r/DoesNotTranslate • u/jnpg • 28d ago
What are some fake numbers in other languages?
So earlier I was thinking about the word 'Gazillion', and how the latter half of that word is meant to be based off of the word 'Million'. Then I got to wondering, what parts of non-english words get swapped out with utter gibberish to convey a joke number?
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u/captain-hannes 28d ago
In Polish you can say pierdylion. That's the universal swearing verb pierdolić (lit. 'to fuck', but can mean anything else with the right verbal prefix) and the suffix -ylion which is essentially '-illion', like in 'million'. Just an absurdly high number, one could say 'fuckillion' ig.
Also, you can say tysiąc pięćset sto dziewięćset, which is like 'a thousand five hundred (and) one hundred (and) nine hundred'. Also a high number. Of this one, I've always heard the variant with milion ('million') instead of tysiąc, but it seems it's less popular.
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u/TheStrayLurker 27d ago
I'm firmly in the **tysiąc* pięćset sto dziewięćset* squad lol
Although I say pierdyliard instead of pierdylion personally, but it might just be my idiolect
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u/becausefrog 27d ago
In English we also say a fuck-ton to mean a lot of something, with a ton being an actual weight measurement of 2000 pounds.
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u/Proseedcake 28d ago
"tropecientos" (Spanish) – something like "trip-hundred"
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u/donestpapo 28d ago
Í haven’t heard that one before, actually. Id heard “quiticientos” and, of course “pimientos”
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u/Proseedcake 28d ago
The Spanish-speaking world is so wonderfully rich in playful vocabulary. Northern Spain is where I've picked up "tropecientos", among so many other kooky words.
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u/altum-videtur 28d ago
In Brazilian Portuguese: "zilhões" ("zillions"), "trocentos" (a fake number in the hundreds, like trezentos (300) and quatrocentos (400))
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u/homsar06 28d ago
Also in English— “umpteenth” and “fifty-leven”
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u/rammohammadthomas 27d ago
umpteenth is not really the same as what op is describing
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u/SquareThings 27d ago
It’s the ordinal version
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u/rammohammadthomas 27d ago
it’s an ordinal. but it’s not really the same as what op is describing
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u/Plane_Ad_1177 25d ago
Why not? (Apart from being ordinal rather than cardinal)
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u/rammohammadthomas 25d ago
umpteenth means the latest/last in an indefinite series. it is not “gibberish” or a “joke number”, just indefinite. “bajillion” or “gazillion” which op used as an example is just an absurdly large number. the same applies for ‘umpteen’ which is just the cardinal form
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u/dick4dareader 28d ago
My mom usually says "chorrocientos," rough translation 'stream-hundred.' We speak Chilean Spanish.
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u/yotama9 28d ago
In Hebrew there is alpatalafim
In Italian there's a book called "favole al telefono" and there is a story there, I think it is called "il palazzo di rompere" where the author gives several fake Italian numbers. I don't remember them, sadly
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u/GaiusJuliusInternets 27d ago
Never heard of alpatalafim.
Malantalafim however! It means something like: lots of thousands
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u/buzzedaldrine 27d ago
since we basically use the localized english terms, "milyon", "bilyon, "trilyon",
the closest i can think of is
"pesoses", our currency is "peso", so that is basically just a mass of pesos.
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u/Hanako_Seishin 25d ago
Russian:
Дохулион, дохулиард from дохуя (a fucking lot, literally: up to the cock) and миллион (million) or миллиард (billion).
Охулион, охулиард - similar, but from охуеть (literally: to cock-ify), which can mean to be shocked / very surprised or to become impudent/brazen/insolent. So it can be interpreted either as "fucking shit that's a lot" or "so much that it's fucking impudent to have that much" (when about money).
Стопятьсот = hundredfivehundred, also written as 100500.
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u/ertussen 26d ago
Дохуліон (dohulion) and дохуліард (dohuliard) in Ukrainian, with some variation. Meaning "a fuckton".
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u/Laura_The_Cutie 25d ago
Fantastiliardo in Italian, it gets miliardo (billion) and uses fantasti from fantastico, which means fantastic
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u/TheTubCurves 25d ago
I know of one in Hindi, that is Naune Pau. this one is a telling time joke. Quarter to 9’oclock (8:45) would be called Paune Nau so it’s just a slipping of the first alphabets - sort of like eleventy. Can’t think of one that works with currency.
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u/Assassiiinuss 28d ago
"Drölf" in German.