Lesson 12 - Numerals

The Esperanto system of counting is very simple and regular. If you know the numerals in the following table you can count from zero up to the highest number that you will encounter in everyday life:

0	nul
1	unu
2	du
3	tri
4	kvar
5	kvin
6	ses
7	sep
8	ok
9	nau
10	dek
100	cent
1,000	mil
1,000,000	miliono
1,000,000,000	miliardo

Instead of explaining the system it is perhaps easier to just show some examples of how it is used.

11	dek unu
18	dek ok
20	dudek
40	kvardek
44	kvardek kvar
91	naudek unu
101	cent unu
220	ducent dudek unu
395	tricent naudek kvin
1,008	mil ok
6,881	sesmil okcent okdek unu
20,000	dudekmil
66,741	sesdekmil sepcent kvardek unu
15,984,114	dek kvin milionoj naucentmil okdek kvar cent dek kvar

As you see, for all these numbers (possibly with the exception of the last one) it is pretty obvious how they are constructed. Spaces can be used in textual number representations at the discretion of the writer. Instead of kvardek kvar for 44 it would also be possible to write kvardekvar or kvar dek kvar, but using spaces in the way I did in the previous table gives probably the most readable numbers (of course, large numbers are usually written partly or entirely with digits).

The plural ending of milionoj in 15,984,114 is there because numbers like miliono and miliardo are considered real nouns that consequently must be declined according to number and case.

You may have noticed that the numbers 101 and 1,008 in the previous table do not start with unu. In English we can either say a thousand dollars or one thousand dollars, but in Esperanto unu is never used like that before cent and mil.

Although numerals can be considered a sort of adjectives when they are used with nouns (this kind of numerals are called cardinal numbers), the Esperanto numbers differ from real adjectives because they do not end in -a and they do not change according to number and case (with the exception of numerals like miliono, which are actually nouns). Here are a few examples:

Li havas du autojn = He has two cars.
Shi havis jam^* kvar edzojn = She has (already) had four husbands.
Chu vi volas havi du au tri pirojn = Do you want to have two or three pears?

^* jam (already) is often used with an imperfect tense to avoid using a more complicated perfect tense (which we shall treat in a later lesson).

It is possible to change a cardinal number into a real adjective by attaching the adjectival ending -a to it. It then becomes a ordinal number that can be used to give information about the order of something in a series. In English words like first and second are ordinal numbers; their Esperanto counterparts are unua and dua. Here are some examples of sentences with ordinal numbers:

Shia unua edzo laboris en Londono = Her first husband worked in London.
La tri-deka¹ tago de la monato estas dimancho² = The thirteenth day of the month is a Sunday.
Mi ne konas shian duan edzon = I do not know her second husband.

¹ Tri dek is usually written with a space, but ordinal numbers are always written as one word, generally with hyphens where spaces would be used in the corresponding cardinal number.

² The names of days (and months) are usually not written with a capital letter in Esperanto.

In the previous lesson we encountered the question word kiom which means how much (it is also used for how many). You can also attach -a to this word and use it to ask about something's or somebody's position in a sequence. There is no equivalent in English but it corresponds to German wievielte ("how-manieth"). Sentences with kioma cannot be translated literally into English:

Li estas shia kioma edzo? = How many husbands did she have before him? (lit.: "He is her how-manieth husband?")
Kioma tago de la jaro estas hodiau? = What day of the year is today? (lit.: "How-manieth day of the year is today?")

An important function of kioma is asking the time in Esperanto:

Kioma horo estas? = What is the time? (lit.: How-manieth hour is?)

Cardinal numbers can easily be changed into nouns (if they are not already nouns, such as miliono) by adding the ending -o to them. We then get words like unuo (unit), duo (duo, pair), dekduo (dozen), et cetera. We can also add the adverbial ending -e to them in order to create words like English first(ly) and secondly.

Ni achetis du dekduojn = We bought two dozen.
Unue vi devas viziti vian onklon = First you must visit your uncle.

Fractions are indicated in Esperanto with the help of the suffix -on. From du we can for instance derive duono and duona. The first word is a noun and the second is an adjective. The follow examples illustrate the difference between duono and duona:

Mi donis mian duonon al li = I gave my half to him.
Chu vi volas havi duonan pomon? = Do you want to have half an apple?

Other examples of fractions are triono (a third), kvarono (a quarter) and tri kvaronoj (three quarters). Do not confuse for instance triono with tria. Both words mean third in English, but triono is third in for example one third (a fraction) while tria is an ordinal number (e.g. He is his third son).

A suffix with the oposite meaning of -on is -obl which denotes multiples of a number.

Ni volas havi duoblan porcion = We want to have a double portion.

Another suffix is -op with the meaning "together" or "a group of".

La sesopo ludos morgau = The sextet will play tomorrow.
Ili marshis duope = They were walking together.
Ni iros duope = The two of us will go (lit.: We shall go as a group of two).

**Vocabulary**
Esperanto	English
dimancho	Sunday
dolaro	dollar
edzo	husband
hodiau	today
horo	hour
jam	already
jaro	year
kosti	to cost
monato	month
nur	just, merely, only
porcio	portion
tago	day
viziti	to vizit

Exercise 12-1

Write the following numbers in words:

11; 17; 60; 88; 140; 170; 666; 1.200; 6.533; 9.090; 59.811; 123.939; 6.965.961; 9.765.655; 1.087.877.221.

Exercise 12-2

Write the following numbers in digits ^*:

mil ducent tridek kvin; cent kvindek kvin; dudek kvin; kvincentdekunumil cent sesdek ok; tridektrimil ducent okdek sep; cent tridek unu; ok milionoj dumil kvincent dek du; cent mil; kvindek ses; dek unu; unu miliono mil kvindek unu.

^* When numbers written in digits are used in Esperanto texts it is perhaps best to adopt the convention used in most European languages, and use the comma as decimal sign and the point as separator between groups of 3 digits (i.e. the other way round as in English).

Exercise 12-3

Translate into English:

1. Chi tiu auto kostas (is¹) dumil dolarojn. 2. Mi nur havas mil kvincent dolarojn. 3. Ili havas kvar infanojn. 4. La unua tago de tiu monato estos dimancho. 5. Chu tiu chi monato havas tridek au tridek unu tagojn? 6. Ni iris triope al nia onklo. 7. Tio kostos (will take²) al mi duonan tagon. 8. Shia unua edzo nun loghas en Usono. 9. La piroj kostas (are) duonan dolaron kaj la pomoj kostas nur kvaronan dolaron. 10. Mi achetos dek ses pirojn kaj dek du pomojn. 11. Chu vi volas havi duoblan porcion? 12. Mi volas havi trioblan porcion. 13. Ili duope vizitis mian patron. 14. En la ghardeno kreskas dek du arboj, tri pirarboj kaj sep pomarboj. 15. Li skribis du librojn pri fishoj, kiujn mi jam legis. 16. La kato manghis la du fishojn kiujn mi achetis. 17. Mi nur manghis duonan fishon. 18. Mi vidis tie ses au sep personojn kiuj sidis en la ghardeno. 19. Estas nur unu prezidento de Usono. 20. Kioma horo estas? 21. Mi ne scias kioma horo estas. 22. La kvina tago estis dimancho.

¹ When indicating the price of something kosti, not esti is used in Esperanto.

² Using preni (to take) when referring to the time that something takes would not be possible in Esperanto. Therefore kosti is used instead. In general you should take care not to translate idiomatic expressions literally into Esperanto.

Exercise 12-4

Translate into Esperanto:

1. Do you want to have two portions or just one? 2. I saw eight trees standing in the garden. 3. No-one has read everything he wrote, but we have read six six books of him. 4. We want to buy eleven yellow apples and fifteen red ones. 5. We do not have two thousand dollar. 6. Her second husband is my uncle. 7. I have sold thirteen apples, fourteen pears and six bananas. 8. What time is it now? 9. It will take us six months. 10. The president has two sons. 11. He wrote six or seven books. 12. My uncle always gave me three dollars. 13. His house has thirteen rooms. 14. His rich uncle has three houses. 15. Each house is two hundred thousand dollar. 16. Why did you speak about these three men? 17. The six of us will go to the garden. 18. He gave me one thousand dollar. 19. What was the sextet playing? 20. The two of us cannot visit him together; therefore I shall go today and you will go tomorrow.

Key to the exercises