Two and Forty: How German numerals screw with my head

The German language has a very odd way of expressing numerals higher than 20. Probably not as odd as French, but definitely odd enough to screw up my brain for the rest of my life. In German, we call the number 42 “zweiundvierzig”, which literally means “two and forty”, whereas English uses the much more logical combination “forty-two”. However, if you look at the numerals between 11 and 19, you might notice that English and German use the same system: “thirteen” and “dreizehn” are identical – a result of tradition. But why exactly do Germans not use “vierzig-zwei”? This is […]