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Lesson Transcript

Hamjamboni. Mimi ni Medina. Hi everybody! I’m Medina.
Welcome to Swahilipod101.com's “Kiswahili kwa dakika tatu,” The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Swahili.
In the last lesson, we learned the numbers one to ten. Do you still remember? Let’s go through them once more!
moja, mbili, tatu, nne, tano, sita, saba, nane, tisa, kumi.
And now let’s continue from eleven.
11 kumi na moja.
[slowly] kumi na moja.
12 kumi na mbili.
[slowly] kumi na mbili.
13 kumi na tatu.
[slowly] kumi na tatu.
14 kumi na nne.
[slowly] kumi na nne.
15 kumi na tano.
[slowly] kumi na tano.
16 kumi na sita.
[slowly] kumi na sita.
17 kumi na saba.
[slowly] kumi na saba.
18 kumi na nane.
[slowly] kumi na nane.
19 kumi na tisa.
[slowly] kumi na tisa.
Okay, now repeat after me. I'll say the numbers and give you time to repeat each one.
11. kumi na moja.
12. kumi na mbili.
13. kumi na tatu.
14. kumi na nne.
15. kumi na tano.
16. kumi na sita.
17. kumi na saba.
18. kumi na nane.
19. kumi na tisa.
These numbers might seem long and a little difficult, but the idea is actually very simple. Just take kumi, and add any one of the numbers between 0 and 10 that you learned in the previous lesson.
Lets take a look at 11, kumi na moja.
Kumi is ten, join it with moja “one” using na, together we have: kumi na moja,
slowly: kumi na moja
You can do the same with the other numbers. Now do you realize the advantage of mastering the first numbers you learned in the previous lesson?
Moving on, 20 and the other multiples of ten take different names. Let’s go through them.
20 ishirini
[slowly]
30 thelathini
[slowly]
40 arobaini
[slowly]
50 hamsini
[slowly]
60 sitini
[slowly]
70 sabini
[slowly]
80 themanini
[slowly]
90 tisini
[slowly]
And lastly...
100 mia moja
[slowly]
All these numbers take a -ni at the end, except for mia meaning “hundred.” This is an easy way to remember these numbers.
The last thing to learn in this lesson, is how to form compound numbers above twenty. This is also super easy!
Take the tens and simply add the numbers you learned in the first lesson.
Let’s try it out.
How would you say “thirty-eight” in Swahili? Let’s take it step-by-step. "thirty" is thelathini, and then add "eight", nane. In between thelathini and nane is the conjunction na meaning “and” to join them.
Thelathini na nane! It’s as simple as that!
Let’s try another one, like "seventy-two."
First, take "seventy", sabini’, and then add "two", mbili, to get sabini na mbili.
Now it’s time for Medina’s Insights.
When you want to count beyond one hundred, you can use the same basic logic as with the numbers above ten. Just add the word mia moja, “hundred”, in front of the tens.
For example,
167 - “one hundred and sixty-seven” is
mia moja sitini na saba
(slowly) mia moja sitini na saba
The next time you have trouble sleeping, try counting sheep in Swahili, and see how far you can get!
Would you like to go on a shopping trip in Kenya? In the next lesson, we’ll get to practice the numbers by talking about prices.
I’ll be waiting for you in the next Kiswahili kwa dakika tatu lesson.
Tuonane!

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