Counting in Basque

Language overview

Basque (euskara) is an isolate language, i.e. with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages. Official in the Basque country and the autonomous community of Navarre in Spain, it is also in use in the French part of the Basque country. It counts about 750,000 speakers for whom it is their mother tongue.

Basque numbering rules

Now that you’ve had a gist of the most useful numbers, let’s move to the writing rules for the tens, the compound numbers, and why not the hundreds, the thousands and beyond (if possible).

• Digits from zero to ten are specific words, namely zero [0], bat [1], bi [2], hiru [3], lau [4], bost [5], sei [6], zazpi [7], zortzi [8], and bederatzi [9].
• The Basque tens follow a vigesimal system. Thus we find alternatingly the word for ten (hamar) and multiples of twenty (hogei): hamar [10], hogei [20], hogeita hamar [30] (20 and 10), berrogei [40] (2 times 20), berrogeita hamar [50] (2 times 20 and 10), hirurogei [60] (3 times 20), hirurogeita hamar [70] (3 times 20 and 10), laurogei [80] (4 times 20), and laurogeita hamar [90] (4 times 20 and 10).
• Numbers from eleven to nineteen are formed prefixing the unit digit with the root of the word for ten (hama(r)), with some exceptions: hamaika [11] (exception), hamabi [12], hamahiru [13], hamalau [14], hamabost [15], hamasei [16], hamazazpi [17], hamazortzi (or hemezortzi) [18], and hemeretzi [19] (phonetic contraction).
• Compound numbers beyond nineteen are formed starting with the ten to which we add like a suffix the conjunction (e)ta (and), then the unit digit separated with a space (e.g.: berrogeita bat [41], hirurogeita zortzi [68]). Attention however to the compound numbers based on tens which are not multiples of twenty: they are formed composing the unit digit with the additional ten (e.g.: hogeita hamalau [34], or 20 and 14, berrogeita hamabost [55], or 40 and 15).
• Hundreds are formed prefixing the word for hundred (ehun) by the multiplier digit, except for one hundred: ehun [100], berrehun [200], hirurehun [300], lauehun [400], bostehun [500], seiehun [600], zazpiehun [700], zortziehun [800], and bederatziehun [900].
• Thousands are formed starting with the multiplier digit, then the word for thousand (mila) separated with a space, with the exception of one thousand: mila [1,000], bi mila [2,000], hiru mila [3,000], lau mila [4,000], bost mila [5,000], sei mila [6,000], zazpi mila [7,000], zortzi mila [8,000], and bederatzi mila [9,000].
• The word for million is milioi, and the word for billion, miliar.

Write a number in full in Basque

Let’s move now to the practice of the numbering rules in Basque. Will you guess how to write a number in full? Enter a number and try to write it down in your head, or maybe on a piece of paper, before displaying the result.

Books

Isolate languages

Ainu, Basque, Burushaski, Keresan, Korean, Purépecha, and Tunica.

Other supported languages

As the other currently supported languages are too numerous to list extensively here, please select a language from the full list of supported languages.