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21

First Steps in Lojban

Lesson 21. Numbers

Koshon
Koshon

Time for numbers! The digits are pa, re, ci, vo, mu, xa, ze, bi, so, no (1–9, 0). Notice that most of the vowels follow the a, e, i, o, u pattern (though mu breaks it slightly by using u).

To make larger numbers, you just string the digits together: pano (10), recivo (234), or renopamu (2015).

li — the number as sumti

li
The number article; it turns a number into a sumti (an argument).
lo'o
The terminator for li; you can almost always leave this out.

li xa pilji li re li ci 6 is the product of (multiplies) 2 and 3.

lo nu le nixli cu limna cu mentu li reno The girl swam for 20 minutes.

lo vi nanba cu grake li sovo This loaf of bread weighs 94 grams.

li so pi'e cimu tcika lo nu mi co'a cikna 9:35 is the time that I woke up.

pi'e
A sub-number separator, used for things like clock times and dates.

Counting lo / le sumti

You can specify a quantity by putting the number right after the article: [lo / le] + [number] + [selbri].

lo mu verba cu kelci lo re bolci Five children are playing with two balls.

mei

[number] mei → selbri “x1 is a set/cardinality N …” — combine with noi for “these N things.”

pi (decimal point), ki'o (thousands separator), and xo (the question word for "how many?"). We also have general quantifiers like ro (all), so'i (many), and so'u (few).

lo xo prenu cu klama ti How many people are coming here? ― mu ― Five.

Koshon
Koshon

There's a lot to memorize here, but for now, focus on the digits, the article li, and how to use them with lo. You can pick up the more advanced quantifiers as you need them!

True or false

Pick whether each statement is true or false according to the lesson.

  1. The number 1560 is pavomuno.

  2. Bare digits can always be used as ordinary sumti by themselves.

  3. To count how many referents a sumti has, put the digit right after lo/le or use mei.

  4. A mei phrase can be used as a selbri and therefore inside tanru.

  5. For “at least one man”, both lo su'o pa nanmu and lo su'o nanmu are fine.

  6. 1000.5 can be panononopimu or ki'opimu.

  7. Lojban uses pi'e to separate parts of mixed radix numbers (time, dates, etc.).