Punjabi/Vocabulary/Numbers

From Wikibooks, open books for an open world
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Numbers[edit | edit source]

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,ਦੂ= two
  3. ਤਿੰਨ, ਤ੍ਰੈ = 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.

  1. ਗਿਆਰਾਂ,ਯਾਰਾਂ = eleven
  2. ਬਾਰਾਂ = twelve
  3. ਤੇਰਾਂ = thirteen
  4. ਚੌਦਾਂ = fourteen
  5. ਪੰਦਰਾਂ = fifteen
  6. ਸੋਲ਼ਾਂ = sixteen
  7. ਸਤਾਰਾਂ = seventeen
  8. ਅਠਾਰਾਂ = eighteen
  9. ਉਨੀ = nineteen
  10. 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