Why isn't the number 11 pronounced onety one?
By curioguy123
@curioguy123 (36)
Philippines
June 11, 2010 10:30pm CST
I know for some this question makes you crazy thinking. But is it not odd to pronounced number 11 as onety one? You call 12 as twelve, you call 13 as thirteen but why number 11 as eleven? Can anyone explain this?
4 responses
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
17 Jun 10
I guess for the same reason it isn't pronounced "leven-teen" like alot of kids pronounce it!
@mario_stevens (6971)
• Malaysia
17 Jun 10
because when it came to giving names to numbers, there were a group of men who got together for a discussion about it...and then this elf butted into the group discussion when they reached the number 'ten'. and then the elf wanted to suggest a name for the next number, so he suggested 'elven'. but then it was protested, because 'elven' already refers to something which belongs to the elves, and they wanted this number to belong to mankind.. so to compromise (because the group was getting tired of the elf being there), the group and the elf decided to call it 'eleven'. which sounds close enough to 'elven', which made the elf happy and he merrily went away.
and that's how the number eleven came to be..
@my_name_is_coco (4333)
• Philippines
13 Jun 10
it looks odd.it even sounds odd.the letter look a bit confusing to me.personally,saying 'onety-one' is a bit tiring.it sounds like a tongue twister.I would rather say "she sells seashells by the seashore" many times than say "onety-one" once.
