Georgian Number System

Hi all, back with Georgian language time. Today, I will be covering the number system. Numbers are one the things I have struggled with the most here, a struggle which during training led me to accidentally announce to a class that I am 43 instead of 23. You will see why in a minute.

In English, the number system is base 10, meaning that you count by 10's - that is 21 is twenty-one, 31 is thirty-one, 41 is forty-one, and so on. Basically, after we hit 30, 40, 50 and so on, we use that term + the digit 1-9 (so 59 = fifty-nine). Makes sense, right?

Well, in Georgian, things are different because the system is base 20, making it a vigesimal system. It is in the company of other languages such as Yoruba, Mayan, Aztec, Gaelic, and Albanian (among others)! 

In Georgia, everything up through 29, everything is the same as in English, However, once you hit 30, things get weird.

For the numbers 20, 40, 60, and 80, it is relatively straightforward. You just use multiples:

So, for 20, 40, 60, 80, you just use multiples. So:

20 = twenty (otsi)
40 = two twenties (ormotsi)
60 = three twenties (samotsi)
80 = four twenties (otkhmotsi)

**Note: I am using Latin letters to write out the Georgian phonetically as most of you reading cannot read the Georgian alphabet. But for example, it would actually look something like this:
40 = ორმოცდაათი
60 =  სამოცდაათი
80 = ოტხმოცდაათ

Therefore, for numbers like 45, you would say "two twenties and five", or for 86 you would say "four twenties and six". A little confusing, but manageable.

However, the part that really trips me up is what to do about 30, 50, 70, and 90. For these, we have to think in their relation to the multiples of 20 above.

30 = "twenty and 10" (otsdaati)
50 = "two twenties and 10" (ormotsdaati)
70 = "three twenties and 10" (samotsdaati)
90 = "four twenties and 10" (otkhmotsdaati)

Then, what really really really gets me is when you have a number like 58 or 72. I am not good at math, and this really gets my brain in a knot. 

58 = "two twenties and seventeen" (20+ 20 = 40 + 17 = 58) (ormotsdatvrameti)
72 = "three twenties and twelve" (20 + 20+ 20 = 60 + 12 = 72) (samotsdatormeti)

The effect of this on my end is a lot of pausing, counting in my head/fingers, and stumbling over words. And getting things wrong a lot, which brings me back to my original story about accidentally telling a class I was 43 instead of 23. They sound very similar: ormotsdasami vs. otmotsdasami. 

Hope you learned something today, and I will be back with an even more confusing part of the Georgian language soon: telling time!