Understanding Counting Systems in English, German, and French
The Same Number. Three Different Routes.
English, German and French can arrive at the same number in very different ways. Choose a number and see how each language builds it.
twenty-one
20 + 1einundzwanzig
1 + 20vingt-et-un
20 + 1Build a number in three languages
Choose any number from 1 to 99. The cards show the completed word, its components and the route used to construct it.
Where do the systems change?
Select a range to see how number words become increasingly structured—and where French changes direction.
Individual inherited number words
Why do the numbers after sixty look different?
French combines ordinary tens with constructions based on sixty and twenty.
Number words preserve older ways of counting
English and German use separate inherited words for eleven and twelve before a more visibly repetitive pattern appears.
French retains individual forms through sixteen and then combines these with decimal patterns. Above sixty, it also uses constructions such as sixty plus ten and four twenties.
These differences make number words small historical maps: each language reaches the same mathematical destination by following a route shaped by its own linguistic history.