Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

Numerals and quantifiers 873
(7) a. vijfentwintighonderd a′. tweeduizend vijfhonderd [2,500]
b. drieënveertighonderd b′. vierduizend driehonderd [4,300]
c. vierentachtighonderd c′. achtduizend vierhonderd [8,400]
d. tweeënnegentighonderd d′. negenduizend tweehonderd [9,2000]
This does not hold, at least not in colloquial speech, for the numbers 2100, 3100,
etc. These numbers are normally expressed by means of the regular compound with
–honderd; using the forms in the primed examples of (8) is possible provided that
the numeral één is included but it feels somewhat emphatic and artificial.
(8) a. éénentwintighonderd a′. tweeduizend *(één) honderd [2,100]
b. éénendertighonderd b′. drieduizend *(één) honderd [3,100]
c. éénenveertighonderd c′. vierduizend *(één) honderd [3,100]
Compound forms with -honderd are never used for the multiples of 1000 in (9a-d).
The same thing holds for numbers over 10,000. This is illustrated in (9e).
(9) a. duizend a′. *tienhonderd [1,000]
b. tweeduizend b′. *twintighonderd [2,000]
c. drieduizend c′. *dertighonderd [3,000]
d. tienduizend d′. *honderdhonderd [10,000]
e. tienduizend vijfhonderd e′. *honderdenvijfhonderd [10,500]
II. Compound numerals of which the first part exceeds 1000
Occasionally, the first part of a compound-like form is a numeral higher than 1000,
as in the primeless examples of (10). In these cases speakers tend to use yet another
way of expressing the number, examples of which are given in the primed
examples. This option is restricted to fairly round figures; for other cases see the
examples in (13) below.
(10) a. twaalfhonderd duizend a′. één komma twee miljoen [1,200,000]
twelve hundred thousand one comma two million
b. twaalfhonderd miljoen b′. één komma twee miljard [1,200,000,000]
twelve hundred million one comma two billion
c. twaalfhonderd biljoen c′. één komma twee biljoen [1,200,000,000,000]
twelve hundred billion one comma two quadrillion
Of course, this way of expressing the numerals in (10) is related to the fact that in
Dutch the comma is used to divide a whole number from a decimal portion instead
of the period (as in English). Thus, één komma twee miljoen corresponds to one
point two million in English.
III. Numerals preceded by an article and/or (ander-)half
The second and third columns of the table in (5) show that the orthographic
conventions are somewhat complex: the compound-like forms derived from
honderd ‘hundred’ and duizend are treated as single words, whereas the complex
forms based on miljoen, miljard and biljoen are written as two separate words. This
may be related to the fact that the latter forms seem to have noun-like properties that
are missing, or at least less prominent, in the case of honderd and duizend. Two of