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].
• Ten is десять (desâtʹ). Twenty and thirty are formed adding the suffix дцать (dcatʹ) to respectively two and three: двадцать (dvadcatʹ) [20], тридцать (tridcatʹ) [30]. Forty is irregular: сорок (sorok) [40] (it comes from a special unit to measure valuable furs). From fifty to eighty, tens are formed adding the word for ten (десять, desâtʹ) to the multiplier digit with no space: пятьдесят (pâtʹdesât) [50], шестьдесят (šestʹdesât) [60], семьдесят (semʹdesât) [70], and восемьдесят (vosemʹdesât) [80]. Finally, ninety is formed after the word for hundred (сто (sto)): 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

Language training and methods

• Learn the most useful words and phrases first so you can start speaking Russian fast with MOSALingua

East Slavic languages

Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian.

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