How to count in Shona

Enter a number and read it spelled out in Shona.

Language overview

Shona (chiShona) is a Bantu language from the Niger-Congo family. Spoken in Zimbabwe (where it is co-official language with English and Sindebele), Mozambique, Zambia, and Botswana, it counts about 7 million speakers.
Due to lack of data, we can only count accurately up to 99,999 in Shona. Please contact us if you can help us counting up from that limit.

Shona numbering rules

  • Digits and numbers from zero to nine are specific words, namely ziro [0], motsi [1], piri [2], tatu [3], china [4], shanu [5], tanhatu [6], nomwe [7], sere [8], and pfumbamwe [9].
  • The tens are formed by putting makumi before their multiplier digit prefixed with ma-, except for ten, with some exceptions: gumi [10], makumi maviri [20] (maviri and not mapiri), makumi matatu [30], makumi mana [40] (mana and not machina), makumi mashanu [50], makumi matanhatu [60], makumi manomwe [70], makumi masere [80], and makumi mapfumbamwe [90].
  • Compound numbers are formed by saying the ten and the unit digit prefixed with ne- and separated with a space (e.g.: gumi nesere [18], makumi mashanu nena [54]).
  • Hundreds are formed by setting the multiplier digit (prefixed with ma-) after the word for hundred (zana, prefixed with ma-), except for one hundred itself: zana [100], mazana maviri [200], mazana matatu [300], mazana mana [400], mazana mashanu [500], mazana matanhatu [600], mazana manomwe [700], mazana masere [800], and mazana mapfumbamwe [900].
  • Thousands are formed the same way as hundreds, i.e. by setting the multiplier digit (prefixed with zvi-) after the word for thousand (churu, which becomes zvuru when multiplied), except for one thousand itself: churu [1,000], zvuru zviviri [2,000], zvuru zvitatu [3,000], zvuru zvizvina [4,000], zvuru zvishanu [5,000], zvuru zvitanhatu [6,000], zvuru zvinomwe [7,000], zvuru zvisere [8,000], and zvuru pfumbamwe [9,000] (pfumbamwe is not prefixed with zvi-).
  • Higher thousands are formed prefixing the word for multiplied thousands (zvuru) with re- and putting the multiplier first for round thousands (e.g.: gumi rezvuru [10,000]), whereas compound higher thousands are formed by putting the word thousand first, then the multiplier, and the following hundred, ten ot unit prefixed with ne- (e.g.: zvuru gumi nezana [10,100]).

Books

Numbers list

1 – motsi
2 – piri
3 – tatu
4 – china
5 – shanu
6 – tanhatu
7 – nomwe
8 – sere
9 – pfumbamwe
10 – gumi
11 – gumi neimwe
12 – gumi nembiri
13 – gumi nenhatu
14 – gumi neina
15 – gumi neshanu
16 – gumi nenhanhatu
17 – gumi nenomwe
18 – gumi nesere
19 – gumi nepfumbamwe
20 – makumi maviri
30 – makumi matatu
40 – makumi mana
50 – makumi mashanu
60 – makumi matanhatu
70 – makumi manomwe
80 – makumi masere
90 – makumi mapfumbamwe
100 – zana
1,000 – churu

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Other supported languages

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