How to Learn Numbers Larger than 100 in Swahili
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Hi everyone. Gabriella here, and welcome back to SwahiliPod101.com. This is Basic Bootcamp Lesson 5 - Counting from 100-1,000,000 in Swahili. This is the 5th in a 5-part series that will help you ease your way into Swahili. |
| Medina: Helo, Mimi ni Medina. I’m Medina. |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, we'll continue with more of the essentials of Swahili numbers. But this time, we'll venture into higher number territory - the numbers over 100 all the way to 1 million. |
| Medina: You’ll be listening to two people at an auction. |
| Gabriella: That’s right! They’ll be bidding on an ancient Kenyan vase. Let’s listen to the conversation! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: Now, you'll usually see these higher numbers when you’re talking about money. Medina, what can you tell us about prices and currency in Kenya? |
| Medina: We'll use the current Kenyan shillings exchange rate, where 1 US dollar is roughly equivalent to 87 Kenyan shillings. And prices in Kenya do vary a lot. It depends where you are, and what you eat. |
| Gabriella: Ok, what's the price of an average meal in Nairobi? |
| Medina: Well, Nairobi is not the cheapest city in Kenya, especially in the tourist spots. But, of course, you can get a full meal for about 500 to 1000 Kenyan shillings. |
| Gabriella: Which is roughly 6 to 15 US dollars. What about a very nice meal? |
| Medina: Oh, the price will jump up to above 2000 Kenyan shillings. |
| Gabriella: that's about 20 US Dollars! I bet the food is really good there too. |
| Medina: The most expensive food is usually some exotic Kenyan, Mediterranean, French, or Italian cuisine. |
| Gabriella: I don't think our listeners will go to Kenya to try French food, but Exotic Kenyan food does sound interesting. |
| Medina: And for an average Kenyan meal, or my absolute favorite, pilau nyama - which is [Spicy rice with meat] by the way, - about 10 US dollars should be enough. |
| Gabriella: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. There are two numbers we have to pay special attention to. "One million" and "zero." |
| Medina: Well, when it comes to zero, I can't think of any good examples with the number where we pronounce all the digits separately, other than a phone number. |
| Gabriella: And one million is a number you'd most likely only use if you hit the jackpot! |
| Medina: It’s true, at least when it comes to money. |
| Gabriella: What about all the other millions? Doesn't the ending change? |
| Medina: It does, but it will be easy to remember. |
| Gabriella: Listeners, repeat after Medina |
| Medina: million moja. |
| Gabriella: (pause) "one million" |
| Medina: Milioni mbili |
| Gabriella: (pause) "two million" |
| Medina: Milioni tatu |
| Gabriella: (pause) "three million" |
| Medina: So, as you can see, the change is that million becomes milioni when plural. |
| Gabriella: Can you give us an example of a big number? |
| Medina: Let me think of a meaningful one...How about Milioni thelathini na mbili elfu mia nane na themanini na mbili mia mbili na arobaini. |
| Gabriella: Wow! that is a big number, what does it mean? |
| Medina: It's actually the Kenyan population! |
| Gabriella: Okay, so we use our usual formula here. "Thirty-two million, eight-hundred and eighty-two thousand, two-hundred and forty." And now, let's have another example—the only one where we pronounce digits separately in Swahili—a phone number. |
| Medina: sufuri, saba, mbili, nne, nane, sufuri, tano, moja, tisa, tatu. |
| Gabriella: That’s [0 - 7 - 2 - 4 - 8 - 0 - 5 - 1 - 9 - 3] They can also be pronounced in tens, but to make it clearer, we use separate digits. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn higher numbers in Swahili - those between 100 and 1 million. |
| Medina: We've already learned how to say "one hundred," mia moja. So, to build multiples of 100 we simply take the words for the numbers 2 to 9 and place them after mia. |
| Gabriella: Placing mia at the beginning can be difficult at first, but you'll get the hang of it. So listen and repeat. |
| Medina: mia mbili |
| Gabriella: (pause) "200" |
| Medina: mia tatu |
| Gabriella: (pause) "300" |
| Medina: mia nne |
| Gabriella: (pause) "400" |
| Medina: mia tano |
| Gabriella: (pause) "500" |
| Medina: mia sita |
| Gabriella: (pause) "600" |
| Medina: mia saba |
| Gabriella: (pause) "700" |
| Medina: mia nane |
| Gabriella: (pause) "800" |
| Medina: mia tisa |
| Gabriella: (pause) "900" |
| Medina: In the last Boot Camp lesson, we learned how to build multi-digit numbers by adding na, meaning “and,” where we connect the digits. |
| Gabriella: Right. Now we'll use the same system to build numbers from 200 to 999. OK. Medina will give me a Swahili number and I’ll say the English. |
| Medina: mia nne na moja. |
| Gabriella: "401." It sounds familiar. Oh, there was a horror TV show in America called "Room 401." What’s next? |
| Medina: Oh really, in Swahili that would be Chumba cha mia nne na moja. Another example would be Chumba cha mia mbili thelathini na saba. |
| Gabriella: “Room 237”. Why do you come up with such creepy numbers? Room 237 was the one in Steven King's "The Shining," |
| Medina: Yeah, somehow I have a good memory for creepy things. |
| Gabriella: Anyway, if we take it in parts, it translates as "two hundred and thirty-seven." |
| Medina: And next mia tisa na kumi na nne. |
| Gabriella: A literal translation into English is "nine-hundred and ten and four." And luckily, I have a better association with the number "914". There was a cute old Porsche built many decades ago called the VW-Porsche 914. |
| Medina: And about five years earlier, the Porsche mia tisa na kumi na nne was built. |
| Gabriella: "912." Okay, see if you can remember any other interesting numbers over 1000. Oh, but first, Medina, what’s the word for "thousands" again please? |
| Medina: elfu |
| Gabriella: So 1000? |
| Medina: elfu moja is "1000", but you don't really have to say moja, for "one" here. |
| Gabriella: OK, got it. And "4000?" |
| Medina: elfu nne. |
| Gabriella: So we take the number for "4" and add it to the word for "thousand." |
| Medina: Yes. It's elfu and then the number “4,” nne, to give elfu nne. |
| Gabriella: So here's the rest of the thousands from 2000 to 9000. Listeners, repeat after Medina. |
| Medina: elfu mbili (pause), elfu tatu (pause), elfu nne (pause), elfu tano (pause), elfu sita (pause), elfu saba (pause), elfu nane (pause), elfu tisa (pause). |
| Gabriella: When we say "twenty-one thousand," "twenty-two thousand," "twenty-three thousand," and so on, we just say elfu followed by the number. |
| Medina: elfu ishirini na moja, elfu ishirini na mbili, elfu ishirini na tatu, and so on. |
| Gabriella: OK. So give us a complicated four-digit number please. |
| Medina: elfu mbili na kumi na mbili. |
| Gabriella: That's the year "Two thousand and twelve". |
| Medina: How about elfu tisini mia mbili na kumi. |
| Gabriella: Another TV show number, 90210. But in Kenya, you’d say that as, "ninety thousand, two hundred, and ten”. |
| Medina: elfu tisini mia mbili na kumi. |
| Gabriella: Okay, give us the last one, Medina. The year you were born, for example. |
| Medina: Oh, you didn't have to say, "for example" to know my age. Anyway, I've mentioned it before. So, the year I was born is elfu moja mia tisa themanini na tano, which is quite a different way from how the years are counted in English. |
| Gabriella: "Nineteen eighty-five" will be "one thousand, nine hundred, and eighty-five." So the formula with numbers in the thousands is - first you say how many thousands you have, then how many hundreds, then tens, then ones. |
| Medina: Yes, like in most languages. Well, I think that's a lot of numbers. |
| Gabriella: Yes it is. I've more than satisfied my number quota for the day! |
Outro |
| Gabriella: That's it for this lesson, and for this series. We hope you’ve enjoyed it and found it useful. We’ll see you in another series! Bye! |
| Medina: Bye. |
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