Section outline

  • NGA NAMA 

    All numbers in Maori are made up from the numbers 1-10, plus a few extra words.

    1  kotahi, tahi                6. ono                       hundred  = rau

    2. rua.                           7. whitu                     thousand = mano

    3. toru                          8. waru                       million     = miriona

    4. wha                          9. iwa

    5. rima                        10 tekau

    When you get to numbers over 10, you make the word by saying how many thousands, hundreds, tens and ones there are.

    eg 52 5 tens and 2.                  rima tekau ma rua                      mā = and

    3 hundreds 4 tens and 5               toru rau wha tekau mā rima

    If there is ONE hundred or ONE thousand, we use the word KOTAHI

    122             KOTAHI rau rua tekau ma rua          (We only use 'mā' before anything in the “ones” column)

    347             toru rau wha tekau mā whitu.          

    If there is no thousands, hundreds or tens etc in a particular column we just leave it out.

    2006          rua mano mā ono (don’t say no hundreds and no tens)