Learn to count to 10,000
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Hi everyone, Gabriella here, and welcome back to SwahiliPod101.com. This is Basic Bootcamp Lesson 4, Counting from 1-100 in Swahili. This is the 4th in a 5-part series that will help you ease your way into Swahili. |
| Medina: Helo, mimi ni Medina. I’m Medina! In this lesson, you'll learn one of the essentials in Swahili…numbers! |
| Gabriella: So, everybody…pull out your abacus… |
| Medina: (laughs). |
| Gabriella: Just kidding! |
| Medina: But, we'll at least try to make learning numbers as easy for you as using an abacus. |
| Gabriella: Yes, we'll first start with the basics. In this lesson, we will count from one to 10. |
| Medina: Okay, now this conversation takes place at a gym |
| Gabriella: That’s right. It’s between Ole and his coach, who will be counting his push-ups. Okay, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Medina: So that wasn’t too bad, right? |
| Gabriella: Seemed quite easy! Once you learn the basics, you'll be able to build larger numbers by putting together different parts of the words. |
| Medina: Just like using bricks to build a house! |
| Gabriella: Building a house doesn't sound easy to me! |
| Medina: Don't worry, I know a trick to make it much easier than it sounds. |
| Gabriella: Great, what is it? |
| Medina: So here is what we're going to have you all do. No matter where you are, no matter if you're at home, or on the subway, or in your car, we want you to talk to yourself. Don't worry if people think you're crazy. |
| Gabriella: It's for a good cause! In the next section, Medina is going to read out each number, and you have to repeat after her. Let’s go! |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. In the previous section, we more or less mastered the basic numbers 1 to 10, but how can we count above ten? |
| Medina: Well, we form the numbers 11 through 19 simply by adding 10 to the numbers 3 through 9. |
| Gabriella: So how does it go? |
| Medina: kumi na moja |
| Gabriella: "11" |
| Medina: kumi na mbili |
| Gabriella: "12" |
| Medina: kumi na tatu |
| Gabriella: "13" |
| Medina: kumi na nne |
| Gabriella: "14" |
| Medina: kumi na tano |
| Gabriella: "15" |
| Medina: kumi na sita |
| Gabriella: "16" |
| Medina: kumi na saba |
| Gabriella: "17" |
| Medina: kumi na nane |
| Gabriella: "18" |
| Medina: kumi na tisa |
| Gabriella: "19" |
| Medina: Gabriella, have you noticed something these numbers have in common? |
| Gabriella: Well, all of them start with kumi na. |
| Medina: You're right. kumi, meaning "ten," begins each number, and it's joined to the other digit by the conjunction na, meaning “and.” |
| Gabriella: Ok, so now we’ve covered the most difficult part. Now let's take a look at the multiples of ten. |
| Medina: For several of these numbers, add -ini as an ending to your number. |
| Gabriella: So, for example, “sixty” would be |
| Medina: sitini. It’s easy! |
| Gabriella: Listen and repeat, everyone! |
| Medina: sitini (pause) So as you might have noticed, sitini is from sita, the number "six", and the ending -ini indicates that it's a multiple of ten. This formula is the same as sabini, “seventy” and tisini, “ninety.” However, the rest are exceptions. They are...ishirini |
| Gabriella: "20" |
| Medina: thelathini |
| Gabriella: "30" |
| Medina: arobaini |
| Gabriella: "40" |
| Medina: hamsini |
| Gabriella: "50" |
| Medina: thamanini |
| Gabriella: "80" |
| Medina: tisini |
| Gabriella: “90”. OK, Let's put those two groups together now. Listeners, repeat after Medina from 20 to 90. |
| Medina: ishirini (pause), thelathini (pause), arobaini (pause), hamsini (pause), sitini (pause), sabini (pause), thamanini (pause), tisini (pause). |
| Gabriella: With that, we're done with the multiples of ten. Now we’re going to venture into some other important number territory. But still, not higher than 100 to start. |
| Medina: Yes. No number overloading. This may be boot camp, but there's no torture employed here! |
| Gabriella: Okay, so how old are you, Medina? |
| Medina: I see where you're going with this. Actually, you may have to employ torture to get this information. Okay, yes, I'm in the double digits. Twenty-five. |
| Gabriella: So, to make a number that isn't a multiple of ten, what do we do? |
| Medina: Here's all you have to do. 20, we hope you remember, is ishirini. Now all you do is add na tano, because tano is the number for "5." |
| Gabriella: Great. So all you have to do is say the word for "20" plus the words for "and 5" at the end. |
| Medina: If you remember, na is the word for “and." Then let's try it with more numbers. How old are you, Gabriella? It's okay – they'll believe whatever you say! They can't see us! |
| Gabriella: Well, let's say I'm 31. So what is 31 in Swahili? |
| Medina: Thelathini na moja. It's thelathini, or "30," plus moja, which is the number for "1." |
| Gabriella: Okay, Medina, let's tell them our real ages. We're actually 68. How do we say that? |
| Medina: Well the number for "60," remember, is sitini. So we just add the “8” at the end, sitini na nane. |
| Gabriella: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn about cardinal and ordinal numbers in Swahili. |
| Medina: So we’ve got most of the numbers down, but these are only the cardinal numbers used for counting. |
| Gabriella: That’s right. What if we want to say for example “May 17th,” which is an ordinal number? Medina, starting from "1st," what are the ordinal numbers in Swahili? |
| Medina: Well, these will vary depending on what is being counted. Days take tarehe ya or siku ya. For example... |
| Medina: tarehe/ siku ya kwanza |
| Gabriella: "1st" . |
| Medina: tarehe/ siku ya pili |
| Gabriella: "2nd”. |
| Medina: tarehe/ siku ya tatu |
| Gabriella: "3rd". |
| Gabriella: Let's try some examples. |
| Medina: tarehe/ siku ya kwanza ya Novemba. |
| Gabriella: "November 1st" |
| Medina: mara ya pili |
| Gabriella: "The 2nd time" |
| Medina: chumba cha tatu kutoka kwa kulia |
| Gabriella: "The 3rd house from the right." As you can see, these numbers change significantly when they become ordinal. In Swahili, like in English, all the cardinal numbers from 1 to 1 million have ordinal equivalents. |
| Medina: So as a soft introduction, let’s list the first 12 here. |
| Gabriella: Alright so continuing from 3rd we have 4th. |
| Medina: ya nne |
| Gabriella: "4th" |
| Medina: ya tano |
| Gabriella: "5th" |
| Medina: ya sita |
| Gabriella: "6th". |
| Medina: ya saba |
| Gabriella: "7th" |
| Medina: ya nane |
| Gabriella: "8th" |
| Medina: ya tisa |
| Gabriella: "9th" |
| Medina: ya kumi |
| Gabriella: "10th" |
| Gabriella: And again 11 and 12 follow their own logic. |
| Medina: ya kumi na moja |
| Gabriella: “11th” |
| Medina: ya kumi na mbili |
| Gabriella: "12th" Okay, I think that’s enough for now. You’ve got the idea, right listeners? All you have to do now is practice! |
Outro |
| Gabriella: That's all for this lesson. |
| Medina: Thanks for listening. |
| Gabriella: And we’ll see you next time! |
| Medina: Bye. |
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