted to get ride off with all the historical links to the Celts kings, but this is an assumption, nothing has been yet confirmed .

Last funny thing : in the trading floors (I used to be a trader one decade ago), words "septante, octante, nonante for 70,80,90" are often used on the phone in order to avoid any confusion with 60 or decimal numbers like 4.20 (quatre vingt in "financial" french).

All in all, we are not so stupids but proud of our history

[SY]

The Celtic influence is indeed a strong one. Did you know that "Cornas" is Celtic for "Cote-Rotie"? (sorry for the bad orthography- my laptop doesn't like to type a circonflex)

[ZERS]

Originally posted by SY
Did you know that "Cornas" is Celtic for "Cote-Rotie"?

No I didn't

Are your a french guy that is trying to export or cultivate french wine in California ?

Seems that you are very familiar with Lyon and its neighborhoods

[SY]

No, I'm definitely not French but I do visit there quite often. Lyon is one of my favorite cities in the world, and if I could get rich and retire, it would be to some place like Condrieu (just south of you, off A7 along RN86).

[ZERS]

Originally posted by SY
No, I'm definitely not French but I do visit there quite often. Lyon is one of my favorite cities in the world, and if I could get rich and retire, it would be to some place like Condrieu (just south of you, off A7 along RN86).

I'm not actually living In Lyon but in a south of Vienne, and I ride across Condrieu every day

[SY]

Ah, then you're one of the few people who know my personal Mecca, Ampuis.