When learning a new language, the next thing you should do after learning the alphabet is probably to know how to count. Whether you wish to tell people about time, age, or ask for prices when shopping, remembering numbers will make things much easier. Learning numbers is also a quite independent process as all you need to do is to learning the vocabulary. So now let’s get started to learn Russian numbers!
Fortunately, Russian numbers are counted very logically. Unlike French which expresses “ninety-nine” as “four times twenty plus nineteen”, the Russian way of counting is much more predictable. Now you have another reason to nail down these words today!
Let’s dive in!
Russian Numbers 0 to 10
Note that the form of один (“one”) and два (“two”) may change according to the gender of the corresponding noun.
masculine: один; два
один мальчик, два мальчика
feminine: одна; две
одна девочка, две девочки
neuter: одно; два
одно окно, два окна
Numbers + Genitive nouns
Note that numbers ending in 2, 3, and 4 are followed by the genitive singular. For example:
- четыре собаки – four dogs
- три книги- three books
- Её 33 года. – She’s 33 years old.
Numbers ending in other numbers and teens are followed by the genitive plural. For example:
- 12 долларов – 12 dollars
- 100 рублей – 100 roubles
- Мне 25 лет. – I’m 25 years old.
Russian Numbers 11 to 19
Numbers 11 to 19 are also really easy. Simply add “надцать” behind the numbers 1 to 9. Note that some numbers may change a little (colored in red). The simple rule is that If a number end with “ь”, then “ь” should be omitted before adding “надцать”. For example, fifteen in Russian is “пятнадцать” instead of “пятьнадцать”
- 11 – одиннадцать
- 12 – двенадцать
- 13 – тринадцать
- 14 – четырнадцать
- 15 – пятнадцать
- 16 – шестнадцать
- 17 – семнадцать
- 18 – восемнадцать
- 19 – девятнадцать
From this part, we don’t provide romanized pronunciation anymore, as you should have already covered this part in the alphabet part. If not, it’s strongly suggested to learn the Russian Cyrillic Alphabet and master its pronunciation before you learn anything deeper. If you wish to learn Russian systematically, LingoDeer is a great place to start learning the fundamentals of the Russian language.
Russian Numbers 20 to 90
Once over 20, the Russian numbers are compounded very much like English ones. Simply add the number 1 to 9 after the tens.
- 20 – двадцать
- 21 – двадцать один
- 22 – двадцать два
- 23 – двадцать три
…
- 30 – тридцать
- 40 – сорок
- 50 – пятьдесят
- 60 – шестьдесят
- 70 – семьдесят
- 80 – восемьдесят
- 90 – девяносто
You must have noticed the tens in Russian are also very easy to remember. 20 and 30 are pretty like number 11 to 19 (adding дцать), while 50 to 80 can be easily formed by adding десят. Only 40 and 90 are irregular.
Russian Numbers 100 and above
100 in Russian is “сто”. And the hundreds also follow a pattern of ending with “сти”, “ста” or “сот”.
- 100 – сто
- 200 – двести
- 300 – триста
- 400 – четыреста
- 500 – пятьсот
- 600 – шестьсот
- 700 – семьсот
- 800 – восемьсот
- 900 – девятьсот
Larger numbers from 1000 up in Russian are counted exactly the same way as English.
- 1,000 – тысяча
- 10,000 – десять тысяч
- 100,000 – сто тысяч
- 1,000,000 – миллион
- 1,000,000,000 – миллиард
Now try to read 1348 (тысяча триста сорок восемь). Did you get it?
Here is a Summary of Russian Cardinal Numbers. Let’s review what we’ve learned!
Russian Ordinal Numbers
Now you’ve learned how to count in Russian. Let’s take a quick look at some ordinal numbers.
- the first – первый
- the second – второй
- the third – третий
- the fourth – четвёртый
- the fifth – пятый
- the sixth – шестой
- the seventh – седьмой
- the eighth – восьмой
- the ninth – девятый
- the tenth – десятый
You may have noticed that ordinal number endings seem very similar to masculine endings of adjectives. That’s because they are! As such, the endings will change depending on the corresponding noun. For example, we use neuter endings with dates. To express dates in Russian, we use ordinal numbers.
For example, 4 марта (March 4) is pronounced as четвёртое марта.
With years, it’s a different matter. You need to use the genetive case.
For example, 4 марта 2022 г. (March 4, 2022) is pronounced as четвёртое марта две тысячи двадцать второго года.
Don’t worry if you feel a bit confused, as you will encounter these grammar points gradually as you learn Russian. You can also use LingoDeer app to improve your Russian skills comprehensively.
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