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 Wed Aug 16, 2006 11:17 am Numbers |
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Hi Tamara,
Reversing the numbers as you have indicated sounds a bit quaint to me - almost rustic. Sometimes with numbers you could reverse the digits purely for clarification if someone had misheard you but not in general use.
This reversal reminds me of a nursery rhyme:
| Quote: | Sing a song of sixpence
AKA blackbirds in a pie
Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,
Oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?
The king was in his counting house counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose
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And that goes way back in history.
Alan
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Tamara
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| Thu Aug 17, 2006 18:25 pm She was about five-and-twenty |
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As far as I remember reversing the numbers is far more common in German  |
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Pamela
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| Thu Aug 17, 2006 19:20 pm 396, 000 'five-and-twenties' |
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Pamela, if you google 'five-and-twenty' (just it!!!), you will be given by 396,000 (!) examples. And many contexts sound (at least for me) quite 'English'...
I only asked about modern use of the reversion.
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Tamara
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| Sat Aug 19, 2006 15:38 pm She was about five-and-twenty |
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Hi,
Please read the following sentences, i abstracted it from "Pride and Prejudice".
（Mrs Bennet visited her sick daughter , Miss Bennet. This unpleasant conversation happened between her and Mr Darcy. )
(Mrs Bennet) " Certainly, nobody said there were; but as to not meeting with many people in this neighbourhood, I believe there are few neighbourhoods larger. I know we dine with four and twenty families."
I wonder if she meant she knew many families, four and twenty is just an emblematic statement or something else?( 24?) 
FangFang |
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FangFang
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| Sat Aug 19, 2006 15:51 pm Jane Austen |
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Hi FangFang,
You're right. Mrs Bennet in this novel by Jane Austen is well known for two things: she can't stop talking much to the embarrassment of the long suffering Mr Bennet and also her determination to promote her daughters with the intention of getting them married. In this conversation she is not going to be put off by what she considers the grandness of Mr Darcy and so she maintains they live in a large neighbourhood and also she dines with many families. She therefore plucks the number four and twenty out of the air just because it sounds good and suggests they live in the world of high society.
Alan
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| 'Few', 'A few', 'Many' etc! | If ever there was a decision... |
) 'five-and-twenty' - OK.