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Counting in Interlingua

Language overview

Forty-two in Interlingua The Interlingua language is an international auxiliary language (IAL) developed between 1937 and 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA), which aim was to determine which auxiliary language was best suited for international communication, but ended developing a language of their own with the help of Alexander Gode. It is a naturalistic IAL, or an a posteriori language, as based on existing natural languages (namely English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian).

Interlingua numbers list

  • 1 – un
  • 2 – duo
  • 3 – tres
  • 4 – quatro
  • 5 – cinque
  • 6 – sex
  • 7 – septe
  • 8 – octo
  • 9 – nove
  • 10 – dece
  • 11 – dece-un
  • 12 – dece-duo
  • 13 – dece-tres
  • 14 – dece-quatro
  • 15 – dece-cinque
  • 16 – dece-sex
  • 17 – dece-septe
  • 18 – dece-octo
  • 19 – dece-nove
  • 20 – vinti
  • 30 – tresanta
  • 40 – quaranta
  • 50 – cinquanta
  • 60 – sexanta
  • 70 – septanta
  • 80 – octanta
  • 90 – novanta
  • 100 – cento
  • 1,000 – mille
  • one million – un million
  • one billion – un milliardo
  • one trillion – un billion

Interlingua 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 rendered by specific words: zero [0], un [1], duo [2], tres [3], quatro [4], cinque [5], sex [6], septe [7], octo [8], and nove [9].
  • The tens are formed by suffixing the multiplier digit with (a)nta (and replacing the digit ending e or o with an a), except for ten and twenty: deci [10], vinti [20], tresanta [30], quaranta (and not quatranta) [40], cinquanta [50], sexanta [60], septanta [70], octanta [80], and novanta [90].
  • Compound numbers are formed by linking the ten and the unit with a hyphen (e.g.: deci-duo [12], septanta-nove [79]).
  • The hundreds are formed by setting the multiplier digit before the word for hundred (cento, centos in plural) separated with a space, except for one hundred itself: cento [100], duo centos [200], tres centos [300], quatro centos [400], cinque centos [500]…
  • The thousands are formed the same way, by setting the multiplier digit before the word for thousand (mille, milles in plural) separated with a space, except for one thousand itself: mille [1,000], duo milles [2,000], tres milles [3,000], quatro milles [4,000], cinque milles [5,000]…
  • Higher scale numbers follow the long scale numbers rule in which every new term greater than one million is one million times the previous term, alternating the -ion and -iardo suffixes: million [million] (106), milliardo [billion] (109), billion [trillion] (1012), billiardo [quadrillion] (1015), trillion [quintillion] (1018), trilliardo [sextillion] (1021)…

Write a number in full in Interlingua

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

Articles

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.

Sources

Auxiliary languages

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