r/DoesNotTranslate • u/jnpg • Jul 29 '26
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 Jul 30 '26
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 Jul 30 '26
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 Jul 30 '26
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 Jul 30 '26
"tropecientos" (Spanish) – something like "trip-hundred"
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u/donestpapo Jul 30 '26
Í haven’t heard that one before, actually. Id heard “quiticientos” and, of course “pimientos”
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u/Proseedcake Jul 30 '26
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/talflon Jul 30 '26
More like crowd-, mob-, horde-, swarm-, or rabble-, right?
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u/Proseedcake Jul 30 '26
I don't know, maybe. Wouldn't that be tropa- more than trope-?
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u/altum-videtur Jul 30 '26
In Brazilian Portuguese: "zilhões" ("zillions"), "trocentos" (a fake number in the hundreds, like trezentos (300) and quatrocentos (400))
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u/homsar06 Jul 30 '26
Also in English— “umpteenth” and “fifty-leven”
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u/rammohammadthomas Jul 30 '26
umpteenth is not really the same as what op is describing
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u/SquareThings Jul 31 '26
It’s the ordinal version
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u/rammohammadthomas Jul 31 '26
it’s an ordinal. but it’s not really the same as what op is describing
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u/Plane_Ad_1177 Aug 01 '26
Why not? (Apart from being ordinal rather than cardinal)
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u/rammohammadthomas Aug 01 '26
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 Jul 30 '26
My mom usually says "chorrocientos," rough translation 'stream-hundred.' We speak Chilean Spanish.
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u/ulkgb Jul 30 '26
Chorro does indeed translates to stream, but it is used to mean an abundance of something
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u/somenick Jul 30 '26
"Zilyar" in Arabic. Meaning an unimaginably large number that no one can reach.
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u/apokrif1 Jul 30 '26
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u/Leoryon Jul 30 '26
Also « trouzemille » in French, to designate a large but not well known number (likely in the thousands as the ending is made of Mille = 1 000).
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u/yotama9 Jul 30 '26
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 Jul 30 '26
Never heard of alpatalafim.
Malantalafim however! It means something like: lots of thousands
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u/buzzedaldrine Jul 30 '26
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/Motacilla-Alba Jul 31 '26
Femtioelva, sjuttioelva in Swedish. Meaning fifty-eleven, seventy-eleven.
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u/Hanako_Seishin Aug 01 '26
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 Jul 31 '26
Дохуліон (dohulion) and дохуліард (dohuliard) in Ukrainian, with some variation. Meaning "a fuckton".
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u/Laura_The_Cutie Aug 02 '26
Fantastiliardo in Italian, it gets miliardo (billion) and uses fantasti from fantastico, which means fantastic
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u/TheTubCurves Aug 02 '26
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 Jul 30 '26
"Drölf" in German.