Swahili Numbers 1–20: A Traveler's Quick Reference

Prices, room numbers, phone numbers, time — numbers come up constantly while traveling. Here's a fast reference for Swahili 1 through 20.

Numbers come up more often than almost any other category of phrase while traveling — prices at a market, a room number at a hotel, how many people are in your group, what time a bus leaves. Learning Swahili numbers 1 through 20 covers the vast majority of situations you'll actually run into.

Moja — 1 Mbili — 2 Tatu — 3 Nne — 4 Tano — 5 Sita — 6 Saba — 7 Nane — 8 Tisa — 9 Kumi — 10

From 11 to 19, Swahili builds on kumi (ten) the same way English builds on "teen" — kumi na moja is literally "ten and one," kumi na mbili is "ten and two," and so on through kumi na tisa for 19.

Kumi na moja — 11 Kumi na mbili — 12 Kumi na tatu — 13 Kumi na nne — 14 Kumi na tano — 15 Kumi na sita — 16 Kumi na saba — 17 Kumi na nane — 18 Kumi na tisa — 19 Ishirini — 20

That same pattern continues well past 20 — thelathini (30), arobaini (40), hamsini (50), and so on, each followed by na and the 1–9 number for anything in between. Once you have moja through kumi memorized, the rest mostly falls into place.

One practical note on money: prices in Tanzania and Kenya are often quoted in thousands of shillings, so you'll frequently hear numbers combined — elfu tano (five thousand) at a market, for example. Getting comfortable with the numbers below 20 first makes those larger combinations much easier to parse on the fly.

The Numbers & Time pack in Swahili Survival Kit has audio for all of these, plus the vocabulary for telling time — genuinely one of the more unusual parts of Swahili, since the day is counted from sunrise rather than midnight, and worth its own read before you're staring at a bus schedule.