Counting in Russian

Language overview

Russian (русский язык, transliterated as russkiy yazyk) belongs to the East Slavic group of the Indo-European family. Official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Moldova, it also has the co-official status in other countries, and counts about 164 million speakers. Russian can be written in Latin alphabet or in Cyrillic alphabet.

Russian numbering rules

Now that you’ve had a gist of the most useful numbers, let’s move to the writing rules for the tens, the compound numbers, and why not the hundreds, the thousands and beyond (if possible).

• Digits from zero to nine are specific words, namely ноль (nolʹ) or нуль (nulʹ) [0], один (odin) [1], две (dve) [2], три (tri) [3], четыре (četyre) [4], пять (pâtʹ) [5], шесть (šestʹ) [6], семь (semʹ) [7], восемь (vosemʹ) [8], and девять (devâtʹ) [9].
• The tens are formed by adding the ten word (десят, desât) at the end of the digits, with the notable exception of ten where the unit is implicit, and both forty and ninety: девять (devâtʹ) [10], двадцать (dvadcatʹ) [20], тридцать (tridcatʹ) [30], сорок (sorok) [40], пятьдесят (pâtʹdesât) [50], шестьдесят (šestʹdesât) [60], семьдесят (semʹdesât) [70], восемьдесят (vosemʹdesât) [80], and девяносто (devânosto) [90].
• From eleven to nineteen, the compound numbers are built by saying the unit digit and a form of the word for ten (надцать, nadcatʹ) with no space: одиннадцать (odinnadcatʹ) [11], двенадцать (dvenadcatʹ) [12], тринадцать (trinadcatʹ) [13], четырнадцать (četyrnadcatʹ) [14], пятнадцать (pâtnadcatʹ) [15], шестнадцать (šestnadcatʹ) [16], семнадцать (semnadcatʹ) [17], восемнадцать (vosemnadcatʹ) [18], and девятнадцать (devâtnadcatʹ) [19].
• From twenty-one to ninety-nine, the compound numbers are built by saying the ten, then the digit separated by a space (e.g.: двадцать три (dvadcatʹ tri) [23], тридцать пять (tridcatʹ pâtʹ) [35]).
• Hundreds are built by setting the multiplier digit before the word for hundred which takes different forms: сто (sto) [100], двести (dvesti) [200], триста (trista) [300], четыреста (četyresta) [400], пятьсот (pâtʹsot) [500], шестьсот (šestʹsot) [600], семьсот (semʹsot) [700], восемьсот (vosemʹsot) [800], and девятьсот (devâtʹsot) [900].
• Thousands are built by setting the multiplier digit before the word for thousand (тысяча, tysâča) which takes a different form after the multipliers two, three and four: тысяча (tysâča) [1,000], две тысячи (dve tysâči) [2,000], три тысячи (tri tysâči) [3,000], четыре тысячи (četyre tysâči) [4,000], пять тысяч (pâtʹ tysâč) [5,000], шесть тысяч (šestʹ tysâč) [6,000], семь тысяч (semʹ tysâč) [7,000], восемь тысяч (vosemʹ tysâč) [8,000], and девять тысяч (devâtʹ tysâč) [9,000].
• When compound, the thousands are said before the hundreds, the hundreds before the tens, and the tens before the digits (e.g.: три тысячи, четыреста пятьдесят шесть (tri tysâči, četyresta pâtʹdesât šestʹ) [3,456]).
• The word for million is миллион (million), and the word for billion is миллиард (milliard).

Write a number in full in Russian

Let’s move now to the practice of the numbering rules in Russian. Will you guess how to write a number in full? Enter a number and try to write it down in your head, or maybe on a piece of paper, before displaying the result.

Books

Links

• Russian transliteration

East Slavic languages

Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian.

Other supported languages

As the other currently supported languages are too numerous to list extensively here, please select a language from the full list of supported languages.