OT:Dialling 1471

[michael adams]

I just got a spam call which I didn't answer.

When phoning 1471 the automated voice gave the number as follows

0 double 1 7 4 5 6 3 double 2 3

(0117 456 3223)

If a person is slow at writing things down isn't it better if the av gave the numbers one at a time

0 1 1 7 and 3 2 2 3

Because as it is, you have to wait for the av to say "double" before you know which number you're going to have to write down at twice the speed of the other numbers. Not the end of the world but it seems a strange way of going about things.

michael adams

...

[John]

Good though process. Should be said "Two doubled"

[michael adams]

I can't see what's wrong in just saying "two two"

I can't honestly believe anyone is going to wonder "did it just say two, or two two" ?

As its an automated voice its not as though they have to save on the number of twos they're allowed to say or anything.

michael adams

...

[whisky-dave]

Interesting point as I/we have this problem today with our electronics lab induction video. How should we say the emergrnacy number to contact security which is 3333 should we say 3 3 3 3 or double 3 double 3 , or 3, treble 3 etc.

of couse not forgeting that a significant number or students whose their first langauge isn't English.

[Davey]

In all the many years I lived in the USA, I never heard the 'double -X' form used. It was a shock returning to live here and having to get used to it again, and it still confuses.

[Andrew]

Do it the German way ?. five and twenty blackbirds ..

[Clive Arthur]

<snip>

Fish, chips and peas twice?

Bingo!

[Jethro_uk]

From memory French phone numbers are always quoted in pairs.

so 1234567890 becomes twelve,thirty four, fifty six,seventy eight,ninety

Although, weirdly, the numbered range of Fiats (for those that can remember) which were one-two-five in English, were the full fat cento venticinque ... although the 500 (topolino) was the same in both

Bloody foreigners eh ?

[Broadback]

A little off topic, but why do people say "two times" and not twice?

[John]

My parents used to say "Five and twenty past" for 25 past!!!

[Clive Arthur]

Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie.

Cheers

[NY]

The Germans and the Dutch still use the "four and twenty blackbirds" units-before-the-tens notation for counting: "vier und zwanzig Amsel" in German.

They also say phone numbers as pairs of digits with tens-and-units significance - ie "twenty four forty seven", rather than "two four four seven" with pauses every two or three digits.

This gives rise to the hilarious sight of a German person taking down a phone number: they write the digits in the order that they hear them so they write down the 4 of four-and-twenty, then the 2 to the left of it, then forward three spaces, 7 of seven-and-forty, then 4 to the left of it. You'd think that they would mentally buffer the two digits of each group and write them in the opposite order to what they hear, so they are writing continuously left to right, but I've watched several people when I was at meetings in Germany and they do the one step back, three steps forward dance with their pen.

[NY]

And why do broadcasters refer to "half of one percent" rather than "nought point five percent" - and yet they are happy to say "three point five percent". For that matter, why do newspapers always use the suffix "pc" for percent: "25pc" rather than "25%", especially in body text rather than headlines?

[Davey]

Americans also use 'one-half' of something. And 'fortnights' completely throw them.

[Adam Funk]

It's even more fun in French:

(cartoon)

[NY]

The German four-and-twenty-blackbirds counting is archaic, but the French four-twenties-eleven counting is just plain weird. At least other French-speaking countries have invented some or all of the following: seventy (septante), eighty (huitante) and ninety (nonante).

[Chris Green]

Which produces some interesting ambiguities with the french for 80 which is 'quatre vingts'.

[Chris Green]

My granny used that form to me when I was about six or seven years old, I was *very* confused! :-)

[charles]

certaintly in English people have said "ten score and ten". It's in a nursery rhyme.

[Chris Green]

Yes, but it varies a bit from country to country I think.