Somali numbers are wonderfully regular. Learn kow to toban (1 to 10) and you already have the building blocks for everything up to twenty: eleven is kow iyo toban, literally "one and ten", twelve is laba iyo toban, and so on until labaatan (20).
Tap a card for the meaning, examples and a native recording.
| Somali | English | Say it | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kow | 1 (one) | KOW (rhymes with "how") | |
| Laba | 2 (two) | LA-ba | |
| Saddex | 3 (three) | SAD-deh (the x is a breathy h) | |
| Afar | 4 (four) | A-far | |
| Shan | 5 (five) | SHAN | |
| Lix | 6 (six) | LIH (ends in a breathy h) | |
| Toddoba | 7 (seven) | tod-DO-ba | |
| Siddeed | 8 (eight) | sid-DEED | |
| Sagaal | 9 (nine) | sa-GAAL | |
| Toban | 10 (ten) | TO-ban | |
| Kow iyo toban | 11 (eleven) | KOW i-yo TO-ban | |
| Laba iyo toban | 12 (twelve) | LA-ba i-yo TO-ban | |
| Saddex iyo toban | 13 (thirteen) | SAD-deh i-yo TO-ban | |
| Afar iyo toban | 14 (fourteen) | A-far i-yo TO-ban | |
| Shan iyo toban | 15 (fifteen) | SHAN i-yo TO-ban | |
| Lix iyo toban | 16 (sixteen) | LIH i-yo TO-ban | |
| Toddoba iyo toban | 17 (seventeen) | tod-DO-ba i-yo TO-ban | |
| Siddeed iyo toban | 18 (eighteen) | sid-DEED i-yo TO-ban | |
| Sagaal iyo toban | 19 (nineteen) | sa-GAAL i-yo TO-ban | |
| Labaatan | 20 (twenty) | la-BAA-tan |
Children usually pick numbers up first because they are used constantly: counting stairs, sharing sweets, telling the time. Numbers also carry a lot of culture, from counting camels in a nomadic story to bargaining at a market, which is why Luuqad practises them in the Market Day and Number Match games.
Below you will find every number from 1 to 20 with pronunciation, the spelling children are taught, and a sentence to use it in.
20 entries in the Numbers topic, each with a picture, native-speaker audio and a quiz in the app.
Yes. Every entry on this page plays a recording by a Somali speaker; nothing is synthesized.
Tap each word to hear it, say it back together, then take the Numbers quiz in the Luuqad app and play Market Day.
Kow, Laba, Saddex, Afar, Shan, Lix and more. Then take the quiz in the app.