Basotho and others who speak Sesotho tend to use English to count, or to tell the time. It is true that numbers are pre-fixed in relation with the noun they refer to

Twenty houses
MATLO A MASHOME A MABELI

Twenty trees
LIFATE TSE MASHOME A MABELI.

Twenty people
BATHO BA MASHOME A MABELI

What’s more, counting becomes ever more complex the higher the number. And that is due to the fact that we do not have a noun representing a number (Five, for example) IN Sesotho, but a phrase defining the number. Twenty is two tens, twenty-one is two tens and one root, forty-nine is four tens and nine roots.

Now imagine telling the time and getting into how many roots all!