How to count in Tongan (telephone-style)

Enter a number and read it spelled out in Tongan (telephone-style).

Language overview

Tongan (lea fakatonga) is an Austronesian language from the Polynesian group spoken in the South Pacific Ocean archipelago of Tonga where it is co-official with English. It counts about 100,000 speakers.

Tongan (telephone-style) numbering rules

  • Digits from zero to nine are specific words, namely noa [0], taha [1], ua [2], tolu [3], fā [4], nima [5], ono [6], fitu [7], valu [8] and hiva [9].
  • Two different numbering systems are in use at the same time in Tongan. It is up to the speaker to choose in which system they will spell out the numbers. In this so-called telephone-style system, numbers are spelled out by saying the digits one by one, from the higher position digit to the lower position digit. Thus, ten is read taha noa, litteraly meaning one zero.
  • To prevent some awkward repetitions, twenty-two is read uo ua and not ua ua, fifty-five nime nima and not nima nima, and ninety-nine hive hiva instead of hiva hiva.

Numbers list

1 – taha
2 – ua
3 – tolu
4 – fā
5 – nima
6 – ono
7 – fitu
8 – valu
9 – hiva
10 – taha noa
11 – taha taha
12 – taha ua
13 – taha tolu
14 – taha fā
15 – taha nima
16 – taha ono
17 – taha fitu
18 – taha valu
19 – taha hiva
20 – ua noa
30 – tolu noa
40 – fā noa
50 – nima noa
60 – ono noa
70 – fitu noa
80 – valu noa
90 – hiva noa

Other supported languages

Supported languages by families
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