I’ve said before that sooner or later we all need to get to grips with basic Latin – and it may be sooner than you think. If your ancestors were Catholic, you’ll find that the registers are written in Latin until at least the late nineteenth century.
Numbers
Numbers may be written in Roman numerals – lower or upper case – or in words. Remember that the last ‘i’ in a number may be written as ‘j’. So that strange word ‘xvj’ is in fact the number 16.
Here’s a list of numbers:
1 | i (or j) | unus |
2 | ii (or ij) | duo |
3 | iii (or iij) | tres |
4 | iv (or iiij) | quattor |
5 | v | quinque |
6 | vi (or vj) | sex |
7 | vii (or vij) | septum |
8 | viii (or viij) | octo |
9 | ix (or viiii, or viiij) | novem |
10 | x | decem |
11 | xi (or xj) | undecim |
12 | xii (or xij) | duodecim |
13 | xiii (or xiij) | tredecim |
14 | xiv | quattuoredecim |
15 | xv | quindecim |
16 | xvi (or xvj) | sedecim |
17 | xvii (or xvij) | septendecim |
18 | xviii (or xviij) | octodecim (or dudeviginti) |
19 | xix | underviginti |
20 | xx | viginti |
21 | xxi (or xij) | |
30 | xxx | triginta |
40 | xl | quadriginta |
50 | l | |
60 | lx | |
70 | lxx | |
80 | lxxx | |
90 | xc | |
100 | c | centum |
200 | cc | |
500 | d | |
1000 | m |