So, want to impress your friends by being about to count in the most widely spread planned language? Let’s start by counting to 10… I’ll even throw in some memory hints for free! And yes, I’m a software developer, so I’ll start counting at zero. 🙂

Numbers 0-10

• 0 – nul (sounds like null)
• 1 – unu (sounds like card game Uno)
• 2 – du (do you want to learn the second number?)
• 3 – tri (sounds like three)
• 4 – kvar (almost like four)
• 5 – kvin
• 6 – ses (almost like six)
• 7 – sep
• 8 – ok
• 9 – naŭ (learn this number now!)
• 10 – dek (highest number in a deck of cards)

Ok, that was just as easy as learning any other language, but here is where Esperanto’s logical nature really helps. For fun, I’ll teach you the ordinal numbers. Let’s compare English with Esperanto here:

English cardinal	English ordinal	Esperanto cardinal	Esperanto ordinal
one	first	unu	unua
two	second	du	dua
three	third	tri	tria
four	fourth	kvar	kvara
five	fifth	kvin	kvina
six	sixth	ses	sesa
seven	seventh	sep	sepa
eight	eighth	ok	oka
nine	ninth	naŭ	naŭa
ten	tenth	dek	deka

Numbers 11-1.000.000

The numbers stay logical. Check out the following examples:

• 11 – dek unu
• 12 – dek du
• 34 – tridek kvar
• 93 – naŭdek tri
• 100 – cent
• 123 – cent dudek tri
• 678 – sescent sepdek ok
• 1.000 – mil
• 1.000.000 – miliono

Also note that as opposed to English, the thousands dividers are typically separated by a dot, whereas the decimal is a comma. For example, you might see, “Tio kostas 1.299,99 €.” [That costs €1,299.99.]

Saying years

If you want to say, “The first Universal Congress of Esperanto happened in 1905.” you would say, “La unua Universala Kongreso okazis en mil naŭcent kvin.” Literally in English that would be “thousand nine-hundred five”. Note however, that in years starting with 2000, the same order as English applies, so 2011 is “du mil dek unu”.

Further study for advanced students

Believe it or not, numbers above a billion can get tricky. When you’re ready for an advanced lesson, feel free to check out Vortoj por grandegaj nombroj.