OK, so I can count in Arabic. BTW, I was really shocked when I saw Arabic numbers (
٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩
, that’s zero through nine, left to right) because I had always heard that we use “Arabic” numbers. Well, we use the Arabic system (ones, tens, hundreds, 0 as a place holder, etc.) but not their numbers. Anyway, learning new numbers is nothing as compared to learning how to use them properly in a sentence. There are seemingly endless rules about using numbers. In general, there is the singular, the dual, and plural. There is a special conjugation and noun structure whenever you are dealing with 2 of something (of course there’s a difference if you are talking about two masculine or 1 masculine and 1 feminine objects vs. 2 feminine objects), so that’s a whole ‘nother set of pronouns and ways of conjugating. Then there are the number rules. I think I’ve got these straight, but I reserve the right to edit them at a future date if I realize i screwed them up… OK, from 3 to 10, the nouns have to agree with the numbers (i.e. plural) but above that you only use the singular. From 3-11 (?) the number and the subject have the opposite gender, from 12-99 they have the same, and then they switch to the opposite for anything over 100. Of course when you have a sentence starting with a verb, you always use the singular no matter how many things you’re talking about (non human things take the singular feminine and with human plurals you make the verb agree). Sheesh… Part of me is curious as to how these rules developed but most of me doesn’t care, it’s just some more weird ephemera to learn…
Isaac