Cardinal Numbers
Numbers are determiners, so they precede the nouns that they describe, for example: mu gai “one chicken”, dua gai “two chickens”, san gai “three chickens”.
Here are the numbers from one to ten:
1 — mui
2 — dua
3 — san
4 — tawa
5 — lìma
6 — sie
7 — lìndo
8 — sàman
9 — nawa
10 — dè
Mui becomes mu when it comes before a noun: mu bere “one time”, mu lu “one person”.
The word for “zero” is kali, but this only refers to the numeral “0”. It is not used as a synonym for “no” or “none”.
Here are the numbers from 11 to 19:
11 — dèmui
12 — dèrua
13 — dèsan
14 — dètawa
15 — dèlìma
16 — dèsie
17 — dèlìndo
18 — dèsàman
19 — dènawa
Here are the multiples of 10:
duarè — 20
sandè — 30
tawarè — 40
lìndè — 50
sierè — 60
lìndorè — 70
sàmandè — 80
nawarè — 90
And here are the powers of 10:
kème — 100 (hundred)
juni — 1,000 (thousand)
sua — 1,000,000 (million)
ijèrì — 1,000,000,000 (billion)
Multiples are formed by placing the multiplier (a smaller number) before the multiplied (a large number). For example:
san kème “three hundred”
sie juni “six thousand”
dua sua “two million”
Smaller numbers are added to larger numbers with the particle nà, “and”.
san kème nà duarè “three hundred and twenty”
sie juni nà tawa kème “six thousand and four hundred”
sàman juni nà mu kème nà dèlìndo “eight thousand one hundred and seventeen”
To indicate an approximate number, place the adverb to kami after the number: dèlìma to kami “about fifteen”.
To indicate a range, use the pronoun si, “some”: sandè si “thirty-some”, “thirty-odd”; dèsi “someteen”. There is also the numeral sirè which means “somety”, as in some multiple of 10.
Ordinal Numbers
Ordinal numbers are formed with the particle dì. They come after the nouns that they describe.
Ordinal numbers can be made into pronouns that stand on their own with no noun by using the relative pronoun ǹ.
Fractions
The word for “half” is nusu. When saying “a half of something”, the expression mu nusu is placed before the noun.
Dates
Dates are given in order of most specific to most general: day of the month, month, year.
Here are the names of these units:
cin — day (cycle of 24 hours)
òsè — week
cinsè — a day of the week
cin weyò — a day of the month
weyò — month (–yò in compounds)
sene — year
The end or later part of a period of time is dòno. The beginning or early part of a period of time is durun. So the end of the month is dònoyò and the beginning of the month is durunyò.
Years
Years are expressed by naming the digits, not as in English where we split the year into two. The year 1917 is read as mui lintao mui lindua; the year 2005 is read as dua kali kali lìma. The word sene can be placed before the numbers for clarity: sene dua kali kali lìma.
Months
These are the months of the year:
yòmui — January
yòrua — February
yòsan — March
yòtawa — April
yòlìma — May
yò[six] — June
yò[seven] — July
yòsàman — August
yònawa — September
yòrè — October
yòrèmui — November
yòrèrua — December
The day of the month is expressed with the ordinal pronoun ǹ dì, for example ǹ dì sandè yòrè “October 30th”, literally “the 30th of October”.
Days of the week
These are the days of the week:
cinyò — Monday (“moon day”)
cinɲoba — Tuesday (“victory day”)
cinsìla — Wednesday (“star day”)
cindèn — Thursday (“lightning day”)
cinpua — Friday (“Venus day”)
cincele — Saturday (“rainbow day”)
cintuna — Sunday (“sunshine day”)
Telling Time
saa — hour
Lio Sabaalè | ߟߌߐ ߛߊߓߊ߯ߟߍ߬ 