Arabic Numbers: How to Count in Arabic from 1 to 1,000+

---

Want to count in Arabic, from 1 all the way up to 1,000 and beyond?

In this article I'll walk you through the Arabic numbers: how to say them, how to write them, and the handful of quirks that make Arabic numbers feel trickier than they really are. By the end you'll be able to count out loud, read a price tag in a Cairo market, and rattle off your phone number.

A quick reassurance before we start. Two things tend to scare people off Arabic numbers: the unfamiliar little digit shapes (٠ ١ ٢) and the reputation Arabic number grammar has for being fiendish. Neither is as bad as it looks. The digits take about ten minutes to learn, and the grammar mostly evaporates the moment you start speaking a real dialect. So let's get counting.

I've been down this road myself. A few years ago I took on a three-month Arabic mission in Egypt, going from a standing start to holding real conversations. Here's an unscripted, unedited chat in Arabic from the end of that mission, so you know the tips below come from someone who has actually sat in the deep end:

By the way, the word for “numbers” in Arabic is أرقام (arqam), and a single “number” is رقم (raqm).

Arabic Numbers 1-10

Here are the cardinal numbers from 1 to 10 in Modern Standard Arabic, with a simple pronunciation guide:

Number	Arabic	Pronunciation
1	واحد	wahid
2	اثنان	ithnan
3	ثلاثة	thalatha
4	أربعة	arba'a
5	خمسة	khamsa
6	ستة	sitta
7	سبعة	sab'a
8	ثمانية	thamaniya
9	تسعة	tis'a
10	عشرة	‘ashara

And zero is صفر (sifr). Keep an eye on that word, because it has a brilliant backstory we'll come to in a moment.

A couple of pronunciation pointers worth flagging early. That apostrophe in arba'a, sab'a, tis'a and ‘ashara stands for a sound called ʿayn, a throaty sound made deep in your throat with no real English equivalent. The kh in khamsa is the rasp at the end of “loch”. And the th in thalatha is exactly the th in “three”. More on all of these later, so don't worry about nailing them yet.

You'll also hear اثنين (ithnayn) far more often than ithnan for “two”. They're the same word in two grammatical forms, and ithnayn is the one that wins in everyday speech, so that's the one I'd learn.

The Other Way to Write Numbers: Eastern Arabic Numerals

Here's something that catches every new learner off guard. Across much of the Arabic-speaking world, the digits on price tags, number plates, shopfronts and bank notes don't look like ours. They look like this:

Western	Eastern Arabic
0	٠
1	١
2	٢
3	٣
4	٤
5	٥
6	٦
7	٧
8	٨
9	٩

These are called Eastern Arabic numerals (sometimes “Hindi numerals”), and you'll meet them all over Egypt, the Gulf and the Levant. In Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, the Western digits you already know are standard, so you can relax there. (If the Arabic script itself is still new to you, start with our guide to the Arabic alphabet and come back to the numbers afterwards.)

Two of these will trip you up more than the rest, so drill them now: ٥ is five (it looks like our zero) and ٦ is six (it looks like a backwards seven). Get those two straight and you're most of the way home.

One thing that surprises people: even though Arabic reads right to left, numbers are written left to right, exactly like ours. So ٢٠٢٦ reads as 2026, not 6202. The big digit goes on the left. A price written ١٢٥ جنيه is 125 pounds, with the number on the left and the currency word on the right.

Why we call our own numbers “Arabic numerals”

Quick tangent, because it's a good one. The digits you've used your whole life (1, 2, 3…) are called “Arabic numerals” in English. They were actually invented in India, then carried into Europe by Arabic-speaking mathematicians in the Middle Ages, which is how they picked up the name.

The scholar most responsible was al-Khwarizmi, writing around 825 CE. His name, run through Latin, gives us the word “algorithm”. And remember sifr, our word for zero? It travelled into Latin as cifra, which split into two English words: “zero” and “cipher”. So every time you say “zero”, you're speaking a little Arabic.

Arabic Numbers 11-20

The teens are built from a unit plus the word for ten, said as two words. Eleven and twelve are one-offs you'll just have to memorise; from thirteen on, the pattern is steady.

Number	Arabic	Pronunciation
11	أحد عشر	ahada ‘ashar
12	اثنا عشر	ithna ‘ashar
13	ثلاثة عشر	thalathata ‘ashar
14	أربعة عشر	arba'ata ‘ashar
15	خمسة عشر	khamsata ‘ashar
16	ستة عشر	sittata ‘ashar
17	سبعة عشر	sab'ata ‘ashar
18	ثمانية عشر	thamaniyata ‘ashar
19	تسعة عشر	tis'ata ‘ashar
20	عشرون	‘ishrun

See the ‘ashar riding along on the end of each teen? That's “ten”. Learn your 1-10, recognise ‘ashar, and the teens more or less read themselves.

Counting to 100 in Arabic

First, the tens. These are lovely and regular: take the matching small number and add an -un ending.

Number	Arabic	Pronunciation
20	عشرون	‘ishrun
30	ثلاثون	thalathun
40	أربعون	arba'un
50	خمسون	khamsun
60	ستون	sittun
70	سبعون	sab'un
80	ثمانون	thamanun
90	تسعون	tis'un

You can hear the family resemblance: thalatha (3) to thalathun (30), khamsa (5) to khamsun (50), and so on. (You'll often hear the -in ending instead, like ‘ishrin and thalathin, which is the same numbers in a different grammatical form. Both are right.)

Now for the numbers in between, and here's the one genuinely fun twist. To say a number like 21, Arabic flips the order and says the ones first, then “and”, then the tens. Literally “one and twenty”:

• 21 = واحد وعشرون (wahid wa-‘ishrun), literally “one and twenty”
• 35 = خمسة وثلاثون (khamsa wa-thalathun), “five and thirty”
• 47 = سبعة وأربعون (sab'a wa-arba'un), “seven and forty”
• 99 = تسعة وتسعون (tis'a wa-tis'un), “nine and ninety”

That little و (wa) means “and”, and it's the glue holding every compound number together. Once you've got your 1-9 and your tens, you can build everything from 21 to 99 with this one move.

100, 1,000 and Beyond in Arabic

One hundred is مئة (mi'a). You'll also see it spelled مائة, which is the older spelling, so don't be thrown when both turn up.

Number	Arabic	Pronunciation
100	مئة	mi'a
200	مئتان	mi'atan
300	ثلاثمئة	thalathumi'a
1,000	ألف	alf
2,000	ألفان	alfan
1 million	مليون	milyun
1 billion	مليار	milyar

A few notes. Two hundred (mi'atan) and two thousand (alfan) use a special “dual” ending rather than literally saying “two hundred”, which is a neat feature of Arabic. The hundreds from 300 to 900 join the unit and “hundred” into a single word: thalathumi'a (300), arba'umi'a (400), and so on.

“Million” is comfortingly familiar: مليون (milyun). For “billion” you'll hear مليار (milyar) in most of the Arab world, though بليون (bilyun) crops up in the Gulf. Both are understood everywhere.

To build a big number, you string the parts together with wa (“and”), working from largest to smallest. So 1,250 is “one thousand and two hundred and fifty”: ألف ومئتان وخمسون (alf wa-mi'atan wa-khamsun).

The One Grammar Rule Worth Knowing

You may have heard that Arabic number grammar is a nightmare. It has a reputation, and there's a kernel of truth to it, but for a beginner the honest answer is: you can safely ignore almost all of it and still be understood perfectly.

Here's the one rule worth meeting, because it surprises everyone. For the numbers 3 to 10, the number takes the opposite gender to the thing you're counting. Counting a masculine noun? The number takes its feminine form. Counting a feminine noun? The number goes masculine. Grammarians call it “polarity”, and yes, it's as backwards as it sounds.

A quick example. “Book” (kitab) is masculine, so “three books” is ثلاثة كتب (thalathat kutub), with the feminine-looking thalatha. “Car” (sayyara) is feminine, so “three cars” is ثلاث سيارات (thalath sayyarat), with the shorter thalath. Same number, two shapes, chosen by the gender of what follows.

And now the good news. In every spoken Arabic dialect, whether Egyptian, Levantine or Gulf, this rule is mostly or entirely dropped. People in a market, a taxi or a café aren't applying case endings and gender polarity, and nobody will blink if you don't either. This is a rule for reading formal writing and passing exams, not for ordering two coffees. So learn your numbers, get speaking, and let the grammar settle in later.

How to Pronounce Arabic Numbers

A few sounds in these number words don't exist in English. Here's how to handle the four that matter:

• ع (ʿayn) turns up in arba'a (4), sab'a (7), tis'a (9) and ‘ashara (10). It's a tight, throaty sound made by squeezing the back of your throat, almost a strained vowel from deep down. Don't skip it: dropping the ʿayn is the number-one giveaway of a beginner.
• ح (ha) is the h in wahid (1). It's a breathy h made far deeper in the throat than the English one, like fogging up a window from your throat.
• خ (kha) is the kh in khamsa (5), the same rasp as “loch” or “Bach”. Let the air hiss; don't soften it into a plain k.
• ث (tha) is the th in thalatha (3) and thamaniya (8). Good news: it's just the th in “three”, a sound you already make every day.

Here's a neat overlap with the script. In our Arabic alphabet guide I point out that the letters ت and ث differ only by their number of dots, two and three. That lines up perfectly with the numbers: ت (two dots) carries the t sound that starts “two”, and ث (three dots) carries the th sound that starts “three”. Learn the numbers and you've quietly learned two letters as well.

The single biggest favour you can do your Arabic numbers is to honour the ʿayn. Get that throaty sound in and the rest falls into place.

Arabic Numbers in Dialect

Everything above is Modern Standard Arabic, the formal version used in writing and broadcasting. The moment you're chatting with actual people, you'll hear the local dialect, and the numbers shift a little. Egyptian Arabic is the most widely understood, so it's a great one to tune your ear to:

• 2 becomes اتنين (itnein) rather than ithnan
• 3 becomes تلاتة (talata), since Egyptians swap that th sound for a plain t
• 8 becomes تمانية (tamanya)
• 100 becomes مية (miyya)

Levantine Arabic (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine) does something similar with the th. None of this should worry you. Learn the standard forms first, and your ear will adjust to the local flavour once you're in the thick of it.

Reading Arabic Numbers in the Wild

This is where your numbers earn their keep. A few real-world pointers:

• Prices. In Egyptian and Gulf markets, price tags are usually in those Eastern Arabic digits (٠ ١ ٢…). Being able to read them is the difference between confidently haggling and squinting hopefully. Remember the ٥/five and ٦/six trap.
• Haggling. Hearing numbers matters more than reading them here. Learn your tens and hundreds out loud, plus the word نصف (nisf, “half”), and you're equipped to talk a price down.
• Phone numbers. Mobile numbers on business cards and shop windows are often written in Eastern numerals. Egyptian mobiles start 01 (٠١), Saudi ones 05 (٠٥).
• Bank notes. Most Arab currencies print both numeral systems on the note, which makes them a handy free flashcard while you travel.

How to Learn Arabic Numbers (the Fast Way)

Numbers are one of the best early wins in any language, because you use them constantly and you get instant feedback every time. Here's how I'd tackle the Arabic ones:

1. Lock in 1 to 10 first. Everything else is built from these, so they're worth over-learning. Say them out loud, in order and out of order, until they're automatic.
2. Learn the tens as a set. Once ‘ishrun, thalathun, arba'un and friends are solid, the wa (“and”) trick unlocks every number up to 99 for free.
3. Drill the Eastern digits separately. Spend ten minutes matching ٠-٩ to 0-9, with extra reps on ٥ and ٦. This is a reading skill, not a speaking one, so treat it on its own.
4. Use them every day. Count stairs, read prices out loud, say the time, recite your phone number. Numbers reward repetition more than almost anything else in a language.
5. Say them to a real person as soon as you can. Buying something, sharing a number, telling someone your age. Real use beats any drill, and it's exactly the kind of speaking-from-day-one practice that makes a language stick.

Numbers are just the start, of course. Once they're solid, build out from there: a stock of core Arabic words, a handful of useful Arabic phrases, a few ways to say hello in Arabic, and a sense of how to learn Arabic without getting overwhelmed. If you'd like somewhere to practise, there are loads of free online Arabic resources to get you started.

That last point about speaking is the heart of how I approach every language. If you want a structured way to go from your first words to real conversations, that's exactly what we build inside the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp, a community and a method for getting you speaking your new language with real people, fast.

For now, though, you've got everything you need to count in Arabic from 1 to 1,000 and well beyond. Go and put those numbers to work.