kids puzzle

[Guest]

What is the first number, that has the frist letter of the alphabet in it, when you write the numbers out consecutively, in word from? (start with zero)

[unreality]

one

two

three

four

five

six

seven

eight

nine

ten

eleven

twelve

thirteen

fourteen

fifteen

sixteen

seventeen

eighteen

nineteen

twenty

twenty-one

twenty-two

(...)

twenty-nine

thirty

(...)

forty

(...)

fifty

(I'm guessing one thousand right about now...)

sixty,seventy,eighty,ninety

one hundred

Aha!

one-hundred-and-one

[Guest]

It's not one hundred AND one. It's one hundred, one. One hundred and one is 100.1. In english, the AND denotes a decimal place. Properly speaking it's a sentence fragment because you have to identify the portion of the whole number the "and" refers to, such as "one hundred and one tenth" or "on hundred and one thousandth." I know you hear it a lot, but it's incorrect usage to place an AND in a number when you aren't speaking about a decimal.

Edit: Or, the "and" can be indication of an equation like One hundred and one is one hundred, one. 100+1 = 101.

[unreality]

That's what we do in America

AND=addition

one hundred AND one

100 (and) 1

101

[bonanova]

I agree with one thousand.

We don't say, for example, twenty and three for 23,

nor one hundred and forty and seven for 147.

Sorry, I should say, maybe some do say that; I don't.

[Guest]

Tim didn't indicate in which direction we should count, so I'd like to throw in

zero, negative one

[Guest]

I would say the answer is 2.

That has the first letter of 'The alphabet' namely 'T'

Seriously though, I'm with unreality on this, in England, where English comes from , the conventional way of counting is to say 'One-Hundred-And-One' (eg proof, if proof be needed, is the book / story / film "101 dalmations", this is never refered to when speaking as "One Hundred, One Dalamations", burt as One-Hundred and One Dalmations". QED)

[Guest]

The usage is, in fact, improper modern English. Using "One hundred and one" as 101 is a throwback to old English where you would say, for example, "four and twenty black birds" to convey 24 or "Four score and seven" to convey 87. In fact, you can find it's proper use in the language as late as 1918. In modern English, and specifically with the rise of English as the language of technology in the world, the usage is deemed improper as confusing when you use decimals. 101.01. One hundred and one and one hundredth or one hundred one and one hundredth: the latter is a clearer expression of thought and therefore preferred.

I agree that one hundred and one is used prolifically in most, if not all, English speaking countries. And maybe the usage is that of the commoner, where most of the English language comes from. But, there are three kinds of grammar rules to be had. The first are types like the rule that defines usage of “but" or "and" to begin a sentence. These are merely "rules" that have been promulgated to prevent certain kinds of misuse, but that are correct in other contexts. The rule for "but" and "and" beginning a sentence is there to guard against using sentence fragments, but when you have a complete clause or thought, it's fine to start the sentence with these words.

The second type of rules are hard and fast rules that almost nobody can violate without sounding drunk or like an idiot. These are rules like "articles come before nouns." You wouldn't say "I drove car the."

The third type of rules are promulgated for clarity in expression. This is where we find "One hundred and one." It's similar to using a split infinitive: for example, "That horse is known to really run fast." That might sound ok to you; but it is, in fact, improper English. The same is the use of "ain't" in the place of “are not.” It's use is frowned upon because it's really a contraction of "aren't not" which is a double negative - another type of language use frowned upon for lack of clarity in expression.

Class dismissed.

[bonanova]

It's use is frowned upon because it's really a contraction of ...

I can think of at least one other common oochie

[Guest]

HA! Got me. Hard as I try....