That pattern is not in the numbers, but in the way we name (and write) them. But pretty soon, the number names settle down to a pattern. The numbers from zero to twelve have names that feel so arbitrary that they might just as well be called Carole, Charles, Carla, Cyril, and so on. Why? Numbers aren’t born with names people invented names for them, names that help us compute.
This natural facility with language is especially helpful in learning to add and subtract 10s.
(See Language PowerPoint and also Early algebra for more.) Language and whole number arithmetic
That language-learning capacity can help them learn mathematics, too, especially when the mathematical idea they are learning depends on the way we name numbers. Children are extraordinary linguists! They acquire half their adult vocabulary and nearly all their adult grammar by the time they are 5 years old, mostly informally and outside of school.
