Easy Peasy Malagasy

I'm a little embarrassed to say that I haven't done any NACLO practice for a month or two... junior year business has really been eating up all my time and energy.

I thought I'd do a little refresher on NACLO with my favorite type of problem ever (note the sarcasm), number system problems! Luckily, the Easy Peasy Malagasy problem was something I could sneak in on the car ride to dance class. It was base ten, so I didn't lose my sanity trying to figure out any weird number system.

I also find that sometimes NACLO website solutions either a) only have the answers without explanations, or b) have extremely long solutions that make my brain spin. So, I thought I'd lay out my thought process and solution to this problem in my own way!

Steps To Solve

Across numbers are 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 1, 3; down numbers are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6. Note iray and telo must be 1 or 3 because they are found twice.
The only number between 1-10 that appears as the answer to a blank is folo under sivy. So, folo = 10 bc answers are 2+ digits. The only "across" number with two blanks that isn't 10 is 9, so sivy = 9.
In general, answers appear to start with simple number words, then words with -polo after. It's safe to assume polo = folo = word for 10s digit. Then, it seems -jato/zato is 100s, arivo = 1000s, alina = 10,000s. We can assume answers start with the lowest place value to the highest. Sy appears to be between different place values as "and" or a conjunction.
We know 2's answer has no digit in the ones place, so the first word must have -polo to start with the tens place. The only down description that does this is roa, so roa =2.
10's answer has the same digit for 100s (fito) as the ones for 3's down answer. Looking at iray and telo, only telo has this (fito as ones). So, telo = 3, iray = 1. Iraika seems to be 1 when used as a ones digit.
The only 3-digit down is 6, and only enina has a short enough answer for this, so enina = 6. The number is 329.
The last down clue, efatra = 4.
Based on 329 as 6, we know #5 has 300 (so telo + polo), #7 has 200 (roa + polo), and #8 has 900 (sivy + polo). We can find these and match them up to the clue numbers, so 5 = dimy, 7 = fito, 8 = valo.
We now have all the info to fill in the rest of the puzzle!
There are a few important patterns necessary to solution-writing and solving the puzzle as a whole. They will be included in my (shorthand) solution below.

Solution-Writing

*Solution-writing, an explanation of rules/observations/systems, is important on the IOL but not as important on NACLO. The explicit answers to the problems are found here. Note that writing out the steps above is a way to help someone solve the problem AND NOT a solution-writing method. This rule is more enforced on the IOL; following your thought process in a NACLO problem explanation isn't as discouraged as it would be on the IOL.

Original Numbers

1 = iray (as ones digit, iraika)

2 = roa

3 = telo

4 = efatra

5 = dimy

6 = enina

7 = fito

8 = valo

9 = sivy

10 = folo (-polo)

100 = zato (-jato)

1000 = arivo

10000 = alina

Number Prefixes - given for 10s/100s, only those explicitly in problem

2 = roa/roan

3 = __/telon

4 =

5 = dimam/diman

6 = enim/__

7 = fito/fiton

8 = valo/__

9 = __/sivin

*Some aren't in the problem, but it's safe to assume that if the 100s prefix ends in a vowel, the 1000s prefix will have an added -n.

Sentence Structure/Order

*omit any steps if the number has a 0 for that place value, and eliminate extra "and" words (don't have two in a row)

Ones: Use # in original table given above
"amby/ambin'ny": "and" conjunction between ones/tens; only use ambin'ny if tens digit is 1
Tens: folo if digit is 1; otherwise is 10s prefix from table + -polo
"sy": conjunction "and"
Hundreds: zato if digit is 1; 100s prefix + -jato if not
"sy": conjunction "and"
Thousands: original # word + arivo (only say arivo without a # word if digit is 1)
"sy": conjunction "and"
Ten Thousands: original # word + alina (only say alina without a # word if digit is 1)