{"id":743,"date":"2017-03-23T09:42:13","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T16:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/?p=743"},"modified":"2017-03-23T21:49:12","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T04:49:12","slug":"doing-number-on-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/?p=743","title":{"rendered":"Doing “number” on you"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not just the handling of numbers themselves, but also translation between English and Danish of the very word Number<\/strong> can do a number on any unsuspecting bi-linguist.<\/p>\n

In English, the word Number<\/strong> has at least three distinct possible meanings. Since it remains the same word, this is not always apparent to an English-speaker. In Danish, each of those three meanings must be addressed by its own DIFFERENT word: nummer<\/em>, antal<\/em> or tal<\/em>. And there are further complications (and an English-language idiom mystery explained)… But more about those later.<\/p>\n

In Danish, “nummer<\/em>” must be used when English number<\/strong> is approximately synonymous to “a number\/label displayed on something<\/strong>” or “a ranking achieved<\/strong>“, “antal<\/em>” is used when\u00a0English a number (of)<\/strong> is approximately synonymous to “a count of<\/strong>“, and lastly “tal<\/em>” is used when number <\/strong>is approximately synonymous to digit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

English ==> Danish<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

The number<\/strong> of solutions to this equation is three ==> Antallet<\/strong> af l\u00f8sninger til denne ligning er tre<\/p>\n

The number<\/strong> 2 is one of the solutions ==> Tallet<\/strong> 2 er en af l\u00f8sningerne<\/p>\n

Replace batteries with the same number<\/strong> and type of batteries as originally installed in the equipment ==> WRONG!<\/strong>: Udskift batterier med batterier af samme nummer<\/strong> og type som de oprindeligt installerede i udstyret (this is correct Danish, but the wrong meaning “use batteries with the same number printed on them”) CORRECT!<\/strong>: Udskift batterier med samme antal<\/strong> og type af batterier som de oprindeligt installerede i udstyret (this is the correct meaning: “use the same number of batteries”)<\/p>\n

He lives on Baker Street, in number<\/strong> 221B ==> Han bor p\u00e5 Baker Street i nummer<\/strong> 221B.<\/p>\n

He finished the triathlon bike race in second place ==> Han kom ind i triathlon cykell\u00f8bet som nummer<\/strong> 2<\/p>\n

You could not see his number<\/strong> on his bike racing shirt ==> Man kunne ikke se hans nummer p\u00e5 hans cykeltr\u00f8je<\/p>\n

Paint by numbers ==> Paint-by-numbers, mal med tal<\/p>\n

Strength in numbers ==> Styrke i tal<\/p>\n

There’s a fourth possible translation for number: When English number<\/strong> refers to an unknown amount of (somethings), Danish often prefers to use the Danish word for a row: r\u00e6kke<\/em> instead:<\/p>\n

English ==> Danish<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

This equation has a number<\/strong> of solutions ==> Denne ligning har en r\u00e6kke<\/strong> l\u00f8sninger<\/p>\n

That happened a number<\/strong> of years ago ==> Det skete for en r\u00e6kke<\/strong> \u00e5r siden<\/p>\n

It should also be noted that the abbreviation of “number” is DIFFERENT in Danish and in English:
\nDanish: nr.
\nEnglish: no.<\/p>\n

But wait, there’s more very interesting “number theory”:\u00a0 the word nummer<\/em> has two further meanings in Danish that it does not in (current) English. Et nummer<\/em> is also an act that a performer performs. Typically a short second-rate act, like a magician’s trick or a circus act. Or an encore at a concert is “an extra number”: et ekstranummer<\/em>.<\/p>\n

English ==> Danish<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

And then he did this stupid thing<\/strong> ==> Og s\u00e5 lavede han det her dumme nummer<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, in Danish the expression “do a number on someone” makes perfect sense! You’ve been exposed to a cheap magical trick, you’ve been duped, cheated. This is interesting because, a simple Google search for “origins of “did a number on me”” reveals that English-speakers and language specialists are generally very puzzled by the origins of this expression and can’t offer a logical explanation. In (current) English it makes no sense. Could it be that the expression has been actually adopted from Danish? I would venture to postulate that. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

The other Danish meaning of nummer<\/em> is not what you’d expect: the cute name for the behind that we sit on is en numse<\/em>. This\u00a0often gets made further cute by referring to it as et nummer<\/em>. So, visiting ladies: when a Danish man on the street tells you in passing that you have an excellent number, “sikke et fint nummer!”<\/em>, he is most likely NOT referring to your height or your bank account… \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n \n \"Fb-Button\"\n <\/a>\n <\/div>
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Not just the handling of numbers themselves, but also translation between English and Danish of the very word Number can do a number on any unsuspecting bi-linguist. In English, the word Number has at least three distinct possible meanings. Since … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,21,13,4,14,15,18,12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-language","category-context","category-different-meaning","category-funny","category-history-of-english","category-no-equivalent","category-numbers","category-same-words","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=743"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":758,"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions\/758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}