As usual, we start with the definition. The numeral is a part of speech that denotes a NUMBER, as we may guess from the name.
In the course we encounter them at the very outset, in Lesson 3. Let me remind you that Soroka works on the principle of a phrasebook, thus, we study ready-made phrases and learn how to apply them in speech. In Lesson 3 we talk about age, so ordinal numerals or numbers are needed to define it.
They also come in handy later in the topics of Time and Phone Number.
In Soroka 2 we continue studying numbers up to 20 by means of phone numbers, addresses and a calendar with days, weeks and months. Here again, we can’t go without numerals.
In Soroka 3 we come across numbers in topics such as Weight (the weight of an elephant, for example) and Distance.
What you should draw your attention to here is that we don’t study numbers in order like a poem. Each number should find its own cell in the mind. That’s why we learn them separately. You may start with the number three, then skip to eight and continue with the number one. Everything is going to be alright only if you learn them this way.
In the course we also play the Bingo game, which helps us to remember all the numbers and put them on the shelves.
What might happen if we study all of these immediately? These might remain in our minds as a unified whole; like a brick that will be hard to split.
As we use numerals for certain goals, I decided to combine them with the words сколько, много and мало. This is done to make it more convenient to say сколько яблок, много адресов, мало книг, and so on. Grammatically we are closer to the genitive case here, as you may see.
Finally, I’d like to share a task that you can use for both entertaining and reviewing. How do we write numerals? We may write them in words одна тысяча девятьсот шестьдесят восемь, or in numbers, which can be absolutely different. For example, we can use Roman numerals, which, as you know, were created in ancient Rome; then, the word above will look like this: MCMLXVIII. We may use the Chinese numeral system to put it down, or the one that the Mayans developed when they lived in Central America. Thus, we should keep in mind that numerals are signs that are used for graphic representation of numbers.
