Numbers 11–100
സംഖ്യകൾ 11–100
Past twenty, German numbers do something Malayalam (and English) never does: it says the units digit before the tens digit — 'one-and-twenty' instead of 'twenty-one'.
Grammar Comparison
വ്യാകരണ താരതമ്യം
Units before tens — the order flips
einundzwanzig (21 = 'one-and-twenty': ein + und + zwanzig)
ഇരുപത്തിയൊന്ന് (21 = 'twenty-one': ഇരുപത് + ഒന്ന്, tens first)
Malayalam, like English, always states the tens before the units: ഇരുപത്തിയൊന്ന് literally means 'twenty-(and)-one'. German reverses this for every two-digit number from 21 onward — einundzwanzig literally means 'one-and-twenty'. This trips up nearly every learner at first, because you have to hold the first-heard digit in mind until the tens word arrives: when someone says 'dreiundvierzig', keep 'drei' (3) in mind until 'vierzig' (40) confirms it's 43, not some other number starting with 3.
Tens words you can predict once you know 2–9
zwanzig (20), dreißig (30), vierzig (40)... digit + -zig
ഇരുപത് (20), മുപ്പത് (30), നാല്പത് (40)... digit + -പത്
Both languages build their tens words the same predictable way: take the digit and attach a fixed 'tens' suffix (Malayalam -പത്, German -zig, with dreißig as the one irregular exception using -ßig instead). Once you know eins through neun, you can guess most tens words in either language without memorizing each one from scratch.
Vocabulary
വാക്കുകൾ
- Malayalam
- ഇരുപത്irupathu
- English
- twenty (20)
- Malayalam
- മുപ്പത്muppathu
- English
- thirty (30)
- Malayalam
- നാല്പത്naalpathu
- English
- forty (40)
- Malayalam
- അമ്പത്ambathu
- English
- fifty (50)
- Malayalam
- അറുപത്arupathu
- English
- sixty (60)
- Malayalam
- എഴുപത്ezhupathu
- English
- seventy (70)
- Malayalam
- എൺപത്enpathu
- English
- eighty (80)
- Malayalam
- തൊണ്ണൂറ്thonnooru
- English
- ninety (90)
- Malayalam
- നൂറ്nooru
- English
- one hundred (100)
- Malayalam
- ഇരുപത്തിയൊന്ന്irupathiyonnu
- English
- twenty-one (21)
- Malayalam
- നാല്പത്തിമൂന്ന്naalpathimoonu
- English
- forty-three (43)