Esperantaj Nombroj Trivia Quiz

In Esperanto, the loneliest number is 'unu'. It's just like the Spanish, but with twice the 'ooh' and none of the 'oh'.

The cardinal numbers (1-10, 100, and 1000) are not declined. They never take the plural -j or accusative -n endings.

Bonvolu doni al mi unu botelon da biero.
--Give me one bottle of beer please.

Notice that it's 'unu botelon', not 'unun botelon'. Cardinal numbers are not declined.

However, because it's Esperanto, you can add the standard endings to make the meanings substantival, adjectival, or adverbial:

Unuo - unit, single entity (noun)
Unua - first in an order (adjective)
Unue - first (in time/sequence), firstly (adverb)

In this case, adjectives and nouns do take the ending -j for plural or -n for accusative.

La metro estas unuo de longo.
--The meter is a unit of length.

Mi aĉetis unuon da lakto.
--I bought a unit of milk (i.e. carton).

Li venis en la unua pozicio.
--He came in first place.

Tiuj estas miaj unuaj libroj.
--Those are my first books.

Unue, mi volas diri dankon.
--First(ly), I want to say thank you.

Unue mi ne komprenis, sed poste jes.
--At first, I didn't understand, but later I did.

Esperanto loves combining roots into compounds, and numbers are no exception:

Unuokula (unu + okul + -a) - 'one-eyed'
Unudirekta (unu + direkt + -a) - 'one-way'
Unutaga (unu + tag + -a) - 'lasting one day'
Unubraka (unu + brak + a) - 'one-armed'

'Du' is twice the fun of 'unu' and means 'two'. The word is pronounced much like the English word 'do' or 'dew', neither of which look like they should be pronounced that way, but such is English.

If you want to impress your friends, in Esperanto the 'd' and the 't' are dental/alveolar stops, a term which sounds super scary. However, it just means that instead of placing your tongue on the roof of your mouth as in English, you should place it along the base of your upper teeth. As you're quietly trying it yourself right now, you probably notice it's hard to make the sound in a whisper. That's how you know you're doing it right.

Ili kantis kiel bela duo.
--They sang as a beautiful duo.

Aĉetu du bananojn.
--Buy two bananas.

La dueco de lumo kaj ombro fascinas min.
--The duality of light and shadow fascinates me.

--Ŝi venis en la dua loko.
--She came in second place.

La dua ĉapitro estas pli facila.
--The second chapter is easier.

Ni faris dutagan ekskurson.
--We took a two-day trip.

Due, ni devas diskuti la kostojn.
--Secondly, we must discuss the costs.

Li finis due en la konkurso.
--He finished second in the competition.

La infanoj marŝis duope.
--The children walked in pairs.

La vojo duiĝis en la arbaro.
--The path split in two in the forest.

In Esperanto the number three is 'tri', which does not sound at all like the English prefix 'tri-' but more like the English word 'tree'.

In some accents, my own included, that 't' sound in 'tr' degrades into a 'ch' sound. Say it out loud slowly to see if you suffer this terrible affliction. You don't want to do that in Esperanto, so try to keep that 't' sound clean and give the 'r' a little flap or trill if you can.

If you like attention to detail, you'll give that 't' a dental sound by moving your tongue toward the back of your top teeth when you pronounce it, just like the 'd' as explained above.

Tri etaj musoj kuris ĉirkaŭ la fromaĝo.
--Three little mice ran around the cheese.

La sekreta ingredienco en mia supo estas tri pinĉoj da salo.
--The secret ingredient in my soup is three pinches of salt.

La trio de pianisto, violonisto kaj ĉelisto ludis belegan pecon de Beethoven.
--The trio of pianist, violinist, and cellist played a beautiful piece by Beethoven.

Ni formis trion por la konkurso: mi kantos, vi ludos gitaron, kaj li tamburos.
--We formed a trio for the competition: I will sing, you will play guitar, and he will drum.

Mi loĝas en la tria etaĝo de tiu konstruaĵo.
--I live on the third floor of that building.

Post du provoj, lia tria provo sukcesis.
--After two attempts, his third attempt succeeded.

Mi ne povas iri al la festo. Unue, mi estas okupata. Due, mi estas laca. Kaj trie, mi eĉ ne konatas la festinton.
--I can't go to the party. Firstly, I'm busy. Secondly, I'm tired. And thirdly, I don't even know the host.

The suffix -op- expresses grouping or doing something in sets. It answers the question: "How many together, as a group?"

unuope - one by one
duope - in pairs, two at a time
triope - in threes, three at a time

La lernantoj eniris unuope.
--The students entered one by one.

La infanoj marŝis duope.
--The children walked in pairs.

Ni laboris triope pri la projekto.
--We worked in a team of three on the project.

To say the number four in Esperanto, you'll have to learn the trick of pronouncing 'kv', which is proudly out front in the word 'kvar'. The language doesn't have the letter 'Q' but it does have these guys, and it uses them from time to time. Don't try to blend them--each letter gets a sound--just avoid adding a vowel between them. Tricky at first, it gets easier with time: 'k-v'.

The suffix '-on-' in Esperanto is used to indicate fractions. The formula is pretty simple:

Number + 'on' + ending (usually -o for the noun form). Beyond that, fractions work like any other noun.

Mi manĝis duonon de la pomo, kaj donis la alian duonon al mia amiko.
--I ate one half of the apple, and gave the other half to my friend.

La glaso, duone plena estis metita sur la tablon.
--Half full, the glass was placed on the table.

Nur triono de la personoj respondis ĝuste al la demando.
--Only a third of the people answered the question correctly.

La recepto postulas trionon de litro da lakto.
--The recipe requires one third of a liter of milk.

Se vi havas kukon kaj donas al mi duonon, kaj mi poste manĝas duonon de mia peco, mi manĝas kvaronon de la tuta kuko!
--If you have a cake and give me a half, and I then eat a half of my piece, I eat a quarter of the whole cake!

(This last has a usual construction with everything in the present tense, which is a common way to simplify such hypotheticals in Esperanto. English is just as likely to jump to the future perfect at the end, something which seasoned Esperantists don't generally do except in literature.)

The Esperanto word for the number five is 'kvin'. Yep, there it is again: our friend, the 'kv' combination. The 'i' in Esperanto is always pronounced 'ee' as in 'seen' or 'keen', so don't let me catch you slipping a short 'i' sound in there. It doesn't exist in Esperanto. Nor does the un-vowel we lovingly call the schwa.

The suffix -obl- means '-fold' or 'times.' It indicates how many times something is multiplied.

The ending can be:
-o to create a noun (e.g., duoblo - a double)
-a to create an adjective (e.g., triobla - triple, threefold)
-e to create an adverb (e.g., kvaroble - quadruply, in a fourfold manner)

La fadeno estas unuobla, ne duobla, do ĝi estas malpli forta.
--The thread is single, not double, so it is less strong.

La firmao profitis duoble tiom ĉi tiu jaro.
--The company profited twice as much this year.

La ĵonglisto sukcesis fari trioblan rotacion kun la pilkoj.
--The juggler managed to do a triple rotation with the balls.

La valuto falis, kaj la prezo de importita kafo kreskis kvaroble.
--The currency fell, and the price of imported coffee grew fourfold.

La kvinoblo de dek estas kvindek.
--The quintuple of ten is fifty.

With apologies to fans of the German six, Esperanto maintains its G-rating with 'ses', which sounds an awful lot like the 'cess' in 'cesspool' for want of a better example.

Ŝi lojas en la sesa etaĝo.
--She lives on the sixth floor.

Nur sesono de la membroj voĉdonis.
--Only a sixth of the members voted.

Tio signifas sesoblan riskon.
--That means a sixfold risk.

La urbo kreskis sesoble en unu generacio.
--The city grew sixfold in one generation.

Ĉelo en abelujo havas la formon de sesangulo.
--A cell in a honeycomb has the shape of a hexagon.

Formiko estas sespiedulo.
--An ant is a six-legged creature (hexapod).

Like all words in Esperanto, 'sep' (seven) looks like it sounds and sounds like it looks. That's why Esperantists are such a happy lot.

La festivalo daŭros sep tagojn.
--The festival will last seven days.

En la sepa ĉapitro, la heroo fine revenas.
--In the seventh chapter, the hero finally returns.

Sepono de la tuta mono estas via.
--A seventh of all the money is yours.

Ili konstruis sepoblan muron por protekti la urbon.
--They built a seven-layer (sevenfold) wall to protect the city.

La valoro de la tero pliigxis sepoble post la trovo de oro.
--The value of the land increased sevenfold after the discovery of gold.

Li diras, ke koko estas sempiedulo, ne sespiedulo.
--He said that a chicken is a seven-legged creature, not a six-legged one.

La libro estas dividita en sepopo da partoj.
--The book is divided into a set of seven parts.

This last sentence is more for demonstrative purposes, and not particularly colloquial. You'll generally hear "en aro da sep partoj" (in a collection of seven parts).

The Esperanto word for 'eight' is 'ok', pronounced like 'oak'. Don't pronounce it 'okay' unless you want to get beat up by a bunch of people with green star lapel pins.

Mi aĉetis ok pomojn por la deserto.
--I bought eight apples for dessert.

La libro havas okdek paĝojn.
--The book has eighty pages.

Nia kunveno estas je la oka.
Our meeting is at eight (o'clock).

Ili laboris okope por levi la pezan ŝrankon.
--They worked in a group of eight to lift the heavy cabinet.

La kompanio pligrandigis la profiton okoble en unu jaro.
--The company increased its profit eightfold in one year.

Ŝi estas en la oka monato de sia gravedeco.
--She is in the eighth month of her pregnancy.

La flugilo de la insekto havas okangulan formon sub la mikroskopo.
--The insect's wing has an octagonal shape under the microscope.

La prezo de la domo estis okcent mil eŭroj.
--The price of the house was eight hundred thousand euros.

La okpieda araneo rampis trans la muro.
--The eight-legged spider crawled across the wall.

And now we come to 'naŭ'. That final letter is really just the Esperanto way of writing a 'w'. Don't let it bother you. It almost never shows up at the start of words but instead is used to form diphthongs. The diphthong 'aŭ' sounds like the 'ow' in 'cow', so 'naŭ' ends up being nothing more 'wow' than a slightly dressed‑up 'now'. It means 'nine'.

Mia fratino havas naŭ jarojn.
--My sister is nine years old.

Li finis la kuron en la naŭa pozicio.
--He finished the race in ninth position.

La prezo naŭobliĝis dum la jaroj.
--The price increased ninefold over the years.

Preskaŭ naŭdek personoj ĉeestis la publikan kunvenon.
--Nearly ninety people attended the public meeting.

La naŭangula figuro estas nekonata al multaj homoj
--The nine-sided shape is unknown to many people.

- La malnova horloĝo batis naŭfoje.
--The ancient clock chimed nine times.

La projekto kostos proksimume naŭcent dolarojn.
--The project will cost approximately nine hundred dollars.

We've reached dek. It's a short, strong name for the number 10. It's pronounced like 'deck', but with that neat dental 'd' sound we practiced earlier. From here, Esperanto numbers unfold with perfect regularity, allowing you to count to 99 with no problems. The rules are simple:

Multiplication is shown by a single compound word.
Addition is shown by writing the parts separately.

I know, that sounds like math, but the examples show how easy this is.

For the teens, just start with 'dek' and add the next number:

11 - dek unu
12 - dek du
...
19 - dek naŭ

For the twenties, we start to multiply. 'Dudek' literally means "two‑ten" (2 × 10 = 20):

20 - dudek
21 - dudek unu
22 - dudek du
...
29 - dudek naŭ

From there, it's child's play:

30 - tridek
40 - kvardek
50 - kvindek
...
90 - naŭdek

And of course, to keep my promise:

99 - naŭdek naŭ

No exceptions, no surprises.

100 in Esperanto is 'cent'. The 'c' can be tricky. It's always pronounced 'ts' as in 'tsetse fly'. It can feel clumsy when you start out, but it becomes second nature with a little work. So, 'cent' sounds like 'tsent'. Say it loud and proud so everyone in the house can hear.

From here, the pattern we learned above continues without exceptions. You can count smoothly from 100 all the way to 999 using the same two rules:

Multiplication is shown with one compound word (ducent = 200, tricent = 300, etc.).
Addition is shown with separate words (cent unu = 101, cent dek kvin = 115).

100 - cent
200 - ducent
300 - tricent
400 - kvarcent
500 - kvincent
600 - sescent
700 - sepcent
800 - okcent
900 - naŭcent

Putting it all together:

101 - cent unu
115 - cent dek kvin
132 - cent tridek du
199 - cent naŭdek naŭ
245 - ducent kvardek kvin
376 - tricent sepdek ses
584 - kvincent okdek kvar
999 - naŭcent naŭdek naŭ

Now we're cooking!

1000 in Esperanto sounds like 'meal' but looks like 'mil'. If you remembered that 'i' is always pronounced 'ee', you're probably ahead of me.

It's the same old drill, with a little twist:

1,000 - mil
2,000 - du mil
3,000 - tri mil
4,000 - kvar mil
5,000 - kvin mil
6,000 - ses mil
7,000 - sep mil
8,000 - ok mil
9,000 - naŭ mil

And putting it all together again:

2,345 - du mil tricent kvardek kvin
4,876 - kvar mil okcent sepdek ses
9,999 - naŭ mil naŭcent naŭdek naŭ
10,000 - dek mil
12,345 - dek du mil tricent kvardek kvin
25,000 - dudek kvin mil
98,765 - naŭdek ok mil sepcent sesdek kvin
100,000 - cent mil
999,000 - naŭcent naŭdek naŭ mil

You'll notice that after 1000, the multiplication rule for compounds changes. 'Du mil' not 'dumil'. From here to infinity, we simply start counting the hundreds, tens, and ones of the given unit, much like in English. Imagine the monster compound words we'd get otherwise... nobody wants to learn to say 'naŭcentnaŭdeknaŭmil'.

And to fulfil my promise:

999,999 - naŭcent naŭdek naŭ mil naŭcent naŭdek naŭ.

Happy counting!