Numbers
Cardinal numbers
The basic cardinal numbers are:
- zero – zero
- un – one
- du – two
- tre – three
- cuatro – four
- sinco – five
- ses – six
- sete – seven
- oto – eight
- nove – nine
- des – ten
- sento – hundred
- mil – thousand
- milion – million
Numbers up to 999 are written as single words containing up to three components, hyphenated together. Each component represents a digit, and consists of a cardinal number between un and nove, with des or sento appended if the digit represents a multiple of ten or a hundred. Single multiples of ten and a hundred are expressed as just des and sento, with no mention of un. The components for zero multiples (such as the “0” in “209”) are omitted entirely.
- des-un – 11
- des-du – 12
- des-nove – 19
- dudes – 20
- dudes-un – 21
- dudes-sinco – 25
- sento-un – 101
- sento-des-du – 112
- tresento-dudes-un – 321
- cuatrosento – 400
- novesento-sinco – 905
Mil and milion are always written as standalone words, separating each group of three digits:
- mil setesento-sesdes-tre – 1763
- du mil un – 2001
- tre mil des-cuatro – 3014
- cuatrodes-sinco mil sessento-setedes-oto – 45 678
- novesento-otodes-sete milion sessento-sincodes-cuatro mil tresento-dudes-un balones roja – 987 654 321 red balloons
When writing numbers in digits, Elefen uses a space between each group of three digits, as shown above. The decimal point is written as either a period (a dot) or a comma, according to preference, and likewise pronounced as either punto or virgula. Digits following the decimal point are simply listed:
- tre punto un cuatro un ses – 3.1416
- du virgula zero nove – 2,09
Negative numbers are expressed with min:
- min sinco grados – minus five degrees
Thousands of millions
The word “billion” can mean either a thousand million or a million million, depending on culture. Similar problems affect “trillion”, “quadrillion”, etc. To avoid confusion, Elefen prefers to spell such numbers out explicitly:
- mil milion – 1 000 000 000 (one with nine zeroes, 10⁹)
- milion milion – 1 000 000 000 000 (10¹²)
- mil milion milion – 1 000 000 000 000 000 (10¹⁵)
The words bilion, trilion, cuadrilion, etc do exist in Elefen, but a speaker who uses them should take care to clarify the meaning.
In scientific writing, the clearest option is to use the international prefixes:
- deca- (da) – 10
- ecto- (h) – 100
- cilo- (k) – 10³
- mega- (M) – 10⁶
- giga- – 10⁹
- tera- – 10¹²
- peta- – 10¹⁵
- exa- – 10¹⁸
- zeta- – 10²¹
- iota- – 10²⁴
Ordinal numbers
When a number precedes a noun, it is a cardinal number, indicating a quantity:
- tre omes e cuatro femes – three men and four women
But when a number follows a noun, it is an ordinal number, indicating a position in a sequence:
- la om tre – the third man
- la pato ses – the sixth duck
- la paje un – the first page, page one
Prima is a common alternative to ordinal un, but it can’t be used for higher ordinals that happen to end in “1”:
- la paje prima – the first page
- sala sento-un – room 101
Numero can be used as a dummy noun to support an ordinal number:
- El es numero tre. – He is number three / He is third.
- A cual paje tu es? Me es a numero setedes. – What page are you on? I’m on number seventy.
- Numero tre, me vole grasia la furnores de come. – Thirdly, I want to thank the caterers.
Fractions
One use of the suffix -i is to form words for fractional numbers:
- dui – half
- tri – third
- cuatri – quarter, fourth
- desi – tenth
- des-dui – twelfth
- cuatrodesi – fortieth
- senti – hundredth
- tresento-sesdes-sinci – 1/365
- mili – 1/1000
- dudes-mili – 1/20 000
Fractions follow the rules for ordinary nouns:
- un tri de la tarte – a third of the pie
- du tris de la tarte – two thirds of the pie
- esta tri ardeda de la tarte – this burnt third of the pie
- un cuatri de un sentenio – a quarter century
- tre tredes-duis de un diton – three thirty-seconds of an inch
There are also other way to express fractions:
- tre e un dui oras – three and a half hours
- tre oras e un dui – three hours and a half
- sete e un dui milion anios – seven and a half million years
- des persentos de la popla = ten percent of the people
- des sentis de la popla = ten percent of the people
- du punto sete sinco oto metres = 2.758 meters
For scientific writing, international prefixes are available:
- desi- (d) – 1/10
- senti- (c) – 1/100
- mili- (m) – 10⁻³
- micro- (μ) – 10⁻⁶
- nano- (n) – 10⁻⁹
- pico- (p) – 10⁻¹²
- femto- (f) – 10⁻¹⁵
- ato- (a) – 10⁻¹⁸
- zepto- (z) – 10⁻²¹
- iocto (y) – 10⁻²⁴
Multiples
The suffix -uple forms words for numeric multiples:
- duple – double, duo, pair, couple
- truple – triple, trio
- cuatruple – quadruple
Phrases with ves or veses express how many times something happens:
- a un ves – once, one time
- a du veses – twice, two times
- a tre veses – thrice, three times
Ves does not express arithmetic multiplication.
Arithmetic
Addition is expressed with plu or e:
- Un plu un es du. – One plus one is two.
- Du e du no es sinco. – Two and two are not five.
Subtraction is expressed with min:
- Ses min tre es tre. – Six minus three is three.
Multiplication is expressed with multiplida par, often simplified to just par:
- Du multiplida par tre es ses. – Two multiplied by three equals six.
- Ses par cuatro es dudes-cuatro. – Six times four is twenty-four.
Division is expressed with divideda entre, often simplified to just entre:
- Des divideda entre du es sinco. – Ten divided by two is five.
- Sinco entre du es du e un dui. – Five over two is two and a half.
- Sinco entre du es du punto sinco. – Five over two is 2.5.
- Sinco entre du es du virgula sinco. – Five over two is 2,5.
Powers are expressed with a potia and an ordinal number. Cuadrida and cubida are alternatives for “squared” and “cubed”:
- Tre a potia du es nove. – Three to the power of two is nine.
- Tre cubida es dudes-sete. – Three cubed is twenty-seven.
- des a potia min nove – 10⁻⁹
- des a potia sento – 10¹⁰⁰
Roots are expressed with a radis and an ordinal number:
- 256 a radis cuatro es 4. – The fourth root of 256 is 4.
- La radis cuadral de 64 es 8. – The square root of 64 is 8.
- La radis cubo de 27 es 3. – The cube root of 27 is 3.
Measurements
Physical measurements can be expressed in a variety of ways:
- Cuanto alta es la tore? – How high is the tower?
- Cuanto de altia la tore ave? – How much height does the tower have?
- La tore es cuanto alta? – The tower is how high?
- La tore ave cuanto de altia? – The tower has how much height?
- La tore es 40 metres alta. – The tower is 40 meters high.
- La tore ave 40 metres de altia. – The tower has a height of 40 meters / The tower is 40 meters in height.
- La tore es un metre plu alta ca la casa. – The tower is one meter higher than the house.
- La tore ave un metre plu de altia ca la casa. – The tower has a height one meter more than the house.
- La tore es du veses plu alta ca la casa. – The tower is two times higher than the house.
- La tore ave du de la altia de la casa. – The tower has two times the height of the house.
- La casa ave un dui de la altia de la tore. – The house has half the height of the tower.
- La tore es duple plu alta ca la casa. – The tower is twice as high as the house.
- La tore ave duple la altia de la casa. – The tower has double the height of the house.
A basic principle is that one has height (ave altia) but is high (es alta).
40 metres alta literally means “40 high meters” (i.e. the meters themselves are high), but by natural extension it comes to mean “40 meters in height”.
The same options apply to other measurements, such as:
- larga, largia
- grande, grandia
- pesosa, pesa
- longa, longia
- longa, tempo
- vea, eda
- basa, basia
- profonda, profondia
- frecuente, frecuentia
- rapida, rapidia
- densa, densia
