I know it might seem like a stupid question, but I don't really know what people call the 999 as I don't like in the UK. Is it: a Nine Ninety-Nine? a Triple Nine? a Nine Nine Nine? a T9? I'll take it as read that it isn't a Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine. I obviously refer to mine in French most of the time. I very rarely talk about it in English, and even more rarely to someone who knows what it should be called. Thanks.
a Nine Nine Nine. in pashto it would be نهه سوه نهه نوي that would sound like naha-sawa-naha-nawee or nine hundred and ninety nine. It flows a lot better than the alternatives and follows the convention for numbers as proper nouns.
I've never heard anyone use nine ninety nine. All the rest are common with T9 used more when written(on forums) than spoken. Same with 888's. eight eight eight and triple eight most used.
For what it's worth, in French 750 - Sept cent cinquante 851 - Huit cent cinquante-et-un 916 - Neuf cent seize 999 - (Swiss) Neuf cent nonante-neuf. Do the French really say "Neuf cent quatre-vingt dix-neuf"? Probably.
So in French the standard naming convention is to state the full number? 1098: Mille quatre vingt Dix huit?
Yes, that's pretty much it. But some of those numbers are quicker in French. Take 750, that's "sept cent cinquante", 4 syllables. In English, Seven Fifty - only 3. But if you said "Seven hundred and fifty" you'd be up at 7 syllables. Also, things are quicker in Swiss French: 1098 - I'd actually say "Dix-nonante-huit", though others might say "Mille nonante-huit" - it's only 4 syllables either way. But in French French, that would be "Dix (or Mille) quatre-vingt dix-huit" - which is 6 syllables - quite a mouthful.
In pashto the numbers come arse about face. 51 is spoken as 1 - 50 But if it's a bigger number : 151 - 100, 1, 50 It follows this convention. Then phone numbers. I like to say uk phone numbers as a set of 5 and then 2 sets of 3. Eg 07921111111 Oh seven nine two one. One one one, one one one. All separated. It annoys me when some cities use a 4 number area code when it's probably actually a 5 digit badger. Messes up my dialing system. Pashto have 10 digit numbers and say them like this Eg 0706464159 Zero seventy, 4 sixty, 4 sixty, one hundred and nine fifty I find all this very interesting.
