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"twenty" in seven languages

Meaningtwenty

Spanish

veinte

/ˈbeinte/

inherited

French

vingt

/vɛ̃/

inherited

Italian

venti

/ˈventi/

inherited

With a close e; vènti with an open e is 'winds'.

Portuguese

vinte

/ˈvĩtʃi/

inherited

Romanian

douăzeci

/dowəˈzetʃʲ/

other source · Romanian compound două zeci 'two tens'

Romanian lost VĪGINTĪ and the other Latin tens, building them all as 'two tens', 'three tens'…

Catalan

vint

/bin/

inherited

English

twenty

/ˈtwɛnti/

Indo-European kin · PIE *dwóh₁ + *déḱm̥ 'ten'

English → ItaliantwentyventiDistant cognateRelated only through Indo-European, thousands of years back (night ~ noche). But English has relatives: vigesimal.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

VĪGINTĪ‘twenty’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

VĪGINTĪ lost its G between vowels in speech. In French, vingt is the root of the old count by twenties: quatre-vingts.

English relatives: vigesimal

Sound laws at work

B and V merge in Spanish

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In a sentence

  • esTengo veinte años.
  • frJ'ai vingt ans.
  • itHo vent'anni.
  • ptTenho vinte anos.
  • roAm douăzeci de ani.
  • caTinc vint anys.
  • enI'm twenty years old.

More in Numbers

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