Why do we say "eleven" instead if something like "onety-one"?

by Connor_wuz_here

We do that for all other numbers (ie thirty-two). Why not for the teens?

CopperRoyce

if you have access, the OED is your friend. fourteen and thirtytwo are actually structured mostly the same way. fourteen is an inflected way of saying essentially four ten derived from the german sources.

from OED definition of -teen

In early Old English, as in the cognate langs., the simple numerals, from four upwards, had an inflected and an uninflected form, the latter commonly used before a n., seofon dagas, the former in other positions, e.g. swa ealle seofone. The inflected forms were ns. of the -i declension, with nominative pl. in -e (neut. -u, -o). Subsequently these forms were levelled, the numerals up to twelve retaining the uninflected form, those from thirteen to nineteen the inflected, as teon, ten, fiftēne, fifteen. In Middle English the final -e of -tēne, -teene became mute; in modern English -teen it is no longer written, but the stem vowel remains long.

So this works for everything except 11 and 12. both of their pre germanic origins are uncertain but they both "really" mean something like 1 or 2 left over after 10 so while the form is different the basic argument is the same.

fyijesuisunchat

The -ven element in eleven and twelve is unknown, but probably means something like "left over". -teen is related to ten. This is a linguistics post however, and you'd likely get more in-depth answers in /r/linguistics or something.