Numbers and counting extended (lesson 23)
Beyond 1-10: tens, hundreds, thousands, the Nepali lakh/karod system, ordinals (pahilo/dosro/tesro), and the classifier 'jana' for people vs 'wata' for things.
Public-domain FSI Nepali Basic Course audio, streamed via our server. If the player shows an error, the source file may be temporarily unavailable — try again later.
FSI 1979, lesson 23. Numbers beyond 10 — the lesson where price negotiation finally becomes possible. Minutes 1–4: the twenties through nineties — each decade in Nepali has its own slightly irregular form (bis, tis, chaalis, pachaas, saathi, sattari, asi, nabbe). Minutes 5–8: hundred and above — sae (100), hajaar (1,000), then the South Asian unit shift to lakh (100,000) and karod (10,000,000). The trap drilled here: a Nepali phone bill saying '5 lakh rupees' means 500,000 — not 5,000. Minutes 9–13: ordinals — pahilo (first), dosro (second), tesro (third), choutho (fourth), with a clear pattern after fifth. Minutes 14–16: classifiers — '5 jana manche' (5 people) but '5 wata kitaab' (5 books). Foreigners who skip classifiers sound jarring but are understood; getting jana vs wata right is a competence signal.
More lessons
- beginner 26 min
Greetings, names, and numbers (lessons 1-2)
Opening Namaste, exchanging names, basic ho/hoina identity statements, and the cardinal numbers 1-10. This is the canonical FSI opener.
- beginner 19 min
This and that — yo, tyo, demonstratives (lesson 3)
Pointing at things and naming them. Yo (this), tyo (that), and the cha/chaina pattern for stating that something is present.
- beginner 13 min
Question words — ke, ko, kaha, kati (lesson 4)
All Nepali question words start with क. Drill the five most useful: what, who, where, how much, and which.
- beginner 15 min
I, you, we — pronouns and honorifics (lesson 5)
ma, hami, tapai, timi, ta — when to use which, and why mixing them up offends. Drills with the verb hunu (to be).
- beginner 25 min
Family members and kinship (lesson 6)
buwa, aamaa, didi, daai, bhaai, bahini — the relations every tourist hears at a homestay. Plus the kinship-as-address custom.
- beginner 21 min
Directions and places (lesson 7)
kahaa, yahaa, tyahaa — here, there, where. Asking where things are with the cha verb and locative postpositions.
Attribution
Audio courtesy of the US Foreign Service Institute (Public Domain) and hosted by Live Lingua. This page links directly to their CDN; we do not re-host or modify the audio.