Can anyone tell me why 30 is spelt dreissig in german rather than dreizig?

Question

Can anyone tell me why 30 is spelt dreissig in german rather than dreizig?

Answer 1

Pronunciation:

Dreissig = <dry-sig>

Dreisig = <dry-zig>

Dreizig = <dry-tsig>

I don't know the etymological reason, but as you can see, they're definitely not pronounced the same.

Answer 2

because 'z' in german is pronounced 'ts'

10 in german is zehn not zig.

same reason in english ten is not just added to 20,30.40 etc

otherwise it wold be ten, twenten, thirtten etc.

after eleven zehn is used up to nineteen - neunzehn etc.

who cares anyway ask a german language expert, i'm sure not even german natives know the reason.

do you understand all the nuances of your native language? probably not.

Answer 3

Because it is!

Answer 4

Because spelling doesn't necessarily have to make sense?

Especially as a speaker of English you should be aware of that.

"How you ought properly to spell "fish" in English: "ghoti". "gh" as in "laugh," "o" as in "women," and "ti" as in "nation"," (George Bernard Shaw)

Answer 5

Drei is 3, right?

and zig is probably 10, so when you push them together the z turns to an s.

We have some things like this in Spanish, too.

You could ask your German teacher.

Edit:

I don't know, I am not German Speaker, I am Spanish speaker.

Answer 6

The word "dreißig" comes from the Old High German word "drīzuc", but because the Germanic "t" after a vowel changes to "s", the "z" disappeared in favor of a "ß".