Arabic Numbers 1–100: Digits, Words and Pronunciation

How do you write and say the numbers in Arabic?

Arabic writes numbers with one of two sets of digits, 0 to 9 or their eastern shapes, and reads them left to right even inside right-to-left text. The number words are built from thirteen pieces: one to ten, a hundred, a thousand and the ending of the tens. From 21 to 99 the unit comes first: 25 is “five and twenty”.

Two sets of digits, and both are Arabic

The digits 0 to 9 that most of the world uses are called Arabic numerals because Europe learned them from Arabic mathematics. Arabic itself uses two sets. Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia write 0 1 2 3, as you do. Egypt, the Gulf countries and much of the eastern Arab world print a second set of shapes, shown in the second column of the table below. Arabic calls that set “Indian numerals”, after the place the system came from.

The two sets work in exactly the same way: ten digits, place value, a zero. Only the shapes differ, so they take an evening to learn. Three of them cause most mistakes. The eastern five looks like a small circle, and the eastern zero is a dot. The eastern six looks like a Western seven.

Whichever set a text uses, a number is written from left to right. The line runs right to left, stops at the number, and the number reads the way you already know: 1948 is still one, nine, four, eight. Phones and browsers handle the change of direction for you.

One to ten: the words everything else is built from

Ten words carry the whole system. They are in the table with their vowel marks, in the form you use for counting aloud. Say them without the last ending when you count: wāḥid, ithnān, thalātha, arbaʿa, khamsa.

Zero is ṣifr. The word travelled into European languages twice: as “cipher” and, through Italian, as “zero”.

Eleven to nineteen: unit first, then ten

The teens put the unit first and ten second, as English does in “thir-teen”: 13 is thalāthata ʿashar, three-ten. Eleven and twelve have their own first word, aḥada and ithnā, and the rest follow the pattern without exception.

Both halves of a teen end in a fixed short a. That makes the teens the easiest numbers in Arabic grammar: they never change their endings, with one exception, the first word of twelve.

The tens, and how 21 to 99 are built

Twenty is ʿishrūn. From thirty to ninety, each ten is the unit with the ending -ūn: thalātha, three, gives thalāthūn, thirty; khamsa, five, gives khamsūn, fifty.

Between the tens, Arabic says the unit first, then “and”, then the ten. 25 is khamsa wa-ʿishrūn, five and twenty. German and Dutch count the same way, and older English did too (“four and twenty blackbirds”).

In speech you will usually hear -īn where the table has -ūn: ʿishrīn, thalāthīn. That is the same word in another grammatical case, and it is the form everyday speech has settled on.

A hundred, a thousand, and two of each

A hundred is miʾa and a thousand is alf. Arabic has a dual, a special ending for exactly two, so 200 is one word, miʾatān, and 2,000 is alfān. From 300 up, the unit and the hundred are said together: thalāthumiʾa.

You will often see a hundred spelled with an extra alif that is not pronounced. Both spellings are in use and they are read the same way.

The counting rule everyone trips on

One and two behave like adjectives. They come after the noun and agree with it: “one book” is “a book, one”. In practice the noun alone, or its dual, is enough.

From three to ten, the number takes the opposite gender of the thing counted. A masculine noun takes the number with the feminine ending ة, and a feminine noun takes the number without it. The noun is plural.

From 11 to 99 the noun is singular, with the ending -an. After a hundred and a thousand it is singular again, with the ending -in. So a learner says “three books”, but “twenty book” and “a hundred book”.

• ثَلَاثَةُ كُتُبٍ: three books. كِتَاب is masculine, so the number has ة.
• ثَلَاثُ سَيَّارَاتٍ: three cars. سَيَّارَة is feminine, so the number drops ة.
• عِشْرُونَ كِتَابًا: twenty books, literally “twenty book”.
• مِئَةُ كِتَابٍ: a hundred books, literally “a hundred of book”.

How to learn them

Learn the eastern digits by reading real things: prices, page numbers, dates on a newspaper site. Learn the words by counting objects aloud, not by reciting the list, so that each word meets a noun.

Eight numbers that show every pattern

If you can explain these eight, you can build any number up to a thousand.

1. The dual: اِثْنَانِ — 2
2. Three to ten: ثَلَاثَةٌ — 3
3. The first teen: أَحَدَ عَشَرَ — 11
4. The exception: اِثْنَا عَشَرَ — 12
5. The tens: عِشْرُونَ — 20
6. Unit, and, ten: تِسْعَةٌ وَتِسْعُونَ — 99
7. A hundred: مِئَةٌ — 100
8. A thousand: أَلْفٌ — 1000

Are the numbers 0 to 9 Arabic?

The system came from India and reached Europe through Arabic mathematics, which is why Europe calls the digits Arabic numerals. Arabic-speaking countries use two sets of shapes for the same system: 0 to 9 in the west of the Arab world, and the eastern shapes in Egypt, the Gulf and the east.

Are Arabic numbers written right to left?

No. Arabic text runs right to left, but a number inside it is written left to right, with the largest place first, exactly as in English.

How do you say 25 in Arabic?

Khamsa wa-ʿishrūn, literally “five and twenty”. From 21 to 99 the unit is said before the ten, joined by wa, “and”.

Why do three to ten take the opposite gender?

It is a rule of the classical language with no short logical explanation: a masculine noun takes the number with ة, and a feminine noun takes it without. Grammars of Arabic call it reverse agreement, or polarity.

Why do I hear ʿishrīn and not ʿishrūn?

Both are the same word. The ending -ūn is the subject form, and -īn is the form used for an object or after a preposition. Everyday speech uses -īn everywhere.

Do I need the eastern digits?

For reading, yes, if you read anything printed in Egypt, the Gulf, Iraq or the Levant. They take very little time, and prices, dates and page numbers use them constantly.

Sources

• Wikipedia, Arabic numerals (history of the digits and their names)
• Wikipedia, Eastern Arabic numerals (the eastern digit shapes and where they are used)
• Unicode Standard Annex #9, Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (why digits run left to right in Arabic text)
• Wikipedia, Arabic grammar (numerals and their agreement)

About Fasaha

Fasaha is a reading-first Arabic app for Fusha, the written Arabic of books, news and the Qurʼan. Every word in a text opens into its meaning, root and pattern, and can be saved for spaced review.

• The numbers one to ten are a theme of the A1 vocabulary course, and zero, a hundred and a thousand are in its theme on quantities.
• Any number word you meet in a text opens in the dictionary with one tap.
• Available on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, with the interface in 17 languages.
• Free to start; Premium opens the full library.

Download on the App Store · Get it on Google Play

Keep reading

• Where Arabic words run together: the joining alif, sun and moon letters, and ة: A joining alif is said only when you start speaking. Before a sun letter, the ل of ال is silent and the letter is said double. Before an added ending, ة becomes ت.
• French Has the غ, German Has the خ, Spanish Has the ر: The Continental European Shortcut to Arabic: English lacks uvular fricatives and case inflections, making Arabic feel alien. French, German, and Spanish already possess the exact sounds, cases, and word orders built into their vocal and grammatical wiring.
• A 7-day Arabic shadowing plan for people who already listen to Arabic podcasts: You can follow an Arabic podcast and still freeze when you open your mouth. Here is a seven-day shadowing plan built on a single 40-second clip.

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