Class 17, Part 1. Numbers, money, and how to buy anything in Kerala — taught slowly, in Malayalam script, Manglish and English. This class opens at a fruit stall, with eight lines of real bargaining. By the end you can say every one of them and improvise past them. WHAT YOU LEARN • One to ten, cold: ഒന്ന് (onnu) one · രണ്ട് (randu) two · മൂന്ന് (moonnu) three · നാല് (naalu) four · അഞ്ച് (anchu) five · ആറ് (aaru) six · ഏഴ് (eezhu) seven · എട്ട് (ettu) eight · ഒൻപത് (onpathu) nine · പത്ത് (patthu) ten • Eleven to twenty from ONE rule, not ten new words: pathin + the digit you already know. പതിനൊന്ന് (pathinonnu) eleven · പതിനേഴ് (pathineezhu) seventeen · ഇരുപത് (irupathu) twenty • The hundreds and thousands: നൂറ് (nooru) 100 · ഇരുനൂറ് (irunooru) 200 · ആയിരം (aayiram) 1000 • Every ordinal in the language from one suffix -ആം: ഒന്നാം (onnaam) first · രണ്ടാം (randaam) second • The money sentences that actually buy things: ഇത് എത്ര? (ithu ethra?) how much is this? · വില കൂടുതലാണ്. കുറയ്ക്കാമോ? (vila kooduthalaanu, kuraykkaamo?) the price is high, can you reduce it? · അത്രയേ പറ്റൂ (athraye pattoo) that is the best I can do THE INSIGHT MOST COURSES MISS ഒന്ന് (onnu) — "one" — is also Malayalam's politeness softener. ഒന്ന് തരുമോ? (onnu tharumo?) means "could you just give me…". The first number you learn is already the politest word you own. WHY MALAYALAM IS EASIER THAN YOU FEAR Malayalam numbers are transparent and decimal — eleven is visibly ten-plus-one, like Mandarin shi yi. English "eleven" and French "onze" are opaque fossils you must memorise blindly. A beginner reaches a hundred faster in Malayalam than in French. ONE WARNING FOR HINDI SPEAKERS Hindi ek, do, teen are Indo-European. Malayalam onnu, randu, moonnu are Dravidian and match Tamil almost exactly. A Tamil speaker gets these free; a Hindi speaker starts at zero. Taught by Dr. Reshmi R Nair. Slow, clear, natural Malayalam for English speakers.