Modern Standard Arabic
Numbers in Arabic الأعداد
Eleven words take you from صفر to عشرة, and from there every number to a million is built with the same handful of rules. The one that surprises English speakers first: from 21 the unit is said before the ten.
- 0صفرṣifrzero
- 1واحدwāḥidone
- 2اثنانithnāntwo
- 3ثلاثةthalāthathree
- 4أربعةarbaʿafour
- 5خمسةkhamsafive
- 6ستةsittasix
- 7سبعةsabʿaseven
- 8ثمانيةthamāniyaeight
- 9تسعةtisʿanine
- 10عشرةʿasharaten
Read from the right, as Arabic is. The forms are the counting forms; the 1 to 10 page gives the second set used with feminine nouns.
Looking for the digits? In English, “Arabic numerals” usually means the digits 0 to 9 themselves, which reached Europe through Arabic books. Their story is on Arabic numerals: where 0 to 9 come from. The digits used in Arabic writing in Egypt, the Gulf and the Levant look different again, and are on Eastern Arabic numerals. The rest of this site is about the number words.
The four rules that make Arabic numbers work
1. The unit comes before the ten
Twenty-five is خمسة وعشرون, literally “five and twenty”, the order English kept only in old rhymes (four and twenty blackbirds). Every number from 21 to 99 that has a unit works this way, and so does the last part of any larger number: 1,345 is ألف وثلاثمائة وخمسة وأربعون, one thousand and three hundred and five and forty.
2. Two has its own grammar: the dual
Arabic has a dual alongside singular and plural, and the number two lives inside it. اثنان is itself a dual, and two hundred and two thousand are the duals of hundred and thousand: مائتان and ألفان. Twelve keeps a shortened dual, اثنا عشر.
3. From three to ten, the gender flips
A number from 3 to 10 takes the opposite gender to the noun it counts: ثلاثة كتب (three books, book masculine) but ثلاث طالبات (three students, feminine). When you count with no noun, you use the first set, with the ending ة. The gender page sets out both, with 11 to 19 and the tens.
4. The noun after the number changes with the number
The thousands show it clearly. After 3 to 10 the noun is plural: ثلاثة آلاف. After 11 to 99 it is singular with an accusative ending: أحد عشر ألفا. After a hundred it is singular again: مائة ألف. The same pattern applies to books, dirhams or anything else counted; big numbers and prices show it at work.
Where to go next
- Arabic numbers 1 to 10: both genders, pronunciation, the shape of each word.
- Arabic numbers 1 to 100: the tens, the teens and a square of all hundred.
- How to count in Arabic: building any number, with a practice box.
- Pronunciation: the sounds English does not have, and how ة is said.
- The printable chart and worksheet generator, for teachers.
Questions
How do you say one, two and three in Arabic?
One is واحد (wāḥid), two is اثنان (ithnān) and three is ثلاثة (thalātha). These are the counting forms, the ones you use when you count aloud. With a feminine noun one and two become واحدة and اثنتان, and three becomes ثلاث, without the final ة, because numbers from 3 to 10 take the opposite gender to the noun they count.
What is zero in Arabic?
Zero is صفر (ṣifr), from a root meaning empty. It is also where the English words cipher and zero come from: Merriam-Webster traces zero through Italian zero and Medieval Latin zephirum to Arabic ṣifr. In a phone number or a score, صفر is the word you hear.
Is ten عشرة or عشر?
Both, depending on what is counted. عشرة (ʿashara) is the counting form and goes with a masculine noun: عشرة كتب, ten books. عشر (ʿashr) goes with a feminine noun: عشر طالبات, ten students. Inside 13 to 19 a third form appears: ثلاثة عشر, where the ten is عشر with the counting form of the unit before it.
Do Arabic numbers read from right to left?
The words do, like all Arabic writing: خمسة وعشرون starts at the right with خمسة. Figures inside Arabic text are written with the largest place on the left, as in English, whether they use the digits 0 to 9 or the Eastern Arabic digits. That is why the spoken order (five and twenty) and the written figure (25) put the ten and the unit in opposite places.
Which Arabic does this site teach?
Modern Standard Arabic, the Arabic of print, news and school teaching across the Arab world. Spoken dialects say many numbers differently: in Cairo 3 is often talāta rather than thalātha, and the tens end in -īn (ʿishrīn). The forms here are the ones a textbook and a written test expect.