LESSON 38

Higher Numbers

Vocabulary

urusengero (or, isengero) - church (building) kubara - to count
itorero - church (people) gufata - to take (hold of), catch, seize
umwaka - year (pl. imyaka - years, crops) kwinjira - to enter (usually followed by mu)
imbeba - rat, mouse

79. Numbers 11 to 19 (First class agreements are used here.)

cumi n’umwe - eleven cumi na batandatu - sixteen
cumi na babiri - twelve cumi na barindwi - seventeen
cumi na batatu - thirteen cumi n’umunani - eighteen
cumi na bane - fourteen cumi n’icyenda - nineteen
cumi na batanu - fifteen

Note: in these last two forms it could be: na munani, na cyenda

Here you see the class agreement comes in the word following na. e.g. abahungu cumi na bane - fourteen boys; amagi cumi n’ane - 14 eggs.

Observe that with eleven, though the noun is plural, -mwe has a singular prefix: e.g. iminsi cumi n’umwe - eleven days.

In numbers from 11 to 19, icumi loses the initial vowel i- even when it does not follow a noun. e.g. Mbese hari abantu benshi? Hari cumi’na babiri basa. Are there many people? There are only twelve.

80. The tens and hundreds.

makuinyabiri - twenty mirongwirindwi - seventy
mirongwitatu - thirty mirongwinani - eighty
mirongwine - forty mirongo cyenda - ninety
mirongwi’tanu - fifty ijana - one hundred
miro~lgwitandatu - sixty magana a1Jiri - two hundred

Note: For 800 one may say: magana inani or magana munani.

In these forms just given, there is no change for agreement.

20 people - abantu makumyabiri
20 cows - inka makumyabiri
But: 21 people - abantu makumyabiri n’umwe
34 sheep - intama mirongwitatu n’enye
124 francs - amafaranga ijana na makumyabiri n’ane.

Observe the agreement as underlined in the last word. Note that na must be used between each segment of the number: 132 men - a’bagabo ijana na mirongwitatu na babiri.

Exercises:

I. Translate into English:

1. Bara abahungu (insert “who”) bari mu ishuli. 2. Hari abahungu ijana na mirongwitatu na batanu. 3. Abagabo n’abagore makumyabiri na babiri baranjira mu rusengero. 4. Injangwe nini irafata imbeba ebyiri. 5. Tuzaguma gukora hano imyaka itatu. 6. Abagabo barazana amabuye magana atatu na mirongwirindwi n’umunani. 7. Inzu y’umukire ifite inzugi cumi na rumwe. 8. Turashaka amasuka makumyabiri n’arindwi, kuko haza abakozi benshi. 9. Muzagura inyama z’amafaranga magana abiri na mirongwine n’atanu. 10. Abigishwa mu ishuli ryacu ni magana atanu na mirongo cyenda na batandatu.

II. Translate into Kinyarwanda: (Always write out the numbers.)

1. Fifteen workmen are coming to build the house today. 2. The rich man has forty-three cows, and many goats. 3. We have four cats; they will catch many rats. 4. There are thirty-six trees in the teacher’s field. 5. The boys write on slates. They have fifty-one (slates). 6. Buy eighty-four eggs. 7. There are twelve sheep in our field. 8. The poor man has a debt of 465 francs. 9. Sixty-six workmen will build the church. 10. The boys will learn in school seventeen years.