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5. Numbers

All number words end in -u. The number roots are in the dictionary (basic type quantity).

Digits

In the lessons: Lesson 5: Quantities and numbers

Each digit begins with a different consonant.

Place words

In the lessons: Lesson 19: Numbers in everyday life

They all begin with b.

Rules

In the lessons: Lesson 19: Numbers in everyday life

1. The digit comes before its place word and counts it: dosu beku = “2 tens” = 20. This is the same rule as kiru dova = three houses (quantity first).
2. Always from large to small, as written (no German-style “one-and-twenty”).
3. Empty places are skipped: 205 = dosu bolu lahu.
4. A one before a place word is always dropped: 10 = beku (“a ten”), 100 = bolu, 1,000 = bisu.
5. Large numbers in groups of three; the group place word (bisu, baru, bunu) is always kept. Otherwise 1,300,000 and 1,000,300 could not be told apart. From a trillion on, a larger number counts before bunu, as in German “a thousand billions”: 10¹² = bisu bunu, 2,500,000,000,000 = dosu bisu lahu bolu bunu. Because of rule 2 this is unambiguous: a group place word before a larger one counts it, one after it begins a new group. Normal form: every number takes the largest possible place word; only before bunu may a number above 999 stand. A billion is therefore always bunu, never bisu baru, a trillion always bisu bunu.
6. Telephone numbers, PINs etc. are spoken digit by digit.
7. Cardinal numbers come before what is counted (kiru dova = three houses), ordinal numbers as adjectives after it (dova kiri = the third house). See chapter 4.

Decimal point and arithmetic

In the lessons: Lesson 19: Numbers in everyday life

Five quantity words belong to the number itself, like the place words:

8. Decimal point: nutu separates the whole number from the places after it. After the decimal point every digit is spoken separately, as with telephone numbers (rule 6), zero included: 1.174 = pavu nutu pavu rimu fenu, 0.05 = nomu nutu nomu lahu. A group place word (bisu, baru, bunu) after the decimal places counts the whole decimal number, just as one writes “2.5 million”: dosu nutu lahu baru = 2 500 000. No further number follows. You say what is written (rule 2): whoever writes 2,500,000 says dosu baru lahu bolu bisu.
9. Arithmetic: petu, nipu, gemu and vegu stand between two numbers. The whole calculation is one number; as always, only its last word changes its ending (kiru petu dosa = “the three-plus-two”). The result comes with lute (to be the same): kiru petu dosa lute laha. = 3 + 2 = 5. The order is the same as written, so multiplication and division come before addition and subtraction.
10. Sign: if nipu stands before a number with no number before it, it is the minus sign: nipu kiru = −3.

Because the decimal point, calculation words and the sign belong to the number, they come before what is counted, like any quantity: dosu nutu lahu seta = 2.5 hours, nipu kiru seta = minus three hours (for instance for a time difference).

• kiro (three times) stays the frequency (mi name kiro = I eat three times); in calculations gemu is used.
• Fractions stay parts of a quantity (pava kiru nifa = a third); vegu is the arithmetic “divided by”.

Derived forms

In the lessons: Lesson 8: When? Time · Lesson 19: Numbers in everyday life

In numbers with several parts only the last word changes its ending: dosu beku pavi = 21st.

The -a form with noun + noun forms parts of a quantity: dosa kiru dova = two of the three houses, pava ma mi = one of us.

Fractions, time, date

In the lessons: Lesson 19: Numbers in everyday life · Lesson 20: Quantities in more detail · Lesson 28: Free time and celebrations

All three follow from the existing rules, without a new word:

• “Half” has a word of its own (root “half”).
• The time of day names the number on the clock, not a position in a sequence: seta kira = “the hour three”. With the ordinal number 3:15 would be wrong, because the hours begin at 0:00, and 3:15 lies in the fourth hour. Days, days of the week and months begin at 1, so they take ordinal numbers. The week begins on Monday.
• Full time: the time is always spoken as on a digital clock, with 24 hours: the hour, then su and the minutes. There is no “half past seven” and no “quarter to nine”: 07:30 = seta rima su kiru beku setisa, 08:45 = seta guta su fenu beku lahu setisa. A leading zero is not spoken, full hours need no minutes (08:00 = seta guta).
• Point in time or duration: the number as a thing after seta names a point in time (seta guta = eight o'clock), a quantity word before it a duration (gutu seta = eight hours). This follows from the basic rule quantity – noun – quality and needs no word of its own.
• For half a unit there is also foba (half): dosu seta su foba seta = two and a half hours. Decimal numbers take the decimal point (rule 8).

Units and currencies

In the lessons: Lesson 24: At the market

Units and currencies are names and stay unchanged like other foreign names: kilo, gram, litre, metre, kilometre, euro, dollar. In Senatola they are capitalised and take no ending. The number comes before them like any quantity, and what is measured follows as noun + noun:

Senatola has no units of its own. The international names are understood everywhere, and the scarce root reserve is kept for Senatola words.

These are not special rules for numbers: number roots have the basic type quantity, and every ending has the same job on every root (see chapter 3).

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