Class 226 — numbers in the wild. Not the numbers themselves, but what people do with them: units you have never met, approximations, price negotiation, and conventions nobody writes down. LAKH AND CRORE — the single most common numerical failure for outsiders. A lakh is a hundred thousand; a crore is ten million. Any number about money, land, population or film budgets will come in lakh and crore, and you must convert instantly or lose the thread. Fifty lakh is five million. Two crore is twenty million. LAND. സെന്റ് (cent), one hundredth of an acre, about forty square metres — Kerala measures house plots in cents, and പത്ത് സെന്റ് (pathu cent) is a normal plot. ഏക്കർ (acre) is a hundred cents. പവൻ (pavan), the sovereign, is eight grams of gold. Traditional grain measures still heard in recipes: നാഴി (naazhi), ഇടങ്ങഴി (idangazhi), പറ (para) — ask for the conversion; every answer differs slightly, which is itself informative. APPROXIMATION. ഏകദേശം (ekadesham) approximately · ഏതാണ്ട് (ethaandu) roughly · കുറച്ച് (kurachu) a little · കുറേ (kure) quite a lot · ഒരുപാട് (orupaadu) a lot. And the range: ഒന്നോ രണ്ടോ (onno rando, one or two), പത്തോ പതിനഞ്ചോ (patho pathinancho, ten or fifteen) — number, -ഓ (-o), number, -ഓ. Extremely common. Learn the shape. Then the approximation culture itself. Ask how far and you will be told a time, not a distance — measured by whatever vehicle the speaker imagines you are in. പത്ത് മിനിറ്റ് (pathu minute) may mean ten minutes on a scooter and thirty on foot, so ask നടക്കാൻ എത്ര സമയമെടുക്കും? (nadakkaan ethra samayamedukkum?) AGES. എത്ര വയസ്സായി? (ethra vayassaayi?) — how many years have become, not how old are you. Dative: എനിക്ക് മുപ്പത് വയസ്സായി (enikku muppathu vayassaayi). Asking someone’s age is ordinary in Kerala, because age decides the address terms. For a child, Malayalis ask ഏത് ക്ലാസ്സിലാണ്? (ethu classilaanu?) — school year is more informative. PRICES. കിലോ എത്ര? (kilo ethra?) · മൊത്തം എത്ര? (motham ethra?) · ആകെ എത്രയായി? (aake ethrayaayi?) · കൂടുതലാണ് (kooduthalaanu) · കുറച്ച് കുറയ്ക്കാമോ? (kurachu kuraykkaamo?) · അവസാന വില എത്ര? (avasaana vila ethra?) · ഫിക്സഡ് ആണോ? (fixed aano?) That last one saves embarrassment: printed-price shops do not negotiate, markets and street vendors do. Kerala haggles less than much of India. Quizzes below. Dr. Reshmi R Nair — SpeakMalayalam.