Useful foreign phrases |
Numbers |
Colours |
Kinship |
Idioms |
Tongue twisters |
Proverbs |
Other multilingual pages
Useful foreign phrases |
Numbers |
Colours |
Kinship |
Idioms |
Tongue twisters |
Proverbs |
Other multilingual pages
| 0 | leai | 30 | tolu sefulu | ||
| 1 | tasi | 11 | sefulu tasi | 40 | fá sefulu |
| 2 | lua | 12 | sefulu lua | 50 | lima sefulu |
| 3 | tolu | 13 | sefulu tolu | 60 | ono sefulu |
| 4 | fá | 14 | sefulu fá | 70 | fitu sefulu |
| 5 | lima | 15 | sefulu lima | 80 | valu sefulu |
| 6 | ono | 16 | sefulu ono | 90 | iva sefulu |
| 7 | fitu | 17 | sefulu fitu | 100 | selau |
| 8 | valu | 18 | sefulu valu | 1,000 | afe |
| 9 | iva | 19 | sefulu iva | 10,000 | sefulu afe |
| 10 | sefulu | 20 | lua sefulu | 1 million | miliona |
The system is decimal and totally regular except that the Samoan words "ma le" are inserted in combinations like 101-109 (e.g. selau ma le tasi = 101, lua afe ma le iva = 2009). Sefulu is abbreviated to fulu in rapid speech by some speakers.
The ordinal numbers are formed with the definite article singular te before and the particle o after the number: te lima o fale = the fifth house (lit.: the [number] five of the houses). Sole exception: the first = te fale muamua, not *te tasi o fale!
There are special counting systems for persons, fish, coconuts and fathoms - all decimal, too - but they are gradually falling out of use.
Grammatically speaking, numbers are (stative) verbs in Tuvaluan and behave as such, i.e. they can be preceded by verbal particles: tálá e fá - (it is) four dollars.
Tuvaluan numbers and notes provided by Emanuel Fuchs
If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, or if you can provide recordings of these numbers, please contact me.
Information about the Tuvaluan language