British Numbers confuse Americans - Numberphile

[@billylardner]

Bit late, but as a Brit I can confirm we use ‘triple’ for phone numbers.

[@totallyrealnotfakelifeadvi7547]

Thank you!!!

[@BuffyTheBuffaloSlayer]

I mainly hear treble rather that triple. Maybe its just a southern England thing

[@billylardner]

Lucas Davidoff I’m from Surrey and hear “triple” a lot more than “treble” (in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard treble used for a phone number by one of my mates)

[@new_ale]

But there's always a hesitation before saying triple.

[@billygray8863]

from Kent. I often hear Treble.

[@Derpster2493]

000 is pronounced: "James Bond minus seven".

[@LukeSumIpsePatremTe]

I thought it'd be: "tripleorgasm"

[@thelennipede9382]

Here in Australia, its called: "you f*cked up mayte, call the ambo!"

[@christhompson5012]

The Lennipede Accurate representation

[@louisfisher3639]

Bunker Boy Gaming xmdndn

[@SpecialEllio]

Archie Kerr you don't know maths do you?

[@doornob7859]

CGP grey with a mouth will haunt my dreams...

[@screamsinrussian5773]

what about him without glasses

[@doornob7859]

[screams in Russian] screams in russian

[@screamsinrussian5773]

@@doornob7859 Yeah that's me

[@Gayd1]

Wth

[@screamsinrussian5773]

@@Gayd1 what

[@sparky4878]

I get thrown when someone reads my phone number back to me and they say it in a different pattern I haven’t a clue if it’s right.

[@julzmusic8708]

So do I, they’ll read it back in a weird pattern and I’m like ‘yeah that’ll do, no idea’ haha

[@miff227]

If you're stuck around at home, make new friends on the telephone! Oh, eight, nine, eight, double five, double oh, double five..... CHATBACK!!

[@bobouistic]

Like when I say it 881-961 and someone repeats 88-19-61, I am completely thrown off hehehe

[@KC9UDX]

I have repeating digits in my number. It's fun to say them out of cadence.

[@miff227]

@@KC9UDX yeah I have 3 doubles at the start of mine, then 4 at the end. When people say "your number ends with the 3 digits ###?" it doesn't sound right at all.

[@tequilyps]

It's so interesting to hear a native born American speaking with a weirdly half-english accent lol

[@maplesyrup8297]

*_tequilyps_* I do not hear any accent 🧐

[@coconutcorejf]

@Spencer Poe That way of speaking is called the Transatlantic accent. If you're curious.

[@askspencerhill]

CGP Grey, in one of his Q&A videos, talks about the tendency of Americans living in England to pick up the weird half-english accent, and says he purposefully avoids falling into that

[@Zak-ob5ze]

They sound very American to me

[@turtle4llama]

@@maplesyrup8297 sharper consonants and atypical American vowels. Specifically O's.

[@cormorantcolors]

Fully animated and lip-synced CGP Grey is really weird.

[@bigdingus6052]

it's not even lip synced, its just like 5 different mouth shapes randomly cycling through whenever he's talking

[@n.itrogen]

big dingus it is lip synced, play the speed as slow

[@nootdraws]

Wattakron Saisombat nope it still doesn’t work

[@corventum]

agree I

[@cormorantcolors]

Woah. Just checked back in on this.

[@dhaonrisemlan]

000 is said "oh zero nought"... Obviously.

[@deanmoncaster]

What about none zero nought I say that too

[@tls5870]

In America it's ought oh zilch

[@jlaw131985]

Zero naught zero sounds like a title of an intrigue or action book

[@pratherat]

zip nada naught

[@46wireboy]

Just...no

[@colinburton8288]

You do hear 000 as “triple”, however I think 0000 wouldn’t be “quadruple”, but double 0 double 0

[@ebl36]

quadruple 0 would probably be slower to say than any other combo...

[@poppywalker2927]

Just reminds me of childline. Oh eight hundred double one double one.

[@toasterfluid5091]

I've heard "Quad" rather then "quadruple" (eg 4444 as quad 4) a few times but it's pretty rare.

[@olliemh2282]

I feel like I say “treble” not “triple”. Might be a South-London thing 😂

[@elijah6169]

@@olliemh2282 say treble here too and I live in the east of England

[@nekad2000]

I always give my number out in hexadecimal. Nobody has ever called me.

[@simontingle6739]

Is your number 0000000003 ?

[@13mudit]

Do you treat your phone number as a single number in trillions or billions or do you treat it as each separate numbers If its the latter then there are other reasons you dont receive a call from anyone

[@htcmlcrip]

@@13mudit 🤔🤔 explain?

[@13mudit]

@@htcmlcrip i meant that for eg if the number was 123, you could read it as one-two-three or as one hundred and twenty three. In a similar way if phone numbers are read as indivisual digits(which they usually are) then it doesnt matter whether they are in hexadecimal or not

[@oinkymomo]

F

[@EvilParagon2]

5300? Do you mean _Four Thousand Thirteen Hundred?_

[@EchoHeo]

No. Its thirfive hundred

[@masood-msd2570]

Evil Paragon 2 who? What? Where?

[@ionutradulazar8984]

Evil Paragon 2 hehe nice on

[@rambledogs2012]

Fifty Three double o/zero

[@rougeaccountant1834]

It's 5 thrice O O

[@bigjohn606]

I never bothered counting seconds... I just pulled the pin and threw the grenade. It's much safer that way.

[@Scotch20]

safer for who?

[@Chicomacheeno]

*whom

[@richardmillhousenixon]

Safer for the Yeetor or the Yeetee?

[@cloweee__]

@@Chicomacheeno Ross is that you?

[@Chicomacheeno]

DananaBanana, sorry no. Does Ross say ‘whom’ a lot? lol

[@freddyfleal]

"It's easier to think in amounts of hundreds" That's basically what the whole world have been saying about metric system

[@KC9UDX]

Only people who are accustomed to counting with their fingers and toes. Else, 2s, 4s, 8s, 12s, 16s, 32s, 64s, 128s are better.

[@g4dget]

@@KC9UDX There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and those that don’t. 😉

[@g4dget]

Fifty three hundred? Why not just go the whole hog, and say five hundred and thirty tens?

[@lividtaffy7411]

@@g4dget that's literally what we do minus the tens... 530 is spoken as five hundred and thirty

[@chipputer]

@@lividtaffy7411 Though that would actually be 500.30 according to how I was taught math. Our teacher made it a point that 530 is pronounced five hundred thirty with no and.

[@bregonz]

In Italy, when digit X repeats Y times, we say "Y X", so actually "two, three,...", not "double, triple,...". Which is absolutely the worst thing to do. Like, if I say: "two five four one", I could independently mean one of the following (it only depends on the tone used while I pronounce the numbers): - 2541; - 5541; - 551111; - 2444441; - 251111.

[@martinhawes5647]

I assume the key is in the timing, probably almost no gap. E.g. a b y-x

[@dru1432]

That's insane. :D

[@bregonz]

@@martinhawes5647 that's it. Still, sometimes there are misunderstandings.

[@PROPAROXITONO]

here in Brazil too. we just put the number in plural, but is confusing as well. like "two ones" when is 11

[@morgiewthelord8648]

Haha that is so funny

[@abbray]

All I can imagine now is Americans calling James Bond zero zero seven instead of double 'oh' seven... 😂

[@mica91700]

That’s how we say it in French 😅

[@NaviciaAbbot]

I think in certain cases, regarding literary flow, we use 'double-oh'.

[@TheWilyx]

@@mica91700 Same in Spanish

[@LAGxZombified]

@@mica91700 what are you talking about? W in french literally means double V so you can’t say that using double isn’t part of your vocabulary 😂

[@akewlen2888]

@@LAGxZombified Mica is saying that 007 is said zero zero seven, in French . It's the same in Swedish and apparently in Spanish too. I guess British english are the odd language here. We got the word "double" btw, just don't use it the way brits do.

[@WilliametcCook]

I'm not used to seeing CGP Grey with a mouth.

[@imronmajid3748]

William1234567890123 Cook me too

[@infinite3365]

*took

[@zoroearc2582]

Or shoulders

[@ryledra6372]

I was more astounded when they took his glasses off and gave him EYES :O

[@Zetimenvec]

CPC grey moves his hands often, just it's captured at about 1 frame every 2-5 seconds.

[@sandwich7457]

I’ve never heard anyone say they’re from “downstate NY”

[@nyahnyahson523]

There's a few places where I imagine someone would want to specify they're from "downstate," so tbh it's not even that far fetched.

[@epistax4]

I'm thinking around and below Poughkeepsie?

[@sandwich7457]

@@epistax4 maybe however I did live in Wapp Falls for a little bit and don’t remember ever hearing “downstate”

[@Jyudee]

What the heck is downstate New York? I mean it sorta makes sense, but it sounds so strange.

[@oriongarnar-wortzel2277]

Having talked to New Yorkers from around the state the consensus we came to was north of Albany is upstate and south of Albany is down. With areas like Columbia or dutchess county being able to he mid state if they really want

[@NigelRCharman]

The odd thing is that we say "zero", "O" and "Nought" in different circumstances. So, "Nought point five", "Zero degrees", "007"

[@jackjohnson8055]

True

[@estergrant6713]

we also say “o” in american english to say 0. usually when a singular zero exists in a long string of numbers, me personally i know i say “o” depending on context but im not self-aware of the precise “rubric” on when i use “o” instead of zero.

[@stevenreyna3437]

Dont forget about nil!

[@31ll087]

I literally say zero and O in the same phone numbers.

[@iallso1]

@@estergrant6713 I'm British and have used "o" for zero, but I now have a career in enforcement where it is important to get number plates and vin numbers correct. I now try to avoid doing so, using zero for "0" and Oscar for "o".

[@erg0centric]

DO NOT GIVE THE BRITISH THE ADDRESS TO THE WHITE HOUSE Don't you remember what happened?

[@desconocidoaxb6145]

What happened ?

[@Land_Of_Spirits]

@@desconocidoaxb6145 _things_

[@LILBEEF544]

Started a bon fire let's say that

[@Sky-ul6bq]

@@desconocidoaxb6145 A *small* fire

[@richardlandrum1966]

Remember, remember. Lol

[@Br0teas]

When I am counting seconds, I just wait a second before saying the next number.

[@daithidb]

me too

[@TheThomson94]

+Matthew Brough Is it common in the UK to count seconds with words like piccadilly between the numbers?

[@Br0teas]

TheThomson94 no

[@EnglishChap]

+Matthew Brough ayyyy

[@SwEaTyBaDgErtHiRtEeN]

No

[@CptDangernoodle]

And how "0" can be either nil, oh, nought, or zero.. depending on the situation

[@Stegibbon]

Love

[@CptDangernoodle]

@@Stegibbon oh yeah haha but only in tennis 🎾

[@Stegibbon]

@@CptDangernoodle yeah more a French thing. Though they do zero and nil too I think.

[@pimassah3629]

@@00uk919 I hear this being used in maths and sciences.

[@Orangecatinahoodie]

@@00uk919 like 0.5, nought point five

[@TheoHiggins]

I remember as a kid being very confused when Yugioh characters would say "Fifteen hundred life points" instead of "One thousand five hundred life points"

[@Skwerll]

It makes sense in Yu-Gi-Oh since the smallest unit of life points was 100, so speaking in terms of hundreds was sort of natural.

[@Tuschedz]

It's over ninety hundred!

[@WolfbloodJakeWilliams]

Actually, certain cards do deal damage with a 50 on the end, so you might have 50 life points.

[@Mar_Marine]

I’d call dealing 50 damage the exception to the rule. Most typically, the game deals with 100 hit point increments.

[@Brocklebury]

For me it was the fifteen hundred metres in athletics. Eight hundred metres made sense, so I had to think of it as 800 metres scaled up. That's still the way I make sense of it.

[@ZoggFromBetelgeuse]

US: "8-8-4-4" UK: "double-8-double-4" France: "Hold my beer...4-20-8-40-4" (quatre-vingt-huit, quarante-quatre)

[@snickidy6947]

What... Is this real??

[@tobinsyoutubechannel2200]

@@snickidy6947 Yes, it's how you'd say "Eighty eight, forty four," but I think 8844 would just be huit huit quatre quatre. (pronounced sorta like wheat wheat cot cot)

[@PsychoMuffinSDM]

Please explain more! What is going on?

[@tobinsyoutubechannel2200]

@@PsychoMuffinSDM Basically in French certain number's names are just combinations of other numbers. For instance, eighteen is dix-huit (or ten-eight). 80 is quatre-vegnt (four-twenty as in four times twenty), and so 88 would be quatre-vegnt-huit, or four-twenty-eight or four times twenty plus eight.

[@shurjoaunibar]

@@tobinsyoutubechannel2200 Well they, for some reason, bunch up the numbers in pairs. Such as 9951 would be quatre-vingts-onze cinquante-un.

[@amirunhaziq8296]

1 *awkward silence* 2 *awkward silence* 3 *awkward silence* ... Edit: *still awkward silence*

[@jumpingjflash]

Aaawwwwkwaaarrrd silence. A second is always longer than you think.

[@theofficialdeathmark2202]

I just do it onnnnnne twooooo threeeeee fooooooour

[@Wyattporter]

It has the right cadence though 🤔

[@TheDannytaz]

Glad to know my country isn't the only weird one out.

[@omninulluser343]

I tried this and timed it with a clock, "awkward silence" is too long. Saying it speedily took me 1.5 seconds per count and saying it normally took me 2 seconds per count.

[@ManMang0]

Funny thing is about ''british ways'' are that it varies a crazy amount from one place to another. Some things are accurate but others are widely incorrect for a massive % of Brits.

[@smilehuman8952]

If you go like 2 towns from where you live they'll probably have a different accent in England anyway

[@Ceratops17]

@Harry Butler another thing is probably having tea. In some parts you get a cup of tea in others a full meal

[@GiraffeFlavored]

Even moreso that for the US, it's a MASSIVE country with each state being almost akin to it's own country in terms of culture, language, nationality makeup, history, just everything. I'm sure even things mentioned in this video aren't true everywhere here, let along any other generalization. Even breaking things up into general categories of "The West, The Midwest, The South, and The East" doesn't always work.

[@anthonytorres-cruz1598]

It's the same way for American number systems. 2 massive generalizations.

[@mikec4390]

And not just with numbers but with pretty much everything. They intentionally make things more complicated than they need to be and sometimes will change "their way" just for the sake of doing it differently from America. For example, "soccer" as a term originated in the UK. I couldn't tell you what logic they gave upon switching to calling it football but it's ridiculous that they criticize Americans for calling it by the term the UK came up with in the first place.

[@susanollington5257]

In Australia we definitely use “triple” for three of the same number

[@Ryuu798]

000 is our emergency services number. It's important to be able to say it as simply and in as few syllables as possible.

[@MartinFeatherstone]

One three double oh, six triple fiiiive, oh six.

[@kushgoblin51020]

Here in New Zealand our emergency number is 111 and we call it 'triple one'.

[@ultrapetey]

My phone number used to be “double five treble four” 🤣

[@MartinFeatherstone]

@@kushgoblin51020 that would have been a big time saver back in the rotary phone days 💡

[@danielalles597]

In Germany we use four-syllable words for each second: Einundzwanzig (21), Zweiundzwanzig (22), Dreiundzwanzig (23) and so on.

[@HAL-oj4jb]

@Koholos You kind of start counting at 20 (zwanzig). Not sure if that's connected, but I always count things in multiples of twenty too, you start by 20, count to 39, and then start again at 20 and count the times you cycled through

[@chrislth]

@Koholos its actually very accurate to a second if you say it normally

[@nevednavnaj]

Same in Dutch (één-en-twin-tig, twee-en-twin-tig, drie-en-twin-tig). To me this feels a lot more natural than Mississippi or Piccadilly because the four syllables give a nice four-beats-in-a-bar rhythm

[@fusion_gemer1657]

It's another compound. It's not a unique word, it translates to '1 and 20, 2 and 20'

[@teecana3977]

I am German and I just start at one and try to count very slowly. I isn't accurate but I never even heard of another way of counting

[@thierrypauwels]

Imagine then what it means for a Belgian saying "seventy-three" for 73, to go to France and having to get used to saying "sixty-thirteen".

[@HunterShows]

That's hilarious. I have enough trouble with the inverted syntax in German.

[@BrendanBeckett]

Let alone 93 being "four-twenty thirteen". Unless that's changed since I did French in grade school.

[@michagrill9432]

HunterShows Yeah... I ask myself why we germans do that... it's just weird and I have to think twice on english numbers as well XD

[@michagrill9432]

What's also SUPER confusing and makes me struggle every time is the weird thing in germany with big numbers... In germany we say Million , Milliarden where in english you say million, billion wich means where im in german at Trillion you in english are already at quintillion... >.

[@Smoo1977]

But it's not only German that does it that way round (let's just start a revolution and say "zwanzigundeins" from now on!), it's also the Dutch "eenentwintig", and the Danish "enogtyve" (found the same for Norwegian, but only in one place, the others all list "tjueen" only). And for Latin I found "viginti unus" as well as "unus et viginti".

[@sargfowler9603]

Ah, you didn't even mention dates! The bain of every computer literate person where software/websites insist on using the American date system. Does my head in.

[@mattlock256]

That's because if you go year/month/day when you sort files by date they all end up in order of when they occurred, from the start of the year to the end of the year. If you sorted everything by year/day/month files would get jumbled around and something saved on the 1st of January would be followed by the 1st of February, 1st if March, etc. The English way is actually a pretty poor way to go about dates

[@bluesz1bluesz17]

@@mattlock256 computers are new dates are old

[@mattlock256]

@@bluesz1bluesz17 yeah but I was explaining why software/websites use the American way over others

[@ser55555]

But isn't the American way month/day/year? Cause that's screwed up. In that sense, the British way (day/month/year) makes more sense to me. But the best is indeed year/month/day, especially for files in a computer.

[@bluesz1bluesz17]

@@mattlock256 computers do that in general there always set to US English when you buy them

[@tashazalinski5250]

As a British kid I always thought it was “1 Mrs Sippy, 2 Mrs Sippy” lol

[@hacefrio1695]

You’re probably not just thinking that! I can clearly remember my teachers writing that out in primary school so maybe it’s uncommon but not unheard of.

[@tashazalinski5250]

@@hacefrio1695 ah! Maybe a country wide mishearing then!

[@BobBob-oe9uf]

For counting it doesn't matter i guess. Go mrs Sippy!

[@ebl36]

Woah! It’s ‘Mrs Sippy’? I thought it was ‘1 Mississippi’

[@tashazalinski5250]

@@ebl36 it is! I was just 4 year old from Oxford who’d never heard of Mississippi!

[@Uranium_Enjoyer]

8:52 Seeing CGP Grey without his glasses is just... just scary...

[@EldenringLeaks]

Cursed imagery

[@alexbren1726]

Tf just happened

[@philipmorse-fortier5499]

I think the most likely reason Americans will say 53 hundred has to do with street numbers as mentioned later. If you're between 53rd and 54th, you're in the 53 hundred block. Calling it the 5 thousand 3 hundred block would make it more confusing, and since so many of our cities are laid on on grids like that, I rather suspect that is influential.

[@AugustinSteven]

The $100 bill thing seems the more likely reason to me.

[@audigex]

But why call it the 5300 block at all? Just call it the 53 block, you don’t need the hundred

[@neilwilliams2907]

And why do they say 'two thousand one' for dates and not 'twenty hundred one' as with the 5300 example?

[@amileegirl]

I think it is more to do with currency vs patterns. For money you would say 5 thousand 3 hundred because it is a full count. For the year it is about clarity...so two thousand one Etc until double digits...then use a 2x2 pattern "twenty ten" about half the time and "two thousand ten" the other. Phone numbers in patterns unique to the number because patterns are easier to remember: fivefivefive twothree sixthree. Or. 5 5 5 twelve ten. Same for credit cards and addresses...patterns. if it is a zip code, phone number, area code,or address, some areas say "oh" instead of zero. An American might say 12 hundred dollars. But would almost never say 1 thousand 2 hundred for an address. They would say. 4 oh 4 or 4 zero 4. For an address more often than 4 hundred 4 I don't know about other countries, but I have refused to take a new phone number that didn't have a nice pattern or rhythm!

[@kaneminik]

​@@AugustinStevenIn Denmark (DKK valued about 1/6 of the dollar) we use 100 kroner bills in almost every transaction and it's not rare to see 1000 kroner bills. We will say 19 hundred, 2 thousand, 2 thousand 1 hundred... When you get to a high number, saying xx-hundred no longer helps you visualize the amount. And most people around me, including my self, swap at 2k

[@GhostGamer2410]

"I don't think hundred pound notes exist" They do but not in England, they are definitely given in Scotland due to slight separation of currency even though its still legal tender in England.

[@eleanormason2647]

It might be legal tender but many shops/ pubs refuse them as it's quite common for them to be forgeries when in England (unless it literally comes from a Scottish tourist). That's what my manager told me when I was told not to take Scottish notes when working the bar

[@jaackaboytheiii1107]

@The Climbing Channel many shops have the right to refuse them, and they do

[@GhostGamer2410]

@@eleanormason2647 Yea, the north is more accepting of it whereas the south pretty much doesn't accept it. i work as a cashier getting a 50 is pain as it i so people if you get a 50 please break it down at a bank

[@eleanormason2647]

@@GhostGamer2410 yeah, fifty pound notes or Scottish notes generally aren't accepted and I think that's due to the fraud risk. All fifties get the pen test

[@graemehunter4395]

I've never seen a £100 Scottish note, and I was born here.

[@CutcliffePaul]

I'm British and I'm happy to help with your credit card number - could you give me the full long number, and also the code on the back too, just to make sure I get it right... 😉

[@tessc-b1886]

Don't forget the expiry date!

[@chebic5095]

Sweet man here’s mine so it goes 1234567891012 And then that lil code yah 131 Thanks in advance.

[@urielantoniobarcelosavenda780]

@@chebic5095 the scary part is that eventuañy that gonna be a real credit card number

[@HayleyAnjuna]

@@urielantoniobarcelosavenda780 no because credit card numbers either start with a 4 or a 5

[@urielantoniobarcelosavenda780]

@@HayleyAnjuna eventually there will be soooooooo many humans that a credit card will need to start with 1

[@PHE4_]

I’m English and I would say triple zero

[@alxmnslv]

I am not english and I approve this message

[@CulturePhilter]

Yeah, me too.

[@unknownfury7672]

Sophia Martinez same

[@FluffysMum]

Or treble zero

[@sorayaimperial]

I'm not english, but I was taught british english in school and I'd say triple oh. I was taught to say oh instead of zero outside of mathematics. Like double oh seven for james bond.

[@adamhedley8924]

000. "Do i say triple zero?". "Do i say zero, double zero?". "Do i say double zero, zero?". "Do i say zero, zero, zero?". Me: "Yes".

[@Dorgpoop]

You don't say any of that people usually say "oh" like the letter instead of zero like double-oh seven

[@PastyMancer]

I usually go oh, double oh. It's probably due to a personal preference.

[@skakdosmer]

In my country I’d say “nul nul nul”, but in England I might say double oh zero, just for fun.

[@amfandrade]

You don’t even say zero, normally its said oh

[@9peppe]

@@skakdosmer double oh zero sounds like the secret agent 7 times before 007.

[@lucas46g]

Why is this in everyone’s recommended years later

[@TheRandomSpectator]

I'm just now seeing your comment and realizing this was posted in 2013. Yeah this popped up in my recommendeds too.

[@CoffeeSipper555]

Yeah right? Especially for someone like me who watched it when it was first published too.

[@saurabhshrestha4174]

Idk how I end up here

[@dcan911]

You may say triple zero, but more likely 'treble oh'' for me.

[@andrewharris3900]

Yeah in Australia we also say “treble oh”

[@Coastal_Cruzer]

As a bassist I find myself saying "treble oh" very often, though in a very different context most of the time

[@SEFSQklOR0VS]

Definitely treble oh

[@danthe1st]

Oh no

[@Bart-tk9um]

more often than not im reading two numbers at a time so i dont pay attention to the third zero, so i say “double zero, zero” then think “oh look could of said treble”

[@alannacarlson6715]

That thirteen years in England is starting to affect her accent

[@ai9862]

Did*

[@GamingOS]

*effect

[@jimsy5530]

*offuct

[@brokenwave6125]

GamingOS Its "affect", not "effect"...

[@ratlinggull2223]

affix^

[@bentech1]

22 = double two 222 = triple 2 2222 = double two double two If you have 4 you might follow it up with: Double two double two, that’s four twos -edit source I work at a company that has the number 226666 and my mum’s company was 718882

[@fsxbestpilot]

why not double double two? :-P

[@jumpingjflash]

22222 = double two two double two

[@freznox6]

I say "Friple Two". Am I wrong?

[@GonzoTehGreat]

@@jumpingjflash actually this would be triple double 2 Just kidding... while it's logical most would instead say double 2, double 2 double 2

[@dougaltolan3017]

hello, is that 5 double five five? No, this is double 5 double 5.

[@emj7336]

Oh, and the "one" thing, is from the association of the "terrace end", or "corner plot" on a road being the larger, more expensive, big building. One would usually also be on the end closer to town centre, making it more appealing to some, especially on long roads, with most people walking a lot of places in the UK. The other thing with that "one tower bridge", I don't know if it's always this, but you can name a building anything, but you can't change the number. So "One Tower Bridge" might actually be a different building from the number 1 on the road it resides, distinguished by spelling the word out, and to get the luxury association.

[@loucooper2870]

This is embarrassing, but I always thought it was 'One Mrs Zippy'. :(

[@weathercontrol0]

Louis Cooper lol

[@amapparatistkwabena]

Bwahahaha!!!! Omg, I think I just disturbed my neighbors! 😂

[@geema2281]

Louis Cooper omg that is so cute! one Mrs zippy! are you American?

[@loucooper2870]

Giselle Martinez Nope, I'm British. Probably explains it...

[@GegoXaren]

"One Mistress Zippy"?

[@Zaxophone32]

I was fine up until Grey took off his glasses. I'm so used to seeing him with them on it's jarring to see him without them.

[@WhiteRAZOR]

I would like to hear a reason on date format. I like day/month/year as it goes in order of size and subset

[@TheTetrapod]

This might be a "chicken or the egg" thing, but in day to day life, Americans tend to say June 1st, 1965, rather than the 1st of June, 1965. It saves us 2 words in speech, and confuses foreigners, which is one of our favorite pastimes.

[@WhiteRAZOR]

TheTetrapod Ah, that's a good point. Although when said verbally, it sounds quite common. Maybe I've watched enough American media to get used to it.

[@TheTetrapod]

JetMechMA I just meant that the number version would confuse foreigners, since 4/2 is either April 2nd or February 4th.

[@rowhsv]

The most logical date format would be year/month/day since it would automatically sort correctly chronologically on a computer and it is unambiguous since no one uses year/day/month.

[@WhiteRAZOR]

rowhsv For sorting I would agree, but for saying or writing I would say day/month/year because it's in order of relevancy most of the time. You tend to know what year and month it is as they don't change often.

[@kaybrann]

I see the algorithm has recommended this video again in 2021

[@FlamJongUn]

Same

[@piinkdew]

same 😂

[@splosh2070]

Same

[@NoName-hx1mw]

Same

[@feelesh]

Is that 20 21, or two thousand and twenty one?

[@chrisboyd3540]

I'm not sure if anyone's commented the same, but for me, I can definitely remember using the word "hippopotamus" as a counting word

[@The_Chew]

I go: One and a two and a three and a four and a five and a six and a seven and an eight and a nine and a ten and an eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen...

[@Druzhh]

?????????????????

[@Druzhh]

I just say 1 2 3 4 5

[@joeevans7069]

It seems people enjoy having the spacing be a 4 syllable word. Mississippi and piccadilly both having 4 syllables.

[@mcmonkey26]

@@Druzhh imagine someone counting out loud “one, hippopotamus, two, hippopotamus, three, hippopotamus”

[@ukko9154]

I wouldn't say that's very confusing. How about numbers in French? 70=sixty-ten 71=sixty-eleven 72=sixty-twelve ... 80=four-twenty (4*20=80) 81=four-twenty-and-one 82=four-twenty-two ... 90=four-twenty-ten (4*20+10=90) 91=four-twenty-eleven 92=four-twenty-twelve ... 99=four-twenty-ten-nine (because nineteen is basically ten-nine) Phone numbers and other sequences are always grouped into two number sections: 7398175017 Seventy-three ninety-eight seventeen fifty seventeen I was very confused while studying these...

[@charlieodom9107]

I shouldn't have to use a calculator to read a damn number! If the phone is broken up into pairs, then wouldn't you use the same method on a phone number? 1234567 would be ten two, twenty ten 4, etc? It would take those twats an hour to give out a phone number!

[@ieuanpugh-jones5284]

Ugain Deugain Unarugain-21 Un ar bymtheg ar ugain- 1on fifteen on on tweny-36 Deu ugain-2 twenties And so on in Welsh Having said that English uses dozen and score for 12 and 20

[@DiarmuidHenry]

The Danish number system is even more ridiculous. For example, the word for 55 is 'femoghalvtreds', which is a shorter form of the older 'femoghalvtredsindstyve'. This literally translates as 'five-and-half- third-times-twenty'. 'Half-third' as in half of the third nummer (3), so the word for 1.5 is 'halvanden' = 'half-second'. Phone and credit card numbers are always paired in Danish as well: 58670812 Fifty eight, sixty seven, zero eight, twelve.

[@SmokyTiger101]

Ukko Hertell you’re wrong, it’s not four-twenty-one, it’s four-twenty-and-one. The french put an “and” before every “one” in a 2 digit number

[@ukko9154]

@@SmokyTiger101 It was a mistake I made! Thanks!

[@SilverWave64]

Why does America refuse to use the metric system?

[@andresvelasco2748]

If the US switches to the metric system, the terrorists win.

[@mitchharper4461]

Because we prefer the system that we use. We don't have to know the metric system so why learn it.

[@EarlofCrawford]

Tim Satterwhite It's easier than you think and has been done successfully time and time again

[@yolodench]

Andres Velasco the US are the terrorists in case you didn't know

[@canyonlynn9744]

Tradition,and price of changing all the signs and other stuff like that.

[@jona028i]

In Denmark we say "en kasse øl" which translates to "one beer box"

[@ebl36]

I love this!

[@splosh2070]

I wouldn't mind a beer box

[@babyjesus9011]

Such a Danish thing to say

[@Martin-re8ei]

Och en cigg 😁

[@AaronOfMpls]

Or to use more cognates, "one case of ale"? (Not a Danish speaker, so just guessing.)

[@martynbealing79]

9/11 as an English person confuses me I have to deconstruct then reconstruct to get what that date means. 9/11 means 9th November to me.

[@tessajalloh3914]

Well. that's why we don't call it 9/11 isn't it? we call it September the 11th.

[@tessajalloh3914]

i'm aware mate :p British myself. As for the date thing, As i think i inadvertantly showed without thinking. it's not quite as uniform as you'd think. If i was including the day, certainly it'd be wednesday the 25th of April. However, if i wasn't, i'd say April 25th, or 25th of April. I was more noting that for us in the UK, we don't refer to it as 9/11 at all, as bane noted, since that would be 9th of November. To us the event is known as September the 11th, as it avoids the date number format, which would be 11/9/2001 here. So it's easier to remember by speaking the month rather than the 9/11 which is instantly recognised for the US.

[@martynbealing79]

I watch a lot of documentaries and the American ones throw me off, I think I've heard the news call it 9/11 not sure but when I hear English people call it that I find it pretty annoying. 🤔

[@_amina]

i was born a bit after 9/11 and until i started year 8, i thought it was on 9th November.

[@martynbealing79]

I'm fascinated by cultural differences between UK and US I'm always picking up on them, some annoy me some interest me the way things are pronounced and used differently it's very fascinating.

[@coniow]

I believe it was Winston Churchill who said we are two countries separated by a common language :-).

[@Milesco]

It was George Bernard Shaw who said that.

[@vladescu3g]

wow quoting Churchill... whats next Hitler?

[@99loki]

Far too clever to have been from Churchill.

[@pyeltd.5457]

99loki Trump said it with help from Putin.

[@TheLifeOfDan1]

‘Separated’ by one language!? What’s that meant to mean!? 🤔

[@mattwoodphd]

3,5,7,9 with 50,48,46 on the other side is not that common. Usually it's 3,5,7,9 and 2,4,6,8 opposite. Then sometimes it's just 1,2,3,4 for no apparent reason.

[@swanclipper]

i've found it reliable throughout my life to assume low numbers of one set (odds) means on the other side of the road is the higher numbers of another set (evens). if you're at 3, then you can bet that the other side says 78. the only time i've noticed the numbers climbing up on both sides is on closed streets which don't loop or connect to another road. if it does connect i've noticed it goes up one way and down the opposite. much more efficient for postmen too.

[@jackstaff2998]

Yeah that’s was I usually observe like my house is 22 and the other side is 23 whereas next door is 24

[@maximusfattybum]

The reason is because we have historic buildings in the UK. You could have a row of small terraced houses on one side of a road some larger shops or house with bigger grounds on the other therefore the variance can be way out. As new buildings replace others they sometimes need to add a and b on to the numbers to stay In the existing sequence on a road. Saying that many new builds dont have number 13, as it can be considered bad luck.

[@leeramsden3095]

Yeah feel this must a be London thing. And ever wondered why 1 is that that end and not the other? I believe they start from the town hall end. Which kinda makes sense as they expand

[@maximusfattybum]

@@leeramsden3095 No 1 usually would start in the town or cities and as urban growth spread out, the numbers increase. There is another common thing that happens in the uk. There would be one main road between two towns or cities. So where i live it runs from Manchester to Oldham. As the road leaves Manchester it is called Oldham Road, then at around half way the name changes to Manchester road which goes into Oldham.

[@bluesz1bluesz17]

in the UK the odd door numbers are on one side and even on the other, sometimes if there's flats down one side and not the other this can mess with the numbers

[@novatheenby8779]

It's that way in America too, if you're driving down a street one side has odd houses and the other has evens

[@bluesz1bluesz17]

​@@novatheenby8779 is it just me or does the term numberphile sound like someone who touches number's in their special place

[@me19276]

not in a cul-de-sac though :)

[@davekirwin]

No modern UK £100 note exists, the largest is £50 but are not in regular use. Scottish £100 does exist though. I say triple and double. Houses are numbered ‘odd’ on one side of the street and ‘even’ on the other.

[@AdzSONLINE]

@@trondordoesstuff Problem is it depends on the town, and history. So there are some streets where the numbers go 1,2,3 all the way to the end and come back, so 1 is opposite 97 or something. Then there are the normal 1,3,5 opposite 2,4,6, Theme there's what you were saying with 1,3,5 opposite 96,94,92. Then if you have cul-de-sacs the street can go from 30 to 50 because 32-48 are in the cul-de-sac. There's no consistency and it can get very confusing sometimes. Then of course you also have some bits where they've added new houses into a street, so those start at 1 again and have a different "street" name (i.e Numberphile Street would have a new bit added called Numberphile Walk, or even something totally unrelated) but it's on the same street next to the houses that already existed. Can get extremely confusing

[@Puffmac1]

The Scottish £100 note is still a UK note. There's no Bank of England notes is what you mean...

[@octubre_lilaka]

Yeah houses work like that in America too.

[@guyat8007]

For the 2% who sees this, I hope you have a amazing future!! *I'm subbing to who likes my video and subs to me!* 😎😎😎 THANKS😴😯😌😯😶😥

[@mariokart6309]

@@Thoupantaloons yes but 2000 rupees is only ~£20 What is your point

[@MlCHAELHlCKOXFilms]

How about the whole "Oh" vs. "Zero" thing? Does everyone use them interchangeably... or are certain areas confused by this? My favorite is abbreviating the years. Whether you say "zero" or "Oh," everyone will say "two thousand (and) nine" and then abbreviate to "oh nine."

[@BoomerangPlays]

Omg you watch numberplile?

[@xXx-un3ie]

MICHAELHICKOXFilms much more what about "zero" vs "not"

[@philip013]

Elias Kechter Nought?

[@xXx-un3ie]

philip013 oh thats what they say ok yeah thats what i meant sry im from germany and native russian so I didnt know exactly

[@joshv9532]

MICHAELHICKOXFilms oh my goodness i cant believe you watch numberphile. you are awesome.

[@sumdumbmick]

112 = eleventy-two 1112 = eleventy-twelve 74 = sixty-fourteen 6014 = fifty-seven-hundred plus pi-hundred 14 days = fortnight 10 days = tenight

[@whatisthis2809]

ｆｏｒｔｎｉｇｈｔ

[@darenbrett7366]

Dont forget the clocks, five and twenty to six = 5:35 Five and ten past four = 4:15

[@purple.cube.]

Huh

[@francisariwaodo318]

Seventy-fourteen is very similar to the what the french do

[@mdboer]

@@francisariwaodo318 double forty seventeen?

[@teeweezeven]

Going back on this channel really makes me realize how big the focus on numbers was instead of mathematics!

[@Usagizaka46]

"Double-O Seven" "Triple A batteries" Seems universal to me :)

[@ink7761]

Reminds of that Vine. ‘a’...’ahh’...’AAH’...’AAAAAHHHHHH’. RIP vine

[@TalysAlankil]

As a French speaker we tend to say "0-0-7" and "A-A-A" not "Double-0 7" and "Triple A" so it might be common across English dialects but definitely not universal.

[@BrightonandHoveActually]

I was always taught that "triple" shoud not be used in phone numbers. Thus it is either "nine double nine" or "double nine nine". but not "triple nine" In fact, though, this is the UK emergency number and we normally say "nine nine nine". However, the european 112 emergency number has worked in the UK for some years and I understand that other international emergency numbers will also work - though I am not about to waste everybody's time experimenting to see if it is true.

[@BrightonandHoveActually]

@joe marsdenYes - but "AA" means "Automobile Association" when referring to motor vehicles - at least I hope it means that and not "Alcoholics Anonymous" in that context. And the AA is by no means the only breakdown service in the UK. There is also the Royal Automobile Club (RAC), Green Flag etc

[@grandexandi]

"universal" is bold

[@magnustips]

In Denmark a lot of people say "1 kasse øl, 2 kasser øl, 3 kasser øl [...]" Which means "1 crate of beer, 2 crates of beer, 3 crates of beer [...]"

[@rasmus619]

But we also do something similar to the germansk by starting at 21 or 31.

[@skakdosmer]

Den har jeg sgu aldrig hørt! lol (Danish for “that one I’ve (beep) never heard”)

[@EldenringLeaks]

Lau Bjerno hvad mener du med du ikke har hørt den før, jeg har aldrig hørt andet end det, når folk skal tælle på den måde.

[@skakdosmer]

@@EldenringLeaks Jeg mener naturligvis præcis hvad jeg siger. Er det så svært at forstå? Der er ingen i min omgangskreds der bruger den. Det afhænger nok af hvor man kommer fra.

[@EldenringLeaks]

Lau Bjerno det tænkte jeg faktisk også var årsagen til det. Kan godt lide at du faktisk svarede

[@GothicKin]

In Italy we count seconds like this "1 mandolino 2 mandolino 3 maccheroni 4 mandolino 5 mandolino 6 maccheroni 7 mandolino..." and so on. And, you guessed it, we do think in base 3. In fact our clocks have 3 hours on them. Also we cut pizza with spoons and we sleep standing up.

[@joealias2594]

lol i don't understand this comment but its funny

[@babydaddy6562]

Joe Alias mm Mnbbhn 💯💮💮

[@GothicKin]

Baby Daddy yes indeed Mamma mia

[@64imma]

What do those words mean in Italian?

[@GothicKin]

64imma I chose the most generic stereotypical words, how could you not know them? I mean, in media italians are depicted like mandolin crafter who eat maccheroni all day long.

[@melbutterworth7976]

I feel like as young people are reading out phone numbers less and as American media becomes more and more prevalent in the uk the whole double numbers thing might go away completely.

[@CheetahNL]

Double-O 7. Americans should watch more James Bond movies.

[@linger5473]

I thought that was just a cool name

[@sillybilly1662]

They can't understand him because he is British.🤣🤣🤣

[@AbenZin1]

You mean noughty-nought seven?

[@pwuk]

@@linger5473 Dougal o'Seven?

[@bacicinvatteneaca]

@Bob Ajob in non English languages, it's translated as zero zero seven.

[@Raymond-yj2vp]

I live in Scotland. I've always used 'elephant'. I've heard 'mississippi' used and it does seem more rhythmical in practice. Maybe that's why I'm always late.

[@darryljohnbuntingstewart3555]

I'm fae Scotland anaw, I've always used Hippopotamus to space my numbers.

[@BobBob-oe9uf]

You should be early then. Elephant rolls of the tongue more easily.

[@voodoolilium]

I also sometimes use alligator, but I think Mississippi rolls off the tongue better

[@thomascooper6658]

I’m from North Yorkshire and I’ve always used elephant as well. Never heard of Piccadilly being used before though. Maybe it’s a southern thing.

[@rachelcookie321]

I’m from Scotland but moved to New Zealand when I was 7. In Scotland I was just taught to say the word second but slowly. When I moved to New Zealand I heard people using Mississippi but I thought they said “miss a sippy” lol. I always preferred to just say ‘second’ because once you get into double digits ‘Mississippi’ is too slow.

[@Parsnip0the0pig]

The title of this clip is misleading. This isn't about how numbers confuse Americans; more accurately, it shows how British numbering systems differ from American numbering systems.

[@zoria2718]

"One Mississippi/Piccadilli" sounds rather like two seconds than one.

[@homerggg2]

Believe me, when it's my kids playing hide and seek they sure are right on the one second mark (and maybe less...).

[@raebort]

Definitely one second, not two

[@nobody4911]

i think people usually say it a bit faster than in the video

[@josh.ryan.]

I always treated it like a waltz. ONE-two-three, TWO-two-three, so ONE-missi-sippi, TWO-missi-sippi

[@zoria2718]

@@josh.ryan. Well, if you pronounce the missi-sippi elements quick enough then that's it, but the way they are saying it in the video is too slow for one second.

[@dion789]

You should learn Dutch, that is even more confusing. For instance, instead of eighty-five, we say five-and-eighty. So you always have to wait for the second number to be spoken before you can write it down.

[@alexandergifford]

I'm learning German and they do this too and it is incredibly frustrating.

[@cigmorfil4101]

bibliofanatic You never learnt/heard the nursery rhyme: Sing a song of 6d a pocket full of rye four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie? English used to use the German way of vier und zwanzig.

[@alexandergifford]

Cigmorfil English also used to have Dative case, doesn't mean it's not frustrating to learn because we don't use it anymore.

[@cigmorfil4101]

Instead of being an infective language with changing endings English uses prepositions to indicate the case before the noun (of, to or for, by with or from) - English tells you what's going to happen and then gives the noun whereas inflective languages give you the noun and then what's going to happen; this is why a preposition is a word you never end a sentence with. Due to lack of endings English is more strict over word order, and doesn't (generally) require adjective matching.

[@covovker]

I don't think anything beats French word for 90 that is literally "four twenties and ten".

[@undisclosedinformation3467]

We say “treble” instead of triple in the NW

[@ebl36]

Yep, we say that in East Anglia too.

[@AdamPFarnsworth]

You must not mean Oregon/Washington/Idaho lol

[@ebl36]

@@AdamPFarnsworth NW England haha!

[@Junkable]

Treble is defo it

[@josh0147]

I dont apart from in footy

[@Frozen_Smoke1972]

Speaking as a Brit, the numbers for houses thing can get a bit confusing but I have *never* seen numbers going in opposite directions.

[@richardsinger01]

Nor have I, and the large difference on each side of the road is fairly unusual too.

[@Frozen_Smoke1972]

@@richardsinger01 I can think of a lot of examples in Liverpool and London where the numbers are disproportionate - a lot of it happens after massive redevelopment.

[@roblewis226]

I went to an address on a new estate where the house numbers were sequential, not odds and evens. I wanted 500 something and by the time I got to it I'd done a complete circumnavigation and arrived backs at the entrance, opposite No. 1. Just sick and twisted.

[@irenejohnston6802]

Think it began right hand side from the Town Hall even Nos, left hand side from TH odd nos

[@sigoy]

Must be super rare because I had no idea what he was talking about, thought he was talking about American streets. In the North East here it’s odd on one side of the street, even on the other, both incrementing the same direction. I’ve never seen an example of what he means in my life. Maybe an issue of believing London is representative of the whole of the UK 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@zakbrueckner615]

I'm American, and one of my childhood house had an address of 1. We were the only house on the street, though it was hardly a "street". The "street" was just our driveway. I can't tell you how many delivery people couldn't find it.

[@daxonphillips7798]

As a british person, i have never heared 1 Piccadilly, 2 Piccadilly..., I have used Mississippi though

[@njf1410]

Don't know where I learnt it, but I always count One thousand and one, one thousand and two etc for seconds but when I get to ten or above, I say One thousand ten, One thousand fifteen or whatever as adding the 'and', which I would always do if it wasn't being used for counting seconds, makes it too long.

[@q3b26]

I've always used elephant

[@shebbs1]

I have heard the Piccadilly version, but have heard others too.

[@umkm2k]

StupidAAA where did you learn to use Mississippi in the UK?

[@leea8706]

DeusXDebauchery TV, we get a ton of American TV shows and we see people saying Mississippi when counting. There’s a particularly famous example from Friends when Ross gets a spray tan.

[@ZygimantasA]

For zeros, I often say 'o' here in the UK, as in the letter 'o' :)

[@SMG2fanatic]

Same in the states

[@artifex2.080]

I've heard nought and blank although thats not common

[@q12aw50]

I usually say o do phone numbers like 1o4

[@lindhe]

007

[@Kat-ez4ni]

I think in all Commonwealth countries we say O instead of 0

[@nimuenorth6295]

My native language is German, but personally, I’ve always thought that the break between saying sixteen hundred and five thousand three hundred happens at two thousand and has to do with how we note time. There’s this long tradition of cutting history up into centuries that carried over into how we labelled them with “hundreds”. We’re so used to hearing the numbers below 20 with hundred that it doesn’t strike us as odd in other contexts. So far it seems to hold true for how we’ve labelled the years of the new millennium as two thousand something rather than twenty hundred something. It might also be a factor that the number words above 20 are constructed differently than below and get a bit clunkier. (These points hold true for both English and German.) I never thought about it before this video but with the street block system in many US cities, saying fifty three hundred makes sense because it immediately tells you you’re looking for the 53rd block on that street. Just goes to show that language adapts to how we use it.

[@gerardmontgomery280]

I think it comes from car engine sizes. 12 hundred, 16 hundred, 18 hundred then 2 litre.

[@altrocks]

I haven't heard people refer to the year as "two thousand" since 2010. From 2000 to 2009 you're absolutely correct, but since then (almost ten years now) all I've heard is twenty ten, twenty eleven, twenty twelve (especially with the movie), etc. Is that not what's happening everywhere?

[@Uncivilcivilservice]

Also years, we're used to saying the seventeen hundreds, or at seventeen hundred hours for time as you mentioned, but I think after about 2500 it's extremely rare to do that as there aren't many established contexts where it's used.

[@BernardS4]

It means that it is between 53rd and 54th street even if the street are not formally numbered.

[@funbucket09]

This year is TwentyNinteen. It is not TwothousandandNineteen. Your argument is moot.

[@GuacJuan]

As a Brit, I’ve never seen a house number that has exceeded 150 in Britain.

[@user-kt3zv1cm5j]

I never thought to think about that but now I'm desperate to know what the highest house number in Britain is haha my old house was in the 170s (scotland) and I'm sure the road must have got beyond 200 because that house was only halfway down it

[@kagenekoUA]

Meanwhile in Sherlock Holmes: 221b Baker street

[@95CamaCazzie]

I used to live at 190 but there was 200 houses on that very long street so it did start at 1

[@skywalka777]

I live in the US and my house is 15068

[@NP13.7]

Mine is 190

[@laserapfel24]

In German its common to start counting at 20 (or to be specific 21) since 1 (eins) is just too short but with 21 (einundzwanzig) you get a feeling of how slow you need to count to count seconds Never heard anyone say words in between numbers

[@Anisometry]

That makes sense, maybe I’ll try that

[@istuart0]

What happens when you get to 21?! einundzwanzig, einundzwanzig?!

[@laserapfel24]

@@istuart0 huh? Why twice einundzwanzig? You start with einundzwanzig (21), zweiundzwanzig (22)... and by the 20th second you'll count vierzig (40), einundvierzig (41), zweiundvierzig (42) and so on. And when you're done you just need to subtract 20 from what you counted.

[@acied6200]

Dutch too

[@acied6200]

@@duncanhw Je bedoelt duits ? 😂

[@trodd1sox]

This guy needs to eat more

[@evy9684]

lol

[@NEprimo]

trodd1sox he looks stickly

[@jimbojones091]

Underrated comment

[@grigorirasputin6055]

Get this man a sandwich

[@zeyadbawazeer3870]

trodd1sox skinny legend

[@TheGomenome]

3:46 did numberphile predict in 2013 Britain putting Alan Turing on a banknote

[@yuvalne]

Damn

[@winterroadspokenword4681]

Whaaaaaat? His name must have been bandied about for a while as a candidate for place on notes? Surely? Otherwise. How?

[@qwertyuoip1234]

Interestingly, Simon Singh, a regular on Numberphile, is on the committee that recommends people for banknoteworthiness.

[@Adrian-cg7jc]

I don’t put any word in between, I just remember how long a second is and count up from 0. It’s always accurate too.

[@PhillipParr]

House numbers in England are actually 1 3 5 7 on one side and 2 4 6 8 on the other in the correct order UNLESS you're in some very specific parts of central London. I guess that's the problem you fall into when your only context of an entire country is one tiny part of it.

[@_J_P]

Phillip Parr I think it's pretty common in rest of Europe as well.

[@omnipossum92]

Phillip Parr Same in Australia

[@fishdude96]

I've found the number system described in the vid in other parts of England (current in the West Country), but only where there is a cul-de-sac and the numbers wrap-around the end of the road (hence them going the other way on the opposite side). Quite useful on a small residential road, no so much in London I imagine.

[@keziahchettleburgh4061]

its not always like this - two streets i used to know have started 1,2,3,4... at the top of the street on one side, and when it reaches the end it either loops round or crosses to the other side carrying on the consecutive number sequence until youre back at the top of the street. neither of those houses have been anywhere near london, one was inner northamptonshire and the other was a village just outside peterborough

[@C_r_g_i]

From a town in Essex and I'm pretty sure most of our house numbers are in a straight line

[@BillyViBritannia]

one, otorhinolaryngologist, two, otorhinolaryngologist... that's how I count minutes.

[@bentrod3405]

BillyViBritannia thats closer to 15 seconds.

[@Neilious]

R/woosh

[@csweezey18]

*GENIUS*

[@a_guy_in_orange7230]

Just gonna summon Toast eh?

[@asailijhijr]

@@Neilious r/foundthemobileuser

[@tubeyoukonto]

I can totally feel that animated guy. The precision of saying the number in thousands sounds better. Saying it in hundreds just sounds inaccurate.

[@emmanuelonofrei5800]

tubeyoukonto that animated guy is CPGrey

[@josephpayne113]

tubeyoukonto 😤 just let it go squidward,just let it go

[@harryellis9571]

(insert "THATS CGPGREY" comment

[@yunan9610]

The first time I heard an American said that, I was like, can you even do that? I'm not a native English speaker by the way, so I find the five thousand three hundred is easier and more logical to my brain

[@yunan9610]

Same with the Japanese, when I learn it in highschool, the "man" for 10000 kinda confuses me, and they even use a kanji for that particular word, such as 100(insert "man" here)

[@Jeffrey_troutman]

Many thanks to the algorithm for gathering us all together again. We've been through a lot since this was posted.

[@timepatroltrunks8276]

I don't use any filler words to count seconds. As a child I recall watching the microwave digital timer counting down and the rate it does is burned into my brain.

[@BobBob-oe9uf]

Do you also beep when you reach zero?

[@R3DCODE]

@@BobBob-oe9uf you almost made me spit out my tea.

[@KC9UDX]

I don't either, but I was trained as a musician before I ever encountered people saying Mrs. Sippy, and I found it very strange. Seconds are Allegro Moderato half notes.

[@FireyDeath4]

Some time ago, I made a song that synchronises with a two-minute timer. And listening to that for probably some hours while doing manual things that took hours or so was pretty much how I memorised how long to make a second. Of course, I rely on the song, which might have some time difference in my head, but obviously you can guess what kind of song it is.

[@dfc9547]

@@BobBob-oe9uf that is honestly the single funniest reply i have ever seen in the youtube comment section.

[@nikosaarinen3258]

In Finnish I say 3823 as kolmetuhattakahdeksansataakaksikymmentäkolme. Which means three of thousands, eight of hundreds, two of tens, three. Never 38 of hundreds.

[@OnePrideRideOrDie]

Niko Saarinen what?

[@christopherruss5899]

Holy Guacamole! That's a mouthful!

[@nibukiyoroi]

Basically how it's done in Japanese as well.

[@jackmiltons5979]

Weird flex, but okay.

[@moubhattacharyya1141]

Finnish ppl are known to be tenacious......now you know why.

[@Gribbo9999]

In the UK they dial "nine, nine, nine" for emergency. In Australia we dial "triple zero".

[@Diablo_Himself]

In America they don't dial "nine hundred eleven" or "nine eleven" though...they dial "nine one one".

[@DJ-Manuel]

The seconds counting, in german we count „21, 22, 23,...“ its directly translated one twenty, two twenty, three twenty, etc. (ein-undzwanzig, zwei-undzwanzig, drei-undzwanzig)

[@Kefford666]

One and twenty, two and twenty, three and twenty :)

[@Lillith.]

In Dutch as well. Eenentwintig, tweeëntwintig, drieëntwintig

[@photografr7]

ONE numberfile, TWO numberfile, THREE numberfile, etc.

[@markuskekero8363]

*numberphile

[@photografr7]

+dusty burkybile Indeed. Oops!

[@Shnarfbird]

+Bill Streifer Or if you wanted to take care of your nails in a particularly mathematical way.

[@photografr7]

Shnarfbird I get it ... "PHILE"

[@northieee]

Numberception

[@seashoreroses6662]

I find it odd that you find it odd that there is a lack of logic in the house numbering system in the UK. You mention finding it strange that humans actually decided to do it this [illogical] way. I think the point is that they didn’t consciously decide it; it has occurred because our villages, towns and streets evolved far more organically over a much longer period of time than in countries such as the US and Australia.

[@scattygirl1]

Agreed. And it only happens when new properties replace old ones. When he mentions 5 7 9 being on one side of the street and 46 48 50 being on the other, it'll be because further down the street a block of flats or whatever got built and then the subsequent numbers all got shunted up, but it would have been "high-handed" or too inconvenient to the people on the even side of the street to make them change house numbers to fit in that they may well have had for themselves for decades. If house numbers were changed every time new properties went up, people would be changing their numbers a lot in certain areas, and I'm guessing people's love of continuity outweighs people's love of the rational. I know you know this Seashore Roses- but just for anyone else out there :-)

[@alekslav484]

Australia is a continent.

[@CraigUntlNytTym]

@@alekslav484 no, no its not. there is in fact the continent of oceania that has Australia, new Zealand and other smaller islands

[@RoobeeBlue]

Australian addresses are more similar to UK addresses than American ones

[@CraigUntlNytTym]

@@brightsunshineydays no, Oceania is the continent

[@holdtightadele8017]

“I’d love to hear from some British people” Well... you live in Brighton

[@davidr2421]

Is this a joke only British people can understand?

[@ThePatriotArtist]

What's a Brighton?

[@ThePatriotArtist]

@@frankiebrett1885 what?

[@anitapatel3591]

🤣🤣🤣

[@teevee5731]

To the Australians out there: one three double oh six triple five oh six

[@arsonasmr2387]

1300655506 or 300655506?

[@biminisupremacy4135]

Would be the same in England but we’d say treble instead of triple

[@Raxacoricofallapatorius]

@@arsonasmr2387 First one

[@greenrosetta]

I should take the plunge it could change my life!

[@gustavmeyrink_2.0]

I'm not in London and where I live the house numbers are invariably odd on one side of the road and even on the other. I live at 37 and my immediate neighbours to the left and right are 35 and 39 while 36, 38 and 40 are opposite.

[@jaykk6940]

The numbers on a street start with odd on left and even on the right. AFAIK all over UK.

[@gustavmeyrink_2.0]

@@jaykk6940 One would think so but apparently not where that guy lives. Check 10:22 onwards.

[@DSQueenie]

It is the Samson London except 38 isn’t opposite it’s opposite and at the other end of the road. You learn really quickly to walk on the side of the road that the house you’re going to will be on.

[@gilly9666]

I live in number 2 opposite me the numbers go 1 , 3 , 5 , 6 ,7 , 8 ,9 ,10 then next to me it is 4 , but on my side of the street there are just 2 houses

[@sigoy]

Must be super rare because I had no idea what he was talking about, thought he was talking about American streets. In the North East here it’s odd on one side of the street, even on the other, both incrementing the same direction. I’ve never seen an example of what he means in my life. Maybe an issue of believing London is representative of the whole of the UK 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@microdesigns2000]

1 Numberphile 2 Numberphile 3

[@Mgooy]

In numbers it's sometimes said treble instead of triple

[@jphili]

Lol that must have started because somebody misunderstood someone else say triple. It makes absolutely no sense.

[@oywiththepoodlesalready1790]

Jared Philibert I knoww the first time I heard that I was so confused😂

[@Darbyjack]

@@jphili It's correct. Treble means of three parts. (Yes I know the spelling treble has other meanings too)

[@Ferrastar]

Jared Philibert treble is from the Latin triplum. Triple, 3-tuple, treble, triplet, and triad are all based off that

[@Cat-sl6bo]

In crochet terms, it goes single crochet, then double crochet, than treble crochet and anything after that is a combination of those three

[@ESwift-Arts]

I’m pretty sure Americans say “two thousand and one” too, it seems to vary based on circumstance or preference.

[@milo3733]

It probably depends on exactly where you live but im American and everyone I know says two thousand one without the and, the and sounds very awkward to me.

[@itsbriarwallace]

From what I can tell, it’s more professional to say “two thousand and one”, and more casual to say “two thousand one” I’ve always pronounced it two thousand one, and I come from Ohio. Could also just be to make it easier to say.

[@CreamyBuscemi]

I live in Southern California and all of the people I know say Two Thousand and One, instead of dropping the and. It sounds off without the and

[@stevencowan37]

My experience is similar to R B; My teachers in elementary school actually took points off of math questions if we said "and" and there wasn't a decimal place. Drilled it into my head that it's two thousand one, not two thousand and one.

[@iamnoodlee]

@@milo3733 im american and i would say "two thousand and one"

[@edisyuksel-kilic7463]

Usually In the UK, if there are three identical numbers in a row e.g. 444 you say treble four, not triple four.

[@TaylorXIV]

Edis Yuksel-kilic really?? as an Aussie that says triple it sounds like your joking :P

[@farahali3032]

dont listen to him.. we say trouble 4 not treble 4.

[@edisyuksel-kilic7463]

True.

[@ryanleaf8704]

Triple is common in the U.S. but we still use treble in certain areas of society. For example, laws in the U.S. sometimes refer to 'treble damages' to mean three times the amount of damages. Likely a result of American law being based on British common law.

[@alexe184]

I use treble, and I'm scottish

[@Miranox2]

There is nothing confusing about saying 53 hundred. If you don't like it that's fine but don't try to justify it with bullshit like "it's less precise".

[@carlhartwell7978]

Fully expecting the totally nonsensical way Americans say dates to be mentioned... :-) **edit* /\ / \ I I I *THIS IS A JOKE* You guys are not doing the US stereotype of _not getting sarcasm/irony_ a great service.

[@kretisme]

@Joe Becker it's just whatever you are use to to me anyway probably because I have always used it it makes more sense to go days months year shortest amount of time to longest just like you though that's just me

[@04josrey]

@Joe Becker but equally you don't have to say the months name for example the 5th of the 2nd, 67 would be acceptable rather then February 5th 1967 or the 5th of February 1967 and so on

[@mf--]

Regardless of speach, the only correct way to write a date is yyyy-mm-dd.

[@04josrey]

@@mf-- according to what set of rules the way we write directly correlates with how we speak

[@carlhartwell7978]

@@mf-- No it isn't. A-D-A-T-E

[@nyxbi809]

Someone had way too much fun animating all of CGPs parts lol

[@alexfletcher5192]

Interesting vid. As a Brit, I'm almost incapable of saying two thousand one. My brain mentally edits in the 'and' before it reaches my mouth. I suppose that's how language conventions work.

[@balumacko]

what's weird to me is that in my native Hungarian I would literally say two thousand one, but in English I automatically add in the "and"

[@joewood5757]

even reading this my brain added the and

[@bacicinvatteneaca]

In French, for the tens that go from 20 to 80, the -one is always pronounced -and-one. Vingt-un feels REALLY weird, maybe because it's two nasal vowels in a row. We say vingt-et-un, trente-et-un, quarante-et-un, etc.

[@jellene4eva]

I would say two thousand one for year

[@grmpf]

@@bacicinvatteneaca The baffling thing about counting in French is how all sense of reason and practicality is completely thrown out of the window once you get past the 60s.

[@megandavis9072]

I'm English. I have never heard of elephant being used. It's hippopotamus!

[@maytums1672]

I'm from the South West and said 'Elephant' growing up.

[@sunnohh]

Dafuq?

[@heidibaltom8138]

Thats why it sounded strange. Im from the south and hipopotomus is used

[@megandavis9072]

@@heidibaltom8138 I'm from the south too! Never heard of it!

[@ShadowsOfTheSky]

I use 1 Banana 2 Banana 3 Banana, and my 1-10 Bananas is consistently 10 seconds, and my 1-30 Banana is usually within 29-31 seconds, but I say it as One baaananaaa, two baaananaaa three baaananaa

[@eburneentertainment9903]

I've never seen address numbers going on the opposite direction in the UK. Misaligned, sure, but I've only ever seen them incrementing in the same direction

[@Ghozer]

Have seen it (thought rarely) and usually on older streets in older towns.... Newer ones they bounce opposites... 1... 3...5...7 one side, and 2...4...6...8 on the other Older streets are often numbered in order from one end to the other, then back up the opposite side... I believe this was an old naming convention

[@sigoy]

Must be super rare because I had no idea what he was talking about, thought he was talking about American streets. In the North East here it’s odd on one side of the street, even on the other, both incrementing the same direction. This is the same in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Edinburgh and all other towns and cities I’ve lived in 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@journeymanmusic1038]

I've worked as a delivery driver. I have definitely seen it a number of times and it is very annoying. Haha.

[@dmail00]

House numbers increase as they get further away from the town, city ... centre. I can only imagine the street being on a boundry.

[@bluesz1bluesz17]

i came here to say the same thing

[@hkayakh]

This is the most animated CGP Grey has ever been