Punjabi/Vocabulary/Numbers

Numbers

This session is devoted to learning numbers from one to twenty. First ten numbers are all irregular as is the case in English and will be learnt by memorizing to help in spotting the linguistic patterns in later numbers. Once you have learnt the first ten numbers you will be shown their correspondence with the next ten.

1. ਇੱਕ,ਹਿੱਕ = one
2. ਦੋ, = two
3. ਤਰੈ, ਤਰੇ= three
4. ਚਾਰ = four
5. ਪੰਜ, = five
6. ਛੇ, ਸ਼ੀਹ = six
7. ਸੱਤ = seven
8. ਅੱਠ = eight
9. ਨੌਂ = nine
10. ਦਸ,ਦਾਹ = ten

So you have learnt the first ten numbers in Punjabi. The interesting part realy begins now. As with English numbers one and eleven, ਇਕ and ਗਿਆਰਾਂ have no linguistic similarity. Absence of any linguistic similarity between ਦੋ and ਬਾਰਾਂ contrasts with presence of such similarity in English between two and twelve. But then onward until nineteen corresponding pairs have similarity in both Punjabi and English. Now examine the following numbers and observe the strikingly similar features of Punjabi and English.

11. ਯਾਰਾਂ = eleven
12. ਬਾਰਾਂ = twelve
13. ਤੇਰਾਂ = thirteen
14. ਚੌਦਾਂ = fourteen
15. ਪੰਦਰਾਂ = fifteen
16. ਸੋਲ਼ਾਂ = sixteen
17. ਸਤਾਰਾਂ = seventeen
18. ਅਠਾਰਾਂ = eighteen
19. ਉਨੀ = nineteen
20. ਵੀਹ = twenty

Similar linguistic patterns exist for numbers up to ninety nine. Thereafter numbers get repeated both in English and Punjabi. For a more detailed information go to Appendix 2 : Numbers