How do you say "thirty one" in other languages?

September 10, 2004 9:34 AM

Multilingual folks: I need your help translating the word "thirty-one" into as many languages as possible.

I got dutch, french, greek, italian, portugese and spanish on babel-fish, but can't read the chinese, japanese, korean or russian (maybe people can post a teeny gif for those ones?), and the german came up as "thirty-one". Plus I would like random other languages anyone happens to know - latin, ancient greek, arabic, swedish, danish, swahili, eqyptian, whatever. Don't bother with the various numeric translations (11111, 43, V, XXXI, etc) though - I did that last year :)

posted by mdn to writing & language (41 comments total)

And I know I'm opening myself up for people to give me "go fuck a pig" in chinese and tell me it's my age, so double checking is welcome and appreciated.
posted by mdn at 9:35 AM on September 10, 2004

Yay! A chance to show off my meager knowledge of Estonian!

Thirty-one in Estonian is "kolmkümmend-üks."
posted by Skot at 9:38 AM on September 10, 2004

I learned Romanian playing bingo in Transylvania. 31 is trei zeci si unu [pronounced TRAY zetch SHEE oonoo].
posted by jessamyn at 9:41 AM on September 10, 2004

Trenta-u (Catalan)
posted by Zootoon at 9:49 AM on September 10, 2004

I learned Romanian playing bingo in Transylvania.

Jessamyn, I think we've all played bingo in Transylvania. Try not to clutter up the site with such mundane trivia.

In all seriousness, mdn, and not sniping: Doing a Google search with the terms "[x] numbers" where x=any language brings up many useful links.
posted by Skot at 9:50 AM on September 10, 2004 [1 favorite]

You've got "trettioett" in Swedish.
posted by benzo8 at 9:50 AM on September 10, 2004

I believe the Romanian would be treizeci si unu, with no space.
posted by Space Coyote at 9:51 AM on September 10, 2004

einsunddreißig is what it would be in german, I believe.

(eyens-und-dry-sig)
posted by crunchland at 9:51 AM on September 10, 2004

Haven't they got rid of that big B thing in favour of just writing ss now? ie its einsunddreissig now.
posted by biffa at 9:56 AM on September 10, 2004

Ek-a-tree-s in Gujarati
Ik-a-ttees in Hindi
and I think it's Ek-tis in Marathi
posted by riffola at 9:57 AM on September 10, 2004

No s in the German: einunddreißig. (einunddreißig vs. einsunddreißig in Google)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:59 AM on September 10, 2004

double checking: Space Coyote got it right (treizeci si unu).
mdn, use this page
posted by MzB at 10:01 AM on September 10, 2004

MzB's link is spot on for Danish (it's "enogtredive").

...and it's a pretty neat link, too.
posted by AwkwardPause at 10:11 AM on September 10, 2004

31 (Ek-a-tree-s) is written as follows in Gujarati: અેકત&xac3;ીસ
posted by riffola at 10:15 AM on September 10, 2004

Shoot it ought to be: અેકતૃીસ
posted by riffola at 10:16 AM on September 10, 2004

Too bad the number you want isn't between one and ten.
posted by Johnny Assay at 10:22 AM on September 10, 2004

That's waht I thought of immediately, Johnny Assay. Remembered it as being numbers between 1 and 100.
posted by kenko at 10:31 AM on September 10, 2004

Here's a link to 31 in Chinese (pronounciation--the numbers represent tones, 1 denotes neutral and 2 denotes ascending). The three characters read, from left to right, "three ten one", although if you want to be more traditional about it you'd write them from top to bottom.

If this is for an upcoming birthday, happy birthday. If pig fucking is slated as entertainment, we want pictures.
posted by DaShiv at 10:40 AM on September 10, 2004

Japanese: san-ju ichi

Thai: sam-sip et
posted by SpaceCadet at 10:53 AM on September 10, 2004

Old Icelandic: vetr um þrítugt (lit. one beyond thirty)

Modern Icelandic (neuter): þrjátíu og einn
posted by bonehead at 11:03 AM on September 10, 2004

Sorry, messed up: þrjátíu og einnthe is the nominative masculine form.
posted by bonehead at 11:07 AM on September 10, 2004

Old Irish should be "a n-óen trichot" or "a n-óen trichat" but I don't have an attested example on hand, so I'm working from a grammar.

My girlfriend says that in ancient egyptian it would be written something like "nnn?" (I'm not sure if that will come out, and I used math symbols as approximations, so it's three set union symbols followed by a vertical bar.)

They know an approximate pronunciation of this, but there is no good way to do the transliteration symbols in this post. It is something like "maba wa", where the vowels are to be replaced by something else. So I wouldn't actually use the thing in quotes for anything unless you want to make egyptologists sad.
posted by advil at 12:01 PM on September 10, 2004

ok, that didn't come out at all, even for me. The Ancient Egyptian looks something like "nnn|" where the n's should just be curves without the vertical line sticking up on the left side of the n.
posted by advil at 12:06 PM on September 10, 2004

shloshim v'ekhad (phonetic) in Hebrew.
posted by callmejay at 12:33 PM on September 10, 2004

MzB: Thanks for that great link, I've blogged it!

mdn: The Russian is (masculine form, transliterated) tridtsat'-odin, pronounced (very roughly) TREAT-sut ah-DEAN.
posted by languagehat at 12:48 PM on September 10, 2004

What riffola said, except that in Gujarati and Hindi, the "a" is pretty short.
posted by Gyan at 1:08 PM on September 10, 2004

trettien OR enogtredve - Norwegian
posted by widdershins at 1:09 PM on September 10, 2004

Taiwanese: saam dzap ji (phonetic)
posted by casarkos at 3:36 PM on September 10, 2004

Malay: Tiga puluh satu
posted by niceness at 3:57 PM on September 10, 2004

Polish: trzydziesci jeden.
(CHeuh jeh shhtee yeden)
posted by ruelle at 4:07 PM on September 10, 2004

In japanese it would be san-juu issai (rather than ichi) if you are talking about age. If you are talking about 31 lobsters or tennis courts or autogyros, the ending would be different.
posted by planetkyoto at 4:24 PM on September 10, 2004

you guys really are awesome.
planetkyoto, completely hadn't thought of that, interesting.
MzB, excellent link, muchas gracias.
DaShiv, yes, for something for my birthday, in just under 2 weeks (9/22). I should try to remember to take pictures, actually, despite the lack of hog humping foreseen.
posted by mdn at 7:25 PM on September 10, 2004

Swahili: thelathini na moja
posted by desert_roamer at 7:38 PM on September 10, 2004

And some seriously long phonetics!

Twi (Ghana): adoo-asa-bee-ah-koh
Bambara (Mali): bi-sahb-bah-ni-kay-leng
Crioulo (Cape Verde islands): trin-tay-ahn
Yoruba (Benin/Nigeria): mo-kahng-meh-wah-le-loh-gbohng
Fulfulde (Northern Senegal): chappantatigoo
Mandrika (Northern Gambia): tang saba ning kiling
Hausa (All over West Africa): talaatin shaa d'aya
posted by desert_roamer at 8:27 PM on September 10, 2004

Maori: toru tekau ma tahi.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 9:35 PM on September 10, 2004

I notice that 31 in Korea (using the chinese-based counting system, one of two that Koreans use, along with the pure Korean one) is sam-ship il (phonetically, of course), which is remarkably similar to the Taiwanese and Thai versions above. Cool bananas, huh?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:08 PM on September 10, 2004

Finnish: kolmekymmentäyksi
posted by ursus_comiter at 11:31 PM on September 10, 2004

Samoan: Tolu Sefulu Tasi (literaly, three ten one)
posted by weston at 11:38 PM on September 10, 2004

Shoot. Looking at i_am_joe's_spleen's maori made me doubt that I hadn't forgotten something...it may well be "Tolu Sefulu ma tasi" or even "Tolu Sefulu ma le tasi". That's what I get for not speaking it for 10 years.
posted by weston at 11:42 PM on September 10, 2004

Sorry, forgot the actual Korean number system version : suhruhn-hana.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:12 AM on September 11, 2004

Skot, DAMN you for beating me to it. What are the odds on being beaten to post the Estonian for 31?

In the interests of making this comment useful, I don't have any other obscure languages under my belt, but I can vouch for Skot's answer. Väga hea, mu sõber...
posted by penguin pie at 8:57 AM on September 13, 2004