Learn Assyrian › Grammar

7.5 Building bigger numbers

7 · Numerals — counting, dates, "the second one" · a plain-language guide to Assyrian (Sureth) grammar

Two simple habits:

1. Biggest piece first, then descend — same order as English. Tens and units just sit side by side with no "and" between them:

• esri kha — 21 ("twenty one")
• arpi tre — 42 ("forty two")
• khamshi tla — 53 ("fifty three")

2. Glue hundreds and thousands onto what follows with a linking -o-. This -o- is a squeezed-together "and" (u): the -a of the big word and the u melt into a single o sound.

• emmo esri tla — 123 ("hundred-and twenty three")
• alpo echchemmo shavvi kha — 1971 ("thousand-and nine-hundred-and seventy one")

When the thousands are plural, that linking sound just disappears and the pieces run on:

• tre-alpe taltasar — 2013 ("two-thousand thirteen")

Big numbers in use. Watch the machine run:

• emmo khamshi — 150
• tremmo esri — 220
• tla-alpe emmo esri kha — 3,121
• alpo khamshemmo tmani — 1,580

Say the parts left to right and let the -o- do the joining. That's the whole system.

---