Your Arabic Lesson For The Day

English has two forms of numbers. I don't know how they're categorized, what they're called, but it's the difference between "one," and "first." They're the same number, but used in two different ways. Okay?

Arabic has three forms of numbers. You have the "one," the "first," and the "formal one" used for such things as telling time. We spent days figuring out the formal or "ordinal" number system for telling time, grueling over it, only for him to tell us (once we had it all figured out) that in Arabic speaking countries if you're just talking to somebody they won't actually use the ordinal number; they'll just tell you the time using the regular or "cardinal" numbers.

But the numbers are even more fun than that.

If you want to say you have two of something, you can't say you have two of something. You have to add a suffix onto the object that means you have two of something.

If you have 3-10 "somethings," you make the noun plural. If you have 11-100 of that same "something," the noun becomes singular AND feminine.

I have 3 cards.

I have 12 card.

I have 97 card.

I have confusion.

A Note

Dear Reviewes on AllRecipes.com,

I understand that you want to make people feel good about themselves, and that it's really hard to give something a bad rating. I even understand saying that a recipe was good, but just needed an extra touch of this, or dash of that.

However, if you have to detail in your review more than 3 steps you took to make it just right, you should be writing your own recipe, not a review!

Thank you.
~J