[wodenokoto]

While the numbers have interesting etymological roots, in practice we just have more "named" numbers than most similar languages. English has special vocabulary with obvious roots for all tens up to 100 and ordinals are regular except first, second and third.

In Danish we just have a lot more irregular ordinals. Practically no-one in Denmark knows about the 20-based number system.

> A Scandinavist language reform movement tried to get the 20-based forms replaced by 10-based like Norwegian and Swedish have. With absolutely no success.

Danes are unusually stubborn that way.

[Symbiote]

I asked a younger Dane how to say "sixtieth" (for example). She couldn't tell me -- she only know how to say "number sixty". Even the textbook only gave ordinal numbers up to 31, for giving the date.

Every Dane I've asked just knows the numbers. It's confusing for foreigners, since many (most?) also know at least two other European languages. When I hear "tres" I'm thinking "three", and it obviously does mean three. It's difficult to think "sixty" instead.

[wodenokoto]

That's a great anecdote! I don't think I knew how to produce the ordinals above 39 consistently for most of my life either. And I've probably said "fyrrende" instead of "fyrretyvende" more than once!

That's the thing about irregular words: if they are rare, native speakers tend to use the regular form, and in this case we have a peculiar situation where there is no regular form!

When learning the 10's in Danish, I think it is very important to leave logic behind and not look for a system. As a kid I had a lot of trouble with 50 and 60 and eventually settled on "the one with "half" is smaller than the one without" and did the same with 70 and 80.