Counting in Soga

Language overview

Forty-two in Soga Soga (Lusoga) is a Bantu language that belongs to the Niger-Congo language family. Native language of the Soga people, or Basoga, of the Busoga region of Eastern Uganda, the Soga language counts about 3.1 million speakers.

Due to lack of data, we can only count accurately up to 10,000 in Soga. Please contact me if you can help me counting up from that limit.

Soga numbers list

  • 1 – ndala
  • 2 – ibiri
  • 3 – isatu
  • 4 – inha
  • 5 – itaanu
  • 6 – mukaaga
  • 7 – musanvu
  • 8 – munaana
  • 9 – mwenda
  • 10 – ikumi
  • 11 – ikumi na ndhala
  • 12 – ikumi na ibiri
  • 13 – ikumi na isatu
  • 14 – ikumi na inha
  • 15 – ikumi na itaanu
  • 16 – ikumi na mukaaga
  • 17 – ikumi na musanvu
  • 18 – ikumi na munaana
  • 19 – ikumi na mwenda
  • 20 – abiri
  • 30 – asatu
  • 40 – anha
  • 50 – ataanho
  • 60 – nkaaga
  • 70 – nsanvu
  • 80 – kinaanha
  • 90 – kyenda
  • 100 – kikumi
  • 1,000 – lukumi

Soga 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 one to nine are rendered by specific words, namely ndala [1], ibiri [2], isatu [3], inha [4], itaanu [5], mukaaga [6], musanvu [7], munaana [8], and mwenda [9].
  • Tens are formed on the multiplier digit root, except for ten itself: ikumi [10], abiri [20], asatu [30], anha [40], ataanho [50], nkaaga [60], nsanvu [70], kinaanha [80], and kyenda [90].
  • Compound numbers are formed starting with the ten, followed by the word na, and the unit (e.g.: ataanho na munaana [58], nsanvu na isatu [73]).
  • Hundreds are formed on the multiplier digit root, except for one hundred, based on ten: kikumi [100], bibiri [200], bisatu [300], bina [400], bitaanu [500], lukaaga [600], lusanvu [700], lunaana [800], and lwenda [900].
  • Thousands are formed starting with the plural form of the word for thousand (nkumi) followed by the multiplier digit separated with a space from two thousand to five thousand, and prefixing the multiplier digit root by k(a) from six thousand to nine thousand: lukumi [1,000], nkumi ibiri [2,000], nkuni isatu [3,000], nkumi ina [4,000], nkumi itaanu [5,000], kakaaga [6,000], kasanvu [7,000], kanaanha [8,000], and kenda [9,000].
  • Ten thousand is mutwaalo [104].

Write a number in full in Soga

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

Bantu languages

Gwere, Kinyarwanda, Lingala, Makhuwa, Mwani, Nyungwe, Punu, Shona, Soga, Swahili, Tsonga, Tswana, Xhosa, Yao, and Zulu.

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.