# fortnight



## merquiades

Hello everyone,
The British have a noun, "fortnight", referring to two-week's time (15 days).  I am curious to know if there is a similar noun in other languages?
Americans just usually express the idea in a different way:  We stay there for two weeks, a two-week stay.
Thanks in advance


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## Yendred

In French, we may say "_quinzaine_", refering to the number _quinze _(15), but it is generally used in the expression "_sous quinzaine_" (within a fortnight).
The most common translation is just "_quinze jours_" (15 days) or "_deux semaines_" (two weeks).


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## Stoggler

merquiades said:


> Hello everyone,
> The British have a noun, "fortnight", referring to two-week's time (15 days).  I am curious to know if there is a similar noun in other languages?
> Thanks in advance



A fortnight is 14 days, not 15.


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## TheCrociato91

There's *no* single word for "fortnight" in Italian, at least as far as I know. Aside from "two weeks" (_due settimane_), like in French we often speak of "fifteen days" (_quindici giorni, una quindicina (di giorni)_) instead of "fourteen" to denote a two-week period. Not sure why. 

https://www.wordreference.com/enit/fortnighthttps://dizionari.corriere.it/dizionario_inglese/Inglese/F/fortnight.shtmlhttps://dizionari.repubblica.it/Inglese-Italiano/F/fortnight.html?refresh_ce


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## Yendred

TheCrociato91 said:


> like in French we often speak of "fifteen days" (_quindici giorni, una quindicina (di giorni)_) instead of "fourteen" to denote a two-week period. Not sure why.



This thread in the French forum gives a few hypothesis about it, and points out that several languages are used to make 2 weeks and 15 days equal:
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/15-jours-2-semaines.840441/


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## merquiades

Yendred said:


> In French, we may say "_quinzaine_", refering to the number _quinze _(15), but it is generally used in the expression "_sous quinzaine_" (within a fortnight).
> The most common translation is just "_quinze jours_" (15 days) or "_deux semaines_" (two weeks).


 In French you have to specify "une quinzaine de jours" right?  It is not possible to say just "la quinzaine".
@TheCrociato91    So in Italian you can use La quindicina as a noun?  La quindicina que eravamo a Bellagio....


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## Stoggler

merquiades said:


> Well, it's two weeks.  That's half a month, so 15 days, as far as I'm concerned.



The British English word ‘fortnight’ means 14 days, it’s as simple as that. I’ve never heard anyone use it in any other way, and I’ve yet to find a dictionary definition that differs from that.


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## Yendred

Doesn't _fortnight_ mean "fourteen nights", and as such, 15 days?
When you stay for a fortnight in a hotel,  you stay for 14 nights, you arrive e.g. on Saturday, and two weeks later, you leave on Saturday. From Saturday to Saturday, this is 15 days.


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## Stoggler

It’s two weeks, 14 days.  That’s how the word is used.

When counting x number of days hence, we don’t include the day we’re already on in the count: don’t know if that helps explain why there may be some confusion about this.



Yendred said:


> When you stay for a fortnight in a hotel,  you stay for 14 nights, you arrive e.g. on Saturday, and two weeks later, you leave on Saturday. From Saturday to Saturday, this is 15 days.



When booking accommodation we generally specify number of nights.


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## Yendred

merquiades said:


> In French you have to specify "une quinzaine de jours" right? It is not possible to say just "la quinzaine".



Well, familiarly you can hear "_une quinzaine_", implying "_une quinzaine de jours_" if the context is clear, but it's particularity common in the expression "_sous quinzaine_", for example:
_Vous recevrez votre colis sous quinzaine _(You will receive your parcel within fifteen days)


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## merquiades

Yendred said:


> Well, familiarly you can hear "_une quinzaine_", implying "_une quinzaine de jours_" if the context is clear, but it's particularity common in the expression "_sous quinzaine_", for example:
> _Vous recevrez votre colis sous quinzaine _(You will receive your parcel within fifteen days)


Right, so it's not an established noun per se, to be extrapolated to any context...
In the US, without having a noun, people tend to count in weeks rather than days.   _You'll receive the package within two weeks.   I'll be staying at the Intercontinental hotel for two week_s (time).  If you want to be technical they will include all days and nights and say "Y_ou'll enjoy a 14 night, 15 day all inclusive stay on board the Proud Mary_..."


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## TheCrociato91

@merquiades Yes, you can. Although I can't say how frequently it's used. I rarely hear without the noun, but it does exist. 

quindicina
/quin·di·cì·na/
_sostantivo femminile_

Serie omogenea di 15 unità, elementi, oggetti, per lo più con valore approssimativo (preceduto in tal caso dall'articolo indeterminato).
"due q. di rose"
*ASSOL.
Quindici giorni, o due settimane.
"ho fissato la pensione al mare per la prima q. di agosto"*
ESTENS.
Quindici giorni di lavoro o la relativa retribuzione.
"riscuotere la q."


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## Circunflejo

In Spanish, there's _catorcena _but it's a rare word; even more to talk about 14 days, although you can find some (odd) examples of its use with that meaning. The usual for 14 days would be dos semanas (two weeks). On the other hand, quincena (15 days) is a usual word.


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## Perseas

In Greek:
Two weeks: δύο εβδομάδες [ð*i*o evðom*a*ðes]
Fifteen days time: δεκαπενθήμερο [ðekapenθ*i*mero]

In some cases, wages in Greece are paid on a 15 days basis. Here we use "δεκαπενθήμερο", for example.
But, in my experience, "fortnight" corresponds to "δεκαπενθήμερο". (Eg. in dictionaries, newspapers)


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## momai

Arabic: 
أسبوعين usbuu3ayn: two weeks
جمعتين jum3atayn: two fridays (Levantine usage)


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## ThomasK

In Dutch we call it "veertien dagen". Could there be a reason why we refer to 14 days, yet not to 21 days, etc. (For a second I thought of "quarantaine" , which is based a 40-days period of isolation, but I can imagine no special reason for this expression)

@momai: "two Fridays (Levantine usage)" refers to 14 days, I suppose, or...?


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## Dymn

_Quinzena _also in *Catalan*. Generally calling two weeks "_quinze dies_" strikes me as more common than saying "_catorze dies_". And there are also the expressions _d'avui en quinze _(lit. "from today in fifteen"; "in two weeks' time") and even _d'avui en vuit _(lit. "from today in eight"; "this day next week").


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## Yendred

Dymn said:


> _d'avui en quinze _(lit. "from today in fifteen"; "in two weeks' time") and even _d'avui en vuit _(lit. "from today in eight"; "this day next week")



Same in French, but usually with weekday names, and colloquially:
_Lundi en huit/en quinze_: Monday in a week's/two weeks' time


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## ThomasK

Oh yes, we have that in our dialects: tot vandaag over veertien dagen (see you today in a fortnight, but I suppose it means: "see you in a fortnight starting from today"...


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## KalAlbè

In Portuguese it's commonly used - *Quinzena*. 

E.g. _Vou viajar na primeira *quinzena *do mês que vem_.


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## momai

ThomasK said:


> @momai: "two Fridays (Levantine usage)" refers to 14 days, I suppose, or...?


Yes.


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## ThomasK

But why do you refer to the Fridays?


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## momai

ThomasK said:


> But why do you refer to the Fridays?


One friday is one week. Two fridays are two week or a fortnight. One would actually expect sunday to be used here since it represents the beginning of the week. Instead, it is friday, which probably has to do with the fact that the main prayer for muslims is carried out on friday.


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