we say sixty six seventy seven etc why dont we say onety one?

Answer 1

cos if we did you wouldn't ask such questions and we wouldnt have a great laugh and then we would be short of 2 mins of good laughs which means we would be short of half day of good cardiovascular condition which means that we would live x-12 hrs.

so thanx for giving us another 12 hrs of living...

Answer 2

If by onety one, you mean the number we know as "eleven", the question would be better asked: "Why not oneteen, twoteen, threeteen, in keeping with the rest of the teens?". "Thirteen" is kind of close to "threeteen" but eleven and twelve seem like two ad hoc terms created without reason. Maybe years ago oneteen and twoteen were deemed too hard to say or didn't sound "melodic". Or perhaps, since both eleven and twelve have an "el" and a "ve" combination, maybe this is some kind of "Olde Englishe" contraction of oneteen and twoteen? But I suppose this just begs the further question: "Well, ok then, why not threelve, fourlve, filve, etc.?".

Answer 3

Because unlike sixty and seventy there isnt a word onety.

Answer 4

Because it all BEGAN with a counting system based on "ten". The terms "twenty", "thirty" etc. are derived from compound words meaning "two tens", "three tens", etc. There was hardly a need to begin with a term meaning "one ten" when we already had "ten".
http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?twenty

So the question we're left with is why we have this odd system from eleven to nineteen. Actually, thirteen to nineteen aren't so odd, since they simply mean "three and ten", "four and teen", etc. The order may be different from "twenty three", but the principle is the same.

So, what of "eleven" and "twelve"? The first part isn't too hard. "Eleven" goes back to Middle English "en-leven", whose first syllable is a relative of "an/ane" meaning "one", and the "tw-" of "twelve" gives away its connection to "two". So we can sort of see that these two have something to do with the system of counting by ten. In fact, the original meaning of these two words was "one left" and "two left" (after counting to ten).

Here's how it happened:
"What about the anomalous eleven and twelve? Why do we not say oneteen, twoteen along the same pattern as thirteen, fourteen, fifteen? Eleven in Old English is endleofan, and related forms in the various Germanic languages point back to an original Germanic *ainlif, "eleven." *Ainlif is composed of *ain-, "one," the same as our one, and the suffix *-lif from the Germanic root *lib-, "to adhere, remain, remain left over." Thus, eleven is literally "one-left" (over, that is, past ten), and twelve is "two-left" (over past ten)."
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dict.asp?Word=eleven

Finally, the reason "eleven" and "twelve" did not end up simply comforming to the "teen" pattern is that these were common, well-established forms. And it is precisely the common, everyday words that are LEAST likely to submit to "rules". (That's why the "irregular" past tense verb forms -- had, were, went, etc-- and irregular plural forms --men, mice, geese-- are almost always found with simple, common words.)

Of course, there were some alternative forms out there. We still use an alternative word for twelve -- "do-zen" itself shows us that (compare German "zehn")-- though it has gained its own special use (for a GROUPING of twelve). In fact, the fact that many things were divided into units of twelve also helps explain why eleven and twelve were treated differently. (Note that the use of twelve has ancient roots. See for example the Mesopotamian mathematical system, which used both six [and its double twelve] and ten --and gave us our 12 hours, 60 seconds, etc) That is NOT to say that these number names originated in counting by twelve, simply that the later USE of twelve contributed to the names' not being changed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodecimal#Origin

Answer 5

The hobbits in Lord of the Rings celebrate Bilbo's eleventy-oneth birthday, if I remember rightly ...

Answer 6

then how would we say 12 or 13 ?

Answer 7

b'cos it start from twenty something and the one with 1 is 11, only if we want to say eleventy

Answer 8

Bilbo said eleventy something

Answer 9

because then we'd have to say twoty-two and threety-three and there is a limit to how far anyone is going to humor you

Answer 10

nobody is stopping u from doing so...well thanks for asking a ques i could answer.

also try saying twoty -two,,threety- three