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I want to know why eleven is not called "onety one"? Since eleven comes after ten, why is not "onety one"? and why ten is not called onety ?

Rohit
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    Because that would be too easy, the universe does not work that way... – terdon Jun 05 '13 at 13:25
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    According to that logic you should start with the question "Why is ten not called onety"? – Joachim Sauer Jun 05 '13 at 13:27
  • @JoachimSauer agree with you, it can be – Rohit Jun 05 '13 at 13:28
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    No it can't. It's called ten. Have you seen the question linked in the sidebar? http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/7281/why-do-eleven-and-twelve-get-unique-words-and-not-end-in-teen?rq=1 – Andrew Leach Jun 05 '13 at 13:29
  • @AndrewLeach: I assumed that such a question exists, so the only thing left un-answered in this question is the "onety"/"ten" difference. – Joachim Sauer Jun 05 '13 at 13:34
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    Ten is not called onety because you have ten fingers and not nine. That part is actually extremely logical and straightforward. Besides, what do you think "ty" actually means? You suggest that we say "one ten" every time we want to say "ten". Now that is illogical. – RegDwigнt Jun 05 '13 at 14:23
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    @RegDwigнt We also say "one hundred" instead of "hundred". So your argument does not make sense. I don't get your comment about nine/ten either. It's like saying that we call the tentacles on our hands "fingers" because they're not toes. The nine/ten explanation is just not an explanation. – Timmos Mar 30 '15 at 08:11
  • @Timmos Sometimes we say "one hundred", other times we say "a hundred". Why? Because a hundred is often considered an object in its own right, but a ten is not (except in this very limited context where I was making a point). And the nine/ten explanation is relevant because the reason we use tens at all is because we have ten fingers, not nine or eight or eleven or twelve. – No Name Dec 19 '22 at 19:23

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I doubt you can find any reason why. This is a common feature of many languages, the first few numbers have their own "special" names, and the rest are built using a standard method like adding the -ty ending.

At least in Greek, English, French, Catalan and Spanish, the numbers 11 and 12 (and in the Latin ones, all the way up to 15) have special names. As far as I know this is the case of all Latin languages. Is it not so in your native tongue? Do you know of any language where the same rule makes the word for 11 and for 31?

terdon
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  • An answer in the question @Andrew linked to explains that "eleven" and "twelve" actually derive from words meaning "1+10" and "2+10". – Joachim Sauer Jun 05 '13 at 13:35
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    @JoachimSauer yes, so they do but my point is that they don't follow the same rules as the other numbers and that seems to be a general feature of most if not all Indoeuropean languages. – terdon Jun 05 '13 at 13:37