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In Essay d'une parfaite grammaire de la langue françoise, the Jesuit Laurent Chiflet (1598–1658) writes:

Ie vous iray voir , aprés trois jours , aprés quatorze jours , aprés un mois. Dites, je vous iray voir dans trois jours , dans quinze jours , dans un mois : ou, d'icy à un mois. Les Flamands pour exprimer deux ſémaines , diſent quatorze jours : mais les François diſent quinze jours. (p. 191)

This is reminiscent of British vs. American usage around fortnight. Americans simply say two weeks; for fortnightly, they use biweekly or every two weeks.

Does this distinction between the Belgians saying fourteen days for two weeks and the French preferring fifteen days still pertain? Do Belgians still use quatorze jours where the French would use quinze jours for a period of two weeks?

verbose
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    "biweekly" is ambiguous. It means either "twice a week" or "once every two weeks". But I agree that Americans don't understand "fortnight". – alephzero Feb 03 '21 at 20:15
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    @alephzero no ambiguity to me: semi-weekly is twice a week (as semi-annually is twice a year, etc); biweekly is once every two weeks (as biannually is once every two years). (Whether or not dictionaries agree here is another discussion...) – D. Ben Knoble Feb 03 '21 at 23:43
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    I once had two part-time jobs for the same employer. One was paid every fortnight ("biweekly," every other Friday), the other twice a month ("semi-monthly," on the 15th and the last day of each month). Gawd it made budgeting impossible. – verbose Feb 03 '21 at 23:51
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    I was raised in the French school system, but have lived in English speaking countries for over thirty years. Just last week I was mentally solving a math problem to check my son's homework. I got the answer wrong because I mentally used 15 for "two weeks" instead of the correct 14. So I'd say it's pretty deeply ingrained! Disappointing for a country that is usually strong in math. – PatrickT Feb 04 '21 at 05:06
  • @D.BenKnoble Last time I checked (at least on French definitions), "bimensual" means twice a month, whilst "bimestrial" meant every 2 months/twice a trimester (French link: https://www.projet-voltaire.fr/regles-orthographe/bimensuel-ou-bimestriel/ ) – Clockwork Feb 04 '21 at 09:14
  • Just as a matter of fact, France's french (IDK for Belgium's) also uses "huit jours" ("eight days") as a synonym of "1 week", but the reason of the additional day is unknown to me. – Berthim Feb 04 '21 at 10:18
  • @Berthim Is it specific to some area? I never heard that before. – Clockwork Feb 04 '21 at 10:45
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    @D.BenKnoble "Biannual" is twice a year; "Biennial" means every two years. – Chronocidal Feb 04 '21 at 11:33
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    @Berthim Supposedly this comes from the Roman counting system which started with a counter at 1 (they did not have a 0), with the result that you hit 8 after seven days! Ref: https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/huit_jours – PatrickT Feb 04 '21 at 13:32
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    German also has “in acht Tagen” for “a week from now”, although it may have become less common. It just depends on whether you “today” as day one or not. Same as in “pentecost” which is 49 days after something else but has a 50 in the name. – Carsten S Feb 04 '21 at 16:43
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    "Huitaine" is also used for a period of approx. 1 week. There is even the phrase "sous huitaine", which is rather formal and used in administrative writing. Ex: "veuillez nous renvoyer ces documents sous huitaine". – Greg Feb 05 '21 at 08:10

2 Answers2

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I cannot prove it with hard facts or numerical data, but I am Belgian, and quinze jours is the dominant phrase here as well for "two weeks", and not quatorze jours. If there was a regional difference in the past, it seems it has disappeared nowadays, and the usage in Belgium is the same as in France.

Some examples taken from Belgian websites:

Le Soir: Si, dans quinze jours ou trois semaines, on constate que l’épidémie retrouve sa courbe ascendante avec toutes ces souches mutantes, on peut imaginer qu’il faudra avancer l’heure du couvre-feu.

RTL info - Belgique: Leur voyage, prévu dans quinze jours, est annulé.

EDIT: see also the very good comment from @freddieknets: this reply above applies to native French speakers from Belgium. The original article quoted by OP refers to "Flamands", ie, to Flemish speakers using French as a 2nd language and transposing Flemish phrasings to French. In some extent, there has been an influence of Dutch/Flemish on Belgian French (ex: "une fois", "savoir/pouvoir" used indifferently), but that does not seem to be the case for this phrase.

Greg
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    "the usage in Belgium is the same as in France" - I would like to point out that during my time in France (since I was born), I have never seen anyone use 15 days as a substitute for 2 weeks. There are situations when people said "see you in 15 days" when they meant like the Wednesday of 2 weeks later (since today is Wednesday and the day isn't over yet), but that's the only case I can remember. – Clockwork Feb 04 '21 at 17:07
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    @Clockwork , "I have never seen anyone use 15 days as a substitute for 2 weeks" ??? I am sorry but the truth is that: it is a fifty-fifty usage "see you in 15 days" or "see you in 2 weeks" are said indifferently by all people in France with maybe more usage of the "15 days" variant... – Jean Marie Becker Feb 04 '21 at 17:39
  • @JeanMarieBecker I mean, when asked for a duration in week, I never heard 15 days as a reply, which is what I meant. – Clockwork Feb 04 '21 at 17:50
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    But does quinze jours actually mean two weeks or does it mean what it says: "two weeks and one day"? I am far from a native french speaker, but I have lived in France a few years and never noticed this. Are you saying that when people told me en quinze jours they actually meant in two weeks instead? – terdon Feb 04 '21 at 18:06
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    @terdon Yes indeed. If today is Monday and a French person says on se voit en quinze jours he means you'll meet again in two weeks, on Monday. – freddieknets Feb 04 '21 at 20:34
  • @freddieknets That's fully true. – Jean Marie Becker Feb 04 '21 at 20:46
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    "Dans quinze jours" definitely means "in more or less 2 weeks, give or take 1 or 2 days" in every conversations, with some latitude on the exact number of days (it might just be 13, 14 or 15 or even 16 days depending on the context). If I heard "dans quatorze jours", I would rather hear it as "in exactly 14 days - not 13 or 15". Note that it is also very coherent with the word "quinzaine" used for a "period of more or less 2 weeks, as the 1st or 2nd half of a month". The word "quatorzaine" exists but is commonly used especially nowadays for a period of quarantine of exactly 14 days. – Greg Feb 05 '21 at 07:59
  • @Clockwork If those people say that they’ll see you in one day, do they mean they’ll see you later the same day, as implied by your comment? – Mike Scott Feb 05 '21 at 09:52
  • @MikeScott What? How did I imply that? (I'm not arguing, I just don't see where the implication can possibly come from) – Clockwork Feb 05 '21 at 10:34
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    @Clockwork If on Wednesday 1 “See you in 15 days” means Wednesday 15, then “in 14 days” means Tuesday 14, “in 13 days” means Monday 13, and so on until “in 2 days” means Thursday 2 and “in 1 day” must mean Wednesday 1, the same day. – Mike Scott Feb 05 '21 at 11:21
  • @MikeScott Ah. Hmm... Yeah, you're right. Personally, when I think about "see you in 1 day", I'm thinking about Thursday 2. That's why I tend to not say "see you in 15 days" personally, though I do remember people using it that way, such as my teachers when they mean "after vacation". – Clockwork Feb 05 '21 at 11:48
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    @Clockwork It must be a regional thing (in France), since I'd say quite the opposite: I've almost never heard "dans 15 jours" to mean exactly 15 days. For example, if there's someone normally visiting at the weekend (e.g. Friday to Sunday), and if they say "À dans 15 jours" when they leave on Sunday, I'd expect them on the Friday night (13 days later) as usual, and that would be natural. If I actually meant 15 days, I'd specify "À dans exactement 15 jours". Also, I'd take "on se voit tous les 15 jours" ambiguously and meaning "every two weeks" by default. – Bruno Feb 05 '21 at 12:02
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I want to add to Greg's answer, from my perspective (somebody from Flanders, the northern part of Belgium). We don't speak French, but a regional variant of Dutch (Flemish). And we say "over veertien dagen" which would indeed translate to quatorze jours.

Why is this relevant? Because OP's quote says:

Les Flamands pour exprimer deux ſémaines , diſent quatorze jours

Les Flamands, that's us, the Northern Belgians. It should be noted that language is, and has always been, a sensitive issue in Belgium. Historically the only official language in Belgium was French (now it has three official languages), even though the people in the Flemish region have been speaking some form of Dutch since medieval ages. For a long time, this was just considered the language of the common folk, while French would be the choice of communication among the higher classes (even if their native tongue would still be Flemish). This only refers to the Northern parts of Belgium, in the South everybody has always been speaking French.

Hence, with the quote explicitly referencing les Flamands, I would assume that the difference that Laurent Chiflet observed in the 16th Century originated in Flemish people translating their tongue to French too literally, introducing a Germanism style error.

freddieknets
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  • This is very useful and interesting information. Thanks! Besides Dutch and French, what is the third official language? – verbose Feb 04 '21 at 11:22
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    @verbose The official languages in Belgium are Dutch, French and German. In Flanders, the only official language is Dutch. However, there are a number of municipalities with language facilities - a politically highly charged topic ... – Tsundoku Feb 04 '21 at 11:40
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    @verbose German. It's spoken by around 100.000 people only (less than a percent of the population). Because of them I was forced to learn German at high school :-D – freddieknets Feb 04 '21 at 11:41
  • I believe this is the correct answer, because the essay referenced in the question specifically talks about Flemish people using the phrase. I'd even be inclined to interpret the passage as differentiating between Flemish people speaking french (not their native tongue) and others speaking french as opposed to Belgians vs. French people. – Bjorn De Rijcke Feb 04 '21 at 12:19
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    Note that in the South of Belgium, there was also a language difference between the French speaking higher class and the remaining of people speaking Picard or Walloon. Of course, the proximity of these languages with French made bilinguism and the switch to "standard" French natural. – jlliagre Feb 04 '21 at 13:07
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    This is in my opinion the correct answer. It seems likely that the distinction isn't being made between French and Belgian French, but rather French and Dutch. It is not uncommon for texts to refer to other languages through transliterations. – jMdA Feb 04 '21 at 23:30
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    @freddieknets: your comment is very relevant, I'll edit my answer to clarify. I have read the full chapter the quote is taken from, and note that "Flamands" is used from the perpective of the XVIIth century geopolotical situation: the author refers mainly to "Flamands", then talks about "Flamands et Brabançons", and then even talks about influence of Walloon all the same... I wonder if in that period, "Flamands" was not more limited to the historic county of "Flandres" (ie, approx. today's West-Vlaanderen, Oost-Vlaanderen and the French déprtement du Nord) – Greg Feb 05 '21 at 07:50