Kaksikymmentä

Kaksikymmentä is the Finnish cardinal number that denotes the value twenty. It is written as a single word and serves as the base for forming numbers from twenty through twenty-nine, such as kaksikymmentäyksi for 21 and kaksikymmentäkolme for 23.

In usage, kaksikymmentä is used like other Finnish numerals in counting and in compound numbers. When combined with another digit, the result is typically a single word (for example, twenty-one is kaksikymmentäyksi). The tens part remains kaksikymmentä while the units vary. Kaksikymmentä is also used in phrases that express age, as in kaksikymmentä vuotta vanha meaning “twenty years old.” The corresponding ordinal form is kaksikymmenes, meaning “twentieth.”

Etymology and form: the word is built from kaksi meaning “two” and kymmentä, a form of kymmenen meaning “ten,” literally “two tens.” This reflects the historical, decimal-based numeral system of Finnish. Kaksikymmentä has been a standard part of Standard Finnish for centuries and is a central element of Finnish numerals, alongside the words kolmekymmentä for thirty and the rest of the tens.

See also: Finnish numerals, arithmetic in Finnish, ordinal numbers in Finnish.