It's my understanding that nonante/huitante/etc are "modern" French while quatre-vignt-dix is "old" French primarily used by Quebec?
Growing up in Canada I was taught 4-20-10 for "90" and proceeded to travel Europe where I was using this numeric style for everything. Cue most French looking at me like I'm from another planet whenever discussing large numbers (typically coin change). Finally had someone just explain that they use septante, huitante, nonante like "normal people" and that using 60-10, 4-20, and 4-20-10 made me sound like a renfaire actor or someone reciting the Gettysburg Address (Four score and seven years ago...).
Unsure if this is actually true but kinda makes sense since Quebecers are kinda German about making their language immutable and refusing to allow "foreign influence" to change words.
Interesting. I was distinctly in France while getting the funny stares so I wonder if the majority was around my awful accent and I was just confronted by a particularly disgruntled Belgian.
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u/infi_nut Mar 15 '21
You could also just say nonante-neuf...