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Translation is often tricky. I'm stuck with the Polish word kilkanaście, which literally means few-teen. It is used to describe an amount more than ten, but less than 20 (or including 20, it's hard to say, the next "about-the-amount" word means twelve-and-a-few.
Is there an English word describing that amount, or similar amount?
The reason for the existence of such a word, I think, is the fact that when counting on hands, it describes the amount which I can't handle using my hands alone.
Teens is used to refer to numbers from 13 to 19, inclusive.
You can use this if you need a rough amount, and don't need to describe the range so accurately.
You usually use teens in this way by saying something is in the teens, for example:
The temperature is expected to be in the teens tomorrow.
Alternatively, you could say something is in the tens, but this may be interpreted as something from 10 to 99, inclusive.
If you’re just talking about people, it sounds like you’re talking about people in the second decade of their lives — although that would technically disinclude 20, since that is the start of the third decade.
