Text
In this chapter, we are going to cover something simple, but necessary: the numbers 1–10.
I’ll give you the following:
- 1-10
- some commentary on variation, etc.
- information on the basics of using numbers in noun phrases (e.g., “two houses” in English)
Numbers 1-10
| Number | Bambara |
|---|---|
| 1 | kelen |
| 2 | fila1 |
| 3 | saba |
| 4 | naani |
| 5 | duuru2 |
| 6 | wɔɔrɔ |
| 7 | wolonfila3 |
| 8 | segin4 |
| 9 | kɔnɔntɔn |
| 10 | tan |
Use with nouns
Using these numbers with nouns is very straightforward. You simply place the number after the noun. For instance:
adamaden + saba
human being + three‘three human beings’
Or:
kalo + kɔnɔntɔn
month/moon + nine‘nine months’
Note that in neither case did I need to make adamaden or kalo plural; the number next to the noun is enough to signal that there’s multiple of them.
And yes, it’s true that we haven’t covered pluralization yet—we will in "Plurals"!
Vocab
(👋 Make sure to turn on the sound! Read the Flashcard overview.)
Coming soon n'Ala sɔnna!
- kelen
- one
- fila [fla]
- two
- saba
- three
- naani
- four
- duuru
- five
- looru
- five [possible Jula variant]
- wɔɔrɔ
- six
- wolonfila
- seven
- wolonwula
- seven [possible Bambara variant]
- segin
- eight
- kɔnɔntɔn
- nine
- tan
- ten
- fu
- zero; nothing
- joli
- how many; how much
- adamaden
- human being
- kalo
- month; moon
Vocab list will be here someday!
Flashcards will be here someday!
Exercises
Exercises will be here someday!