Six of One, A Half Dozen of the Other

Here's one for the Quirky Trivia to Keep in Your Back Pocket file. Feel free to bring it up at the Office Christmas Party when you're talking to the boss' husband and can't think of anything else to say.

The one-to-ten numbering system in Portuguese is pretty simple: um(a), dois, três, quatro, cinco, seis, sete, oito, nove, dez [yes, it looks like Spanish, except it isn't!]. Six is seis except when it's not. Then it's meia or half. Half a dozen that is. Let me back up.

Six is six when it's part of a figure. Six hundred dollars. Six o'clock. Sixty-three books. A hundred and six caipirinhas. On the other hand, six becomes meia or half when it is part of a series - telephone numbers, credit card numbers, hotel rooms, bank accounts, etc. The reason is to not confuse it with três - or three - which sounds similar, especially over the phone. So the phone number 465-3066 would read four-half-five-three-zero-half-half.

It's funny to think that six would become half in a base-ten system, but I digress....