Money is an especially interesting area of Wolof because the language’s number system interacts with the traditional monetary unit dërëm. This means that numbers used when talking about prices do not always correspond directly to the same numerical value when they are being used as ordinary counting numbers.

In contemporary Senegal, the currency is the West African CFA franc, but Wolof speakers also have a traditional numerical way of talking about money in terms of dërëm, a unit equal to five CFA francs. As a result, both Wolof numerical expressions and French-derived currency terminology can occur in everyday speech. (⁠Janga Wolof)

This can initially be confusing for learners. Once the relationship between dërëm and the CFA franc is understood, however, the system becomes much easier to follow.

Money: Xaalis

The general Wolof word for money is:

xaalis — money

For example:

Xaalis bi.
The money.

Am nga xaalis?
Do you have money?

Amuma xaalis.
I don’t have money.

The word xaalis refers to money generally. It does not itself specify a particular currency.

A speaker can therefore use xaalis whether discussing CFA francs, dalasi, euros, dollars, or another currency, with the particular currency understood from context or explicitly stated.

The CFA Franc

The currency most commonly associated with Wolof in Senegal is the CFA franc, generally written CFA, FCFA, or F CFA.

The official currency used in Senegal is the West African CFA franc (XOF). The same currency is also used in several other West African countries, although Wolof-speaking populations are not limited to countries using the CFA franc. The Gambia, for example, uses the dalasi.

This means that “Wolof money” and “Senegalese money” are not quite the same concept. Wolof is spoken across national borders, and the currency being discussed depends on where the speaker is and what financial context they are in.

In ordinary conversation in Senegal, however, prices are very commonly understood to be CFA amounts even when the speaker does not explicitly say CFA.

The Dërëm

The traditional monetary unit particularly important to Wolof is:

dërëm — a monetary unit worth 5 CFA francs

The relationship is:

1 dërëm = 5 CFA francs

This produces a distinctive feature of Wolof money vocabulary.

When a Wolof speaker gives a price using the traditional monetary system, the numerical expression may represent dërëm, rather than individual CFA francs.

For example:

benn dërëm
= 1 dërëm
= 5 CFA francs

ñaar dërëm
= 2 dërëm
= 10 CFA francs

ñaar fukk dërëm
= 20 dërëm
= 100 CFA francs

téeméer dërëm
= 100 dërëm
= 500 CFA francs

This is why a learner can encounter an expression such as ñaar fukk in a conversation about money and find that it means 100 CFA francs, even though ñaar fukk as an ordinary number means 20.

The omitted word dërëm is understood from the context.

Why Money Numbers Can Look “Wrong”

This is probably the most important thing for a learner to understand.

As an ordinary number:

ñaar fukk
= 20

But in a traditional monetary context:

ñaar fukk dërëm
= 20 dërëm
= 100 CFA francs

Likewise:

junni
as an ordinary number
= 1,000

But:

junni dërëm
= 1,000 dërëm
= 5,000 CFA francs

The word dërëm is often omitted when everyone involved already understands that the numbers are monetary.

This convention is documented in descriptions of Senegalese Wolof money usage: when money is being discussed, the dërëm can be understood without being explicitly stated. (⁠Janga Wolof)

This creates an important distinction:

A Wolof number does not automatically have a monetary meaning. The context tells you whether the number is being used as an ordinary number or as a number of dërëm.

Common Monetary Values

The following table illustrates the relationship:

Wolof expression	Dërëm	CFA francs
benn dërëm	1	5
ñaar dërëm	2	10
fukk dërëm	10	50
ñaar fukk dërëm	20	100
ñeent fukk dërëm	40	200
téeméer dërëm	100	500
ñaari téeméer dërëm	200	1,000
ñetti téeméer dërëm	300	1,500
junni dërëm	1,000	5,000
ñaar junni dërëm	2,000	10,000

This is also why older or traditional Wolof money expressions can seem to “divide” a CFA price by five.

For example:

1,000 CFA francs

can be represented as:

200 dërëm

which is:

ñaari téeméer dërëm

In everyday speech, the dërëm may be left unstated:

ñaari téeméer

In a money conversation, everyone can understand this as 1,000 CFA francs.

Asking How Much Something Costs

One of the most useful expressions for shopping is:

Ñaata la?
How much is it? / How much does it cost?

A more explicit construction is:

Ñaata lay jar?
How much does it cost?

Here jar means to cost / to be worth.

For example:

Lii, ñaata lay jar?
How much does this cost?

Sa jën wi, ñaata lay jar?
How much does your fish cost?

Sa dall yi, ñaata lay jar?
How much are these shoes?

These patterns are especially useful because the speaker does not necessarily need to say the word for money or currency at all. The fact that the conversation concerns a purchase makes the monetary meaning clear. (⁠Janga Wolof)

Giving a Price

A simple way of stating a price is:

[amount] la.

For example:

Téeméer la.
It’s 100 [CFA].

Ñaari téeméer la.
It’s 200 [CFA].

However, the monetary interpretation depends on the context and on the numerical convention being used.

In a traditional Wolof monetary context:

téeméer la
can mean
100 dërëm = 500 CFA francs

while a speaker explicitly talking about ordinary quantities could mean simply:

téeméer = 100

This is one reason context is so important when listening to Wolof conversations about prices.

Paying

The verb fey means to pay.

For example:

Fey naa.
I paid / I have paid.

Fey naa la…
I will pay you… / I have paid you…

A price can be inserted into the construction:

Fey naa la ñaari téeméer.
I’ll pay you 200 [in the relevant monetary context].

In a market conversation, the surrounding exchange makes it clear whether the number refers to dërëm or another explicitly stated currency.

Price and Value

The word jar is particularly useful because it connects price with the idea of value.

Ñaata lay jar?
How much does it cost?

Literally, the construction asks approximately “How much is it worth?”

The noun njëg can also refer to price/value, and expressions built around it occur when discussing what something is worth.

For example:

Du njëg-am.
It isn’t worth that / That’s not its value.

The distinction between price and value can therefore be expressed in ways that do not map perfectly onto a single English word.

Expensive and Cheap

When discussing prices, two very useful concepts are whether something is expensive or inexpensive.

seer is commonly used for something being expensive or having a high price.

For example:

Seer na lool!
It’s very expensive!

A speaker can also ask for the price to be reduced:

Waññil!
Lower it!

or:

Waññi ko.
Lower it.

The verb waññi means to reduce or decrease.

These expressions are especially common in market and bargaining contexts. (⁠Janga Wolof)

Bargaining

In many traditional and informal marketplace situations, discussing a price can involve negotiation rather than simply asking for a fixed posted price.

Useful expressions include:

Ñaata la?
How much is it?

Ñaata lay jar?
How much does it cost?

Seer na lool!
It’s very expensive!

Waññil!
Lower it!

Waññi ko.
Lower it.

Loo fey?
What will you pay?

Tekk naa ci…
I’ll add…

The expression tekk naa ci can be used when offering to add a particular amount to an existing offer.

For example:

Tekk naa ci ñaar-fukk, du ma ci yokk dara.

This can be understood as:

I’ll add 20 [dërëm], but I won’t add anything more.

In CFA terms, that represents an additional 100 CFA francs. (⁠Janga Wolof)

The important point is that these conversations often rely heavily on context and shared understanding. Speakers do not necessarily repeat the currency unit after every number.

Change

The word weccit is used for change in the sense of money returned after a payment.

For example:

Am sa weccit!
Here’s your change!

A speaker can also ask whether someone has smaller money or change available.

This becomes particularly useful in cash transactions, where the amount handed over and the final price are different.

Large Amounts

The general Wolof number system continues to work for large monetary amounts, but the dërëm convention means that the relationship with CFA becomes increasingly important.

For example:

junni dërëm
= 1,000 dërëm
= 5,000 CFA

ñaar junni dërëm
= 2,000 dërëm
= 10,000 CFA

juróom junni dërëm
= 5,000 dërëm
= 25,000 CFA

However, modern speakers frequently use French numerical terminology or simply state the CFA amount directly, particularly with larger sums. In contemporary marketplaces, businesses, banking, and other formal contexts, French and Wolof monetary conventions can coexist.

A learner should therefore be prepared to hear both traditional Wolof expressions and French-influenced or explicitly CFA-based expressions.

French and Wolof Money Vocabulary

Senegal is a highly multilingual society, and French has a major role in government, education, business, and formal communication. Consequently, money is an area where French terminology can occur naturally alongside Wolof.

A speaker might use:

• xaalis — money
• CFA / franc — CFA franc
• dërëm — traditional monetary unit
• French-derived terms for particular financial concepts
• numerical expressions whose interpretation is understood from context

This does not mean that one system has completely replaced another.

Instead, speakers have several overlapping ways of talking about money, and their choice can depend on the setting, the people involved, the size of the amount, and whether the conversation is informal or formal.

Money in Other Wolof-Speaking Regions

Wolof is spoken across several countries, so it is important not to treat the CFA franc as the currency of Wolof itself.

Senegal uses the West African CFA franc.

The Gambia uses the Gambian dalasi.

Wolof is also spoken in communities elsewhere in West Africa, where other currencies may be encountered.

The general vocabulary for money, such as xaalis, can therefore remain useful even when the actual currency changes.

When discussing a specific currency, the currency itself can be named or inferred from context.

This distinction is particularly important for a language spoken across national borders: a language does not have to have one currency associated with it.

Money, Numbers, and Context

Money provides an excellent example of how context affects the interpretation of Wolof numbers.

Consider:

ñaar fukk

As an ordinary number:

ñaar fukk = 20

But in a traditional CFA-price context:

ñaar fukk [dërëm] = 100 CFA

Similarly:

junni

As an ordinary number:

junni = 1,000

But as a traditional monetary expression:

junni [dërëm] = 5,000 CFA

The word dërëm may not be spoken because everyone in the conversation already knows that they are discussing money.

This is not an error or an irregularity in the number system. It is a context-dependent unit convention.

The same principle occurs in English as well. If someone at a market says “twenty,” everyone may understand that they mean twenty dollars, twenty euros, or twenty other units depending on the context. Wolof simply has an additional traditional unit that can change the numerical interpretation of the amount.

Written Prices

Written prices can be presented in several ways in modern Wolof-speaking environments.

A price may appear as:

1,000 CFA

1 000 F

1,000 FCFA

or simply:

1,000

where the currency is obvious from the setting.

Digital systems, receipts, advertisements, banking applications, and formal documents may use standardized international currency codes such as XOF rather than traditional Wolof monetary terminology.

Written prices also tend to make the actual CFA amount more explicit than informal spoken conversation does. This can reduce some of the ambiguity that a learner might encounter when hearing an isolated number.

Money and Decimals

Modern currencies also require expressions for amounts smaller than a whole franc or for decimal values in financial calculations.

In everyday Senegalese cash transactions, however, the CFA franc is normally discussed in whole francs rather than through a system of fractional CFA coins. Decimal notation is much more likely to appear in accounting, exchange rates, financial documents, prices expressed in foreign currencies, or other specialized contexts.

French-influenced written conventions may also use a comma for a decimal separator and a period or space for grouping thousands, although formatting varies according to the context and medium. (⁠Janga Wolof)

This is another area where written financial language may look different from ordinary spoken Wolof.

Useful Money Expressions

Some of the most useful expressions to recognize are:

Wolof	English
xaalis	money
Ñaata la?	How much is it?
Ñaata lay jar?	How much does it cost?
Loo fey?	What will you pay?
Fey naa…	I will pay / I paid…
seer na lool	it’s very expensive
waññil	lower it!
waññi ko	lower it
tekk naa ci…	I’ll add…
weccit	change
jar	cost / be worth
njëg	price / value
xaalis bi	the money

These are especially useful when combined with the number system described in the previous numbers page.

A Practical Example

Imagine a customer asking about a pair of shoes in a market.

Customer:
Sa dall yi, ñaata lay jar?
How much are these shoes?

Seller:
Ñaari téeméer.

In a traditional monetary context, the seller’s ñaari téeméer can represent 200 dërëm, which is 1,000 CFA francs.

The customer might respond:

Seer na lool!
That’s very expensive!

and make a counteroffer:

Tekk naa ci…

The seller and customer can then continue negotiating without repeatedly saying CFA or dërëm after every number. The monetary context has already been established.

This is why listening to an actual money conversation can initially be more confusing than looking at a written price. The numerical expressions are doing double duty: they are ordinary Wolof numbers, but the listener also has to know which monetary unit is being assumed.

Learning Money in Wolof

A good way to learn money expressions is to learn the system in stages.

1. Learn the ordinary numbers

Make sure the basic Wolof number system is familiar before trying to use prices.

2. Learn xaalis

This is the general word for money and will occur in many ordinary expressions.

3. Understand dërëm

Remember:

1 dërëm = 5 CFA francs

This is the key to interpreting traditional Wolof price expressions.

4. Practice the most common prices

Especially practice:

100 CFA = 20 dërëm
500 CFA = 100 dërëm
1,000 CFA = 200 dërëm
5,000 CFA = 1,000 dërëm
10,000 CFA = 2,000 dërëm

5. Learn the price questions

Especially:

Ñaata la?
How much is it?

and:

Ñaata lay jar?
How much does it cost?

6. Listen for context

If someone says junni while discussing ordinary quantities, it means 1,000.

If the conversation is about a price in Senegal and the traditional monetary convention is being used, junni can mean 1,000 dërëm = 5,000 CFA.

The surrounding conversation tells you which interpretation is intended.

The Main Idea

The most important thing to remember about money in Wolof is that there are three related but distinct concepts:

xaalis
→ money in general

dërëm
→ traditional monetary unit worth 5 CFA francs

CFA franc
→ the modern currency used in Senegal and several other West African countries

The traditional dërëm system explains why Wolof price expressions can sometimes appear to use a number that seems too small when compared with the CFA price.

The broader Wolof number system has not changed. Rather, the number is being interpreted as a quantity of dërëm.

So when hearing a price, always ask yourself:

What currency or monetary unit is being assumed here?

Once that becomes automatic, Wolof conversations about prices become much easier to understand.

The next numerical contexts—such as measurements, quantities, distances, weights, and sizes—can be approached in a similar way: learn the numerical building blocks first, then learn the units and grammatical constructions that give those numbers their specific meaning.

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Wolof Vocabulary for Money

English	Wolof	Pronunciation Guide
Money	Xalis	[xa.lis]
Price	Jàll	[dʒal]
Expensive	Dafa cher	[dafa tʃɛr]
Cheap	Am solo	[am sɔ.lɔ]
Coins	Faluwaayi	[fa.lu.waːji]
Banknote	Xeer	[xeːr]
To buy	Jënd	[dʒənd]
To sell	Jaay	[dʒaːj]

Numbers and Currency

Understanding numbers is essential when discussing money in Wolof. Here’s a quick recap of basic numbers in Wolof:

Number	Wolof	Pronunciation Guide
1	Benn	[bɛn]
2	Ñaar	[ɲaːr]
5	Juroom	[dʒu.rɔm]
10	Fukk	[fuk]
20	Ñaar fukk	[ɲaːr fuk]
100	Téeméér	[teː.meːr]
1,000	Junni	[dʒun.ni]

Discussing Prices in Wolof

English	Wolof	Pronunciation Guide
How much does it cost?	Ñaata lay jar?	[ɲaː.ta laɪ dʒar]
It costs 5,000 CFA francs	Juroom junni laay jar	[dʒu.rɔm dʒun.ni laɪ dʒar]
Can you lower the price?	Waññi ko, su la neexee	[waɲ.ɲi ko su la neː.xe]
That’s too expensive!	Dafa cher torop!	[dafa tʃɛr tɔ.rɔp]
I’ll buy it for 1,000	Damaa jënd ko ci junni	[da.maː dʒənd ko tʃi dʒun.ni]
I don’t have money	Amuma xalis	[a.mu.ma xa.lis]

Practical Phrases for Financial Transactions

English	Wolof	Pronunciation Guide
Do you have change?	Am nga xaalis bu ndaw?	[am ŋa xa.lis bu ndaʊ]
Can I pay in cash?	Mën naa fey ak xaalis?	[mən naː fej ak xaːlis]
Do you take credit?	Ñu lay fekk ci credi?	[ɲu laɪ fɛk tʃi kred.i]
Where is the bank?	Ana bank bi?	[a.na baŋk bi]
I need money	Dama bëgg xaalis	[da.ma bɛɡ xa.lis]