elfu
numeral
a thousand.
Put the number after elfu: elfu moja is one thousand and elfu mbili is two thousand.
Origins
Elfu entered Swahili from Arabic أَلْف (alf, “thousand”).
Sources5
Sergio Baldi, Dictionary of Arabic Loanwords in the Languages of Central and East Africa (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2021), entry 81, printed 15.
Records Arabic alf, thousand, and Swahili elfu.
- A Handbook of the Swahili Language as Spoken at Zanzibar
Put the number after elfu: elfu tatu means three thousand, and elfu tano means five thousand.; Elfu comes from Arabic.
- World Loanword Database CLDF
A thousand (1,000).
- Swahili — Tanzania — Numbers
Elfu moja means one thousand; elfu mbili means two thousand.
Kais Dukes, Quranic Arabic Corpus: dictionary (University of Leeds), Noun forms.
Attests Arabic أَلْف, thousand; supports the donor spelling, not the Swahili borrowing route.
Examples
Nina shilingi elfu moja.
I have one thousand shillings.
Una shilingi elfu moja?
Do you have one thousand shillings?
Bei ni shilingi elfu moja.
The price is one thousand shillings.
Nimelipa shilingi elfu moja.
I have paid one thousand shillings.
Nauli ni shilingi elfu moja.
The fare is one thousand shillings.
Nahitaji shilingi elfu moja.
I need one thousand shillings.
Chenji ni shilingi elfu moja.
The change is one thousand shillings.
Bei ni shilingi elfu mbili.
The price is two thousand shillings.
Nina shilingi elfu tatu.
I have three thousand shillings.
