Counting to twenty in Somali (with a rhythm to remember them)

Numbers are the Somali most children learn first and forget last. They are counted on the stairs, argued over when sweets are shared, and shouted across the playground. Here is every number from one to twenty, the pattern that makes eleven to nineteen easy, and a clapping rhythm to lock them in.

One to ten: the words you cannot skip

Everything in Somali counting is built on the first ten. Learn these and the rest is assembly.

Every number has a native recording on the Somali numbers page, and kow is a good place to start.

The sounds to get right

Three things need care, and they are all in the first ten.

Saddex and lix end in X. In Somali that is the breathy sound from the throat, not “ks” as in “six”. Children who say “sad-decks” will be understood, but the real sound is softer and comes from lower down.

Toddoba and siddeed have a doubled “d”. The letter is held for a beat, the way you hold the “n” in “unnamed”. Say them too fast and they lose their shape.

Sagaal has a long “aa”, written twice and held twice as long as the “a” in laba. If your child clips it, the word sounds wrong to a Somali ear even when every letter is there. Doubled letters, vowels or consonants, are the one spelling rule Somali children must learn to hear.

Eleven to nineteen: unit, iyo, ten

This is where Somali is kinder than English. English makes children memorize eleven, twelve, thirteen, each with its own shape. Somali uses one pattern for all of them.

Iyo means “and”. Eleven is kow iyo toban: one and ten. Twelve is laba iyo toban: two and ten. The unit comes first, then iyo, then toban, every single time.

A child who knows one to ten and the word iyo can produce all nine of these without being taught them one by one. Point that out. Children love discovering that they already know something.

Twenty and the tens beyond it

Labaatan (twenty) breaks the pattern, but look closely and laba (two) is hiding inside it. The other tens are built the same way, from the unit plus an ending.

Above twenty the iyo pattern returns. Twenty-one is kow iyo labaatan, thirty-five is shan iyo soddon. So a child who has the first ten, the tens and iyo can count to a hundred. That is the whole system.

A clapping rhythm that makes them stick

Numbers are rhythm, and Somali numbers fall neatly into groups of five. Here is a simple game that needs no equipment and works in the car, on the stairs, or in a queue.

The five-and-stamp. Count aloud together, clapping once on each number. On every fifth number, stamp your foot instead of clapping:

kow (clap), laba (clap), saddex (clap), afar (clap), shan (stamp). lix (clap), toddoba (clap), siddeed (clap), sagaal (clap), toban (stamp).

The stamp on shan and toban gives the child two landmarks. If they lose their place, they go back to the last stamp.

Three beats for the teens. From eleven onward each number has three parts, so give it three claps: kow (clap), iyo (clap), toban (clap). The middle clap is always iyo, which is the point: the child feels that “and” is doing the same job every time. Stamp on shan iyo toban and again on labaatan, and you have four landmarks across twenty numbers.

Speed it up. Once the pattern is steady, go faster each round until someone laughs and loses it. Then start again from the last stamp. Five minutes of this, most days, is more than enough.

Where numbers show up every day

The fastest way to keep numbers alive is to use them for real things.

• Stairs. Count every step in Somali, up and down. Most flights have between ten and twenty steps, which is exactly the range that needs practice.
• Fingers. Far (finger) becomes faro (fingers), and ten of them are always available. Farahaaga tiri (count your fingers) is a good bath-time instruction.
• Sharing. Laba sweets each, saddex pieces of xalwo (the sticky Somali sweet), afar sambuus on the plate. Numbers come before the noun in Somali, so laba buug is two books and saddex geel is three camels.
• The market. Waa meeqa? (how much is it?) is the question that starts every purchase in a Somali shop, and the answer is a number. The ordering phrases topic has the rest of that conversation; practise it with pretend prices at home.
• Time. Waa immisa saacaddu? (what time is it?) needs one to twelve. Ask it at bedtime.

In the Luuqad app the Number Match game and Market Day both practise counting: children match numbers to their names in one and fill baskets with the right number of items in the other. The games page shows how they work.

Twenty words, one connector, and a stamp on every fifth beat. Your child will be counting camels by the weekend.

Written by Amina Yusuf. Writes about Somali food, culture and family life. Illustrations from the Luuqad app.