There is certainly a fictitious account of a cheque being presented on the side of a cow, and this seems to have been the origin of the story. The author wrote for Punch which might explain the idea that “The Eye” was somehow involved.
Thanks - there’s another one here which gives the ordinal and handles Swiss/Belgian use of septante, huitante1 and nonante as well.
But surely the simplest is to learn to do it in your head - after all we carry our brain with us all the time (though some people seem to allow it to idle in neutral too much) and it doesn’t even need a mobile phone signal
There’s a lot of folk, in FR and UK, talking about paying tradesmen for sums which would be inconvenient, require a trip to a bank or liable to induce a nervy turn, if paid in cash. The same might be said for a private sale of a car or some other 4-5 figure object.
I went to see a Merc Cabrio. I wasn’t expecting to buy it instanter. But it was immaculate, exceptional, and I had to have it - right then. We sat in the seller’s kitchen. I used his laptop to access my bank account. In about 5 mins he checked his a/c. Money in, Merc sold. Costs to either party - zero.
This business of tradesmen having to carry a gizmo about is not the case. Their bank details on their bill - transfer - done.
Now, the banking apps for Lloyds and La Caixa are so slick, so easy to use, I do 95% of my banking on the phone.
The Revolut FX company that GL recommended only works on a phone app.
I would not have advised that - while the connection to the bank would have been secure a keylogger on his computer would have left him with not only your login details but some or all of your password as well.
Fair enough, Paul. That possibility was beyond me and, I am certain, the seller.
He was stupid enough to leave that drophead for many months under the overhanging branches of a 2 m tall weeping willow … I never did get the green stains entirely out of the canvas.
These days, as long as I remember to actually carry my ‘portable phone’ about, “all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well”.
That’s how French kids are taught numbers… by rote IIRC. Whereas we brits tend to count up in our heads to assemble a French number (well, I do anyway), the French know intuitively how to express a number straight off.
Because it is drummed in when we are tiny, just as English numbers are to English-speaking children, German ones to German speakers etc. At least the tens come before the units in French (I wonder if German people have better short-term working memory because of the way German works).
“Oh, I was only twenty four hours from Tulsa Only one day away from your arms I saw a welcoming light and stopped to rest for the night…” Naughty Gene
Nice to be able to do it both ways.
Would it run a King Tiger tank thru’ the French idea of themselves and their Frenchness to adopt the format from which Italian, Greek, Portugese - English, even - has based the words for numbers 60-90 - the Latin, eg 94 = nonaginta quattuor.
The British have [supposedly] given up Imperial measurements for the decimal system, tho’ the persistence of Imperial in the USA has caused confusion - TVs and monitors are described in inches which, in French, Spanish, Portugese and others, are a word which derives from the original metric - a thumb.
My Acer Cloudbook will go onto eBay.es as having a screen of 14 pulgados - 14 thumbs. Dopey.
The Americans will never give up Imperial. But could France give up quatre-vingt-dix-neuf ?
Those Gauls have a lot to answer for. My old housemistress always said five and twenty past or to the hour, I like that. Presumably Québécois talk about pouces and pieds as much as cm and mètres.
Isn’t it funny that a flea in Spanish is a pulga, the thing you squash with a thumb. Mind you pouce/puce but prob false etymology as thumb is pollex and flea is pulex in latin.
Well, courtesy of the link provided by @anon88169868 I learnt something today.
I was born in 1951 and have been well rehearsed in saying «cinquante et un» in response to being asked my date de naissance. I didn’t realise however that 71 is soixante et onze but that 91 is quatre-vingt-onze ie no «et». Complicated, isn’t it… so learning by rote is the way to go
German numbers at school was much easier
haha… reminds me of a client who had many business dealings with the Arab world… his take: «the only way to negotiate with an Arab is with your foot on his throat»
(I wonder if German people have better short-term working memory because of the way German works).
