Cardinal Numbers 1 - 10
Your vocabulary for this lesson is the numbers given in the following paragraph. 75. Stems of the number words:
| -mwe one | -tanu five | (u)munani eight |
| -biri two | -tandatu six | (i)cyenda nine |
| -tatu three | -rindwi seven | (i)cumi ten |
| -ne four |
Numbers from one through seven must have prefixes according to the class of the noun modified, but from eight to ten the forms are invariable. Here are the numbers with the first class agreements. The prefixes are the same as for verbs, except the first class singular.
| umuntu umwe - one person | abantu batandatu - six people |
| abantu babiri - two people | abantu barindwi - seven people |
| abantu batatu three people | abantu munani - eight people |
| abantu bane - four people | abantu cyenda - nine people |
| abantu batanu five people | abantu cumi - ten people |
76. The class agreements:
| Class 1 umwe babiri | Class 6 rumwe ebyiri |
| Class 2 umwe ibid | Class 7 kamwe tubiri |
| Class 3 imwe ebyiri | Class 8 bumwe abiri |
| Class 4 kimwe bibiri | Class 9 kumwe abiri |
| Class 5 rimwe abiri | Class 10 hamwe habiri |
Note: For the 3rd and 6th class plural agreements another form is used: two - ebyiri, three - eshatu, four - enye, five - eshanu, six - esheshatu, seven - indwi, e.g. inka eshatu - three cows, inka ndwi. (Note that indwi with these classes loses the i, just as do the numbers for 8, 9, 10, when it follows the noun.)
The numerals from 8 to 10 lose their initial vowel when immediately following a noun, but if used by themselves they retain it. e.g. ibitabo munani - eight books
77. Numbers always follow the nouns they modify.
78. For just counting when no object is involed, one says: rimwe, kabiri, gatatu, kane, gatanu, gatandatu, karindwi, umunani, icyenda, icumi.
Exercises:
Translate into Kinyarwanda: