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Comment by netheril96 | Hacker News Reader

There is also a paper out claiming that elementary school students who learn math in English speaking countries lag behind those in, say, Chinese speaking countries, because the numbering system in English is irregular. For example, 11 and 12 does not follow the construction of 13 or 15. Or the fact that two-digit numbers are composed differently from three-digit numbers. I don't know if this claim is true, but it certainly drives me crazy when I started learning English.

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>For example, 11 and 12 does not follow the construction of 13 or 15.

Maybe its because I'm an English speaker, but I don't understand what you mean by this statement - can you explain it?

  13 -> thirteen -> three ten
  14 -> fourteen -> four ten
  15 -> fifteen -> five ten

whereas

  11 -> eleven -> why not oneteen?
  12 -> twelve -> why not twoteen?

Germanic languages have a peculiarity in the words eleven and twelve, they stem from "one left" and "two left", respectively [0]. Cognates in German elf and zwölf, Swedish elv and tolv.

[0] "Cardinal Numerals: Old English from a Cross-Linguistic Perspective", http://bit.ly/1HhPzOB, page 161.

Interesting. Worth noting Spanish, French, Catalan and probably some more connected languages I'm not so familiar with are irregular up to 16 (17 is akin to 10-7, whereas 11-16 follow other rules)

left of what? (or from what?)

Of ten. "One ... two ... [...] ten... and one and another.

Okay now I get it. Start counting on your left hand. 1 .. 5, left-side, 6 .. 10, right-side. One-left, is "one full set of fingers, plus a left", repeating again, 11. Two left, 12. 3-ten, you change to a number count, because .. why not? It is self-documented .. and thus easier to teach. Maybe?

The reason, if anyone is wondering, is because of their base meanings:

  eleven -> one left
  twelve -> two left
  thirteen -> three and ten
  fourteen -> four and ten

According to the OED, the only non-Germanic language that uses "one left" is Lithuanian, which uses it from 11 to 19.

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