Counting in Esperanto

Language overview

Forty-two in Esperanto Esperanto is a constructed international auxiliary language. Invented by Dr. Ludwik Łazarz Zamenhof in 1887, it counts about 100,000 very active speakers, 2 million fluent speakers and one thousand native speakers. Mostly based on European languages (French, German, Polish and Russian), it is written with a modified version of the Latin alphabet, and is very regular in its forms.

Esperanto numbers list

  • 1 – unu
  • 2 – du
  • 3 – tri
  • 4 – kvar
  • 5 – kvin
  • 6 – ses
  • 7 – sep
  • 8 – ok
  • 9 – naŭ
  • 10 – dek
  • 11 – dek unu
  • 12 – dek du
  • 13 – dek tri
  • 14 – dek kvar
  • 15 – dek kvin
  • 16 – dek ses
  • 17 – dek sep
  • 18 – dek ok
  • 19 – dek naŭ
  • 20 – dudek
  • 30 – tridek
  • 40 – kvardek
  • 50 – kvindek
  • 60 – sesdek
  • 70 – sepdek
  • 80 – okdek
  • 90 – naŭdek
  • 100 – cent
  • 1,000 – mil
  • one million – unu miliono
  • one billion – unu miliardo
  • one trillion – unu biliono

Esperanto 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 nine are specific words, namely nul [0], unu [1], du [2], tri [3], kvar [4], kvin [5], ses [6], sep [7], ok [8], and naŭ [9].
  • The tens are formed by adding the ten word (dek) after the matching digit, with the exception of ten where the unit is implicit: dek [10], dudek [20], tridek [30], kvardek [40], kvindek [50], sesdek [60], sepdek [70], okdek [80], and naŭdek [90].
  • Numbers from twenty-one to ninety-one are constructed by saying the ten first, followed by the digit separated with a space (e.g.: dudek kvin [25], kvardek ses [46]).
  • The hundreds are built exactly the same way as the tens (e.g.: cent [100], ducent [200], tricent [300]…), as well as the thousands (e.g.: mil [1,000], dumil [2,000], trimil [3,000]…).
  • The Esperanto language follows the long scale system for naming big numbers: every new word greater than a million is one million times bigger than the previous term. Thus, miliardo is equivalent to 109 (one billion in the US), a trillion (1012) is said biliono, and a quadrillion (1015) is said triliono. Big scale numbers are substantival number words, or numbers if the form of a noun. Thus, they have the -o ending of Esperanto substantives, and they take the -j suffix in their plural form: one million is unu miliono, and two millions is du milionoj.

Write a number in full in Esperanto

Let’s move now to the practice of the numbering rules in Esperanto. 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

A Complete Grammar Of Esperanto The International Language A Complete Grammar Of Esperanto The International Language
by , editors BiblioBazaar (2009)
[Amazon.com Amazon.com]

L’Espéranto de poche L’Espéranto de poche
by , editors Assimil (2009)
[Amazon.com Amazon.com]

Parlons Espéranto, la langue internationale Parlons Espéranto, la langue internationale
by , editors L’Harmattan (2001)
[Amazon.com Amazon.com]

Articles

Monero, learn Esperanto with a cryptocurrency Monero, learn Esperanto with a cryptocurrency

One world, one language, one currency (Unu mondo, unu lingvo, unu mono). This slogan of universality expresses the unity sought by Esperantists in the promotion of their language. The creation of a cryptographic currency with an evocative name, monero, shows how easy it is to create words in Esperanto thanks to its system of affixes.
International Auxiliary Languages and Wikipedia International Auxiliary Languages and Wikipedia

International Auxiliary Languages have found on Wikipedia a new space to expand their reach. If Esperanto and Volapük are the most used IAL, Ido, Interlingua, Interlingue, and Novial are also present in the picture. Let’s see their publication rate over the years to get a better feeling of their progression.

Source

Auxiliary languages

Afrihili, Angos, Ba kom, Babm, Bolak, Ceqli, Digisk Folkspraak, Esperanto, Folkspraak, Globasa, Glosa, Guosa, Idiom neutral, Ido, Intal, Interlingua, Interlingue, Interslavic, Kotava, Langue nouvelle, Latinesce, Latino sine flexione, Lingua Franca Nova, Lingwa de planeta, Mondial, Mondlango, Neolatin, Nove Latina, Pandunia, Panglobish, Ro, Romanid, Slovio, Solresol, Sona, Spokil, Stœchiophonie, Tutonish, Universalglot, Uropi, and Volapük.

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.