Advanced numbers

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While Toki Pona's basic numbers should be more than enough for most purposes, there will always be people who want more. "I don't have have many television sets. I own eight!"

The word luka, which normally means "hand", can also be used for the number 5. The units 20 and 100 can be expressed by mute (many) and ale (everything).

The system works as follows. Add together as many hundreds, twenties, fives, twos and ones as needed (in that order) for the desired total. Only addition is possible. Repeat the numbers until you reach the correct sum.

wan 1
tu 2
tu wan 2 + 1 = 3
tu tu 2 + 2 = 4
luka 5
luka wan 5 + 1 = 6
luka tu 5 + 2 = 7
luka luka wan 5 + 5 + 1 = 11
luka luka tu tu 5 + 5 + 2 + 2 = 14
mute mute luka 20 + 20 + 5 = 45
ale wan 100 + 1 = 101
ale ale ale mute 100 + 100 + 100 + 20 = 320


In general, this advanced number system is not recommended. However, it is provided as an option for those people who absolutely must know how to express complex numbers like 142 in Toki Pona. See the problem of infinity for more details.

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