School Numbers: po and pa
School numbers are built from po “5” and pa “10”, plus the four old numbers peteĩ, mokõi, mbohapy and irundy.
How It Works
Before Spanish arrived, Guarani counted only to four: peteĩ, mokõi, mbohapy, irundy. In the last century a school system was added. Today it appears in formal writing, school books and official texts, and people rarely use it when they talk.
| Number | School Guarani |
|---|---|
| 5 | po |
| 6, 7, 8, 9 | poteĩ, pokõi, poapy, porundy |
| 10 | pa |
| 11, 12 | pateĩ, pakõi |
| 20, 30, 40 | mokõipa, mbohapypa, irundypa |
| 100, 200 | sa, mokõisa |
| 1,000 | su |
| 1,000,000 | sua |
Po means “hand”, and pa comes from opa “end”. Six is five plus one, so po plus teĩ, a short form of peteĩ. The same numbers build the school names of days and months, which have their own lesson.
Examples (4)
- Ojehechakuaa guarani ñeʼẽ orekoha poapy ñeʼẽʼaty.
People see that Guarani has eight kinds of words.
Poapy is “eight”: po “five” plus apy, a short form of mbohapy “three”.
- Guarani paraguái ogueroike ijachegetýpe poteĩha puʼae.
Paraguayan Guarani puts a sixth vowel into its alphabet.
Poteĩha is poteĩ “six” plus the ordinal -ha: “the sixth”. The sixth vowel is y.
- Hepykue oñeimoʼã ohupyty amo 14.200 sua dólar.
The cost is thought to have reached 14,200 million dollars.
Sua is “million”.
- Aguereko mokõipa ary.
I am twenty years old.
Mokõipa is “twenty”: mokõi “two” plus pa “ten”.
How It Connects
Learn This First
School Guarani replaces the Spanish numbers above four, so learners need those numbers and the idea of Academy words.
Related Patterns
Words in This Pattern
Practice School Numbers: po and pa in Bubblegum
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