hi,today is about arabic numbers. The table below shows examples of Arabic numbers. The first and the fifth columns have numbers used in some Arab countries; they’re not of Arabic origins but still used in many places especially copies of the Holy Qur’an …. Nowadays what we call the Arabic numbers are the numbers shown on the columns 2 and 6, which are used by the Arab world as well as the rest of the world.



٠ 0 sifr صفر ١

1 wahid واحد

٢ 2 ithnan إثنان

٣ 3 thalatha (th as in bath) ثلاثة



٤ 4 arba’a أربعة

٥ 5 khamsa خمسة

٦ 6 sitta ستة ٧

7 sab’a سبعة

٨ 8 thamaniya (th in thin) ثمانية

٩ 9 tis’a تسعة

١٠ 10 ‘ashra عشرة

١١ 11 ahada ‘ashar إحدى عشر

١٢ 12 ithna ‘ashar إثنا عشر

١٣ 13 thalatha ‘ashar ثلاثة عشر

١٤ 14 arba’a ‘ashar أربعة عشر

١٥ 15 khamsa ‘ashar خمسة عشر

١٦ 16 sitta ‘ashar ستة عشر

١٧ 17 sab’a ‘ashar سبعة عشر

١٨ 18 thamaniya ‘ashar ثمانية عشر

١٩ 19 tis’a ‘ashar تسعة عشر

٢٠ 20 ‘ishrun عشرون

٢١ 21 wahed wa-’ishrun واحد و عشرون

٢٢ 22 ithnane wa-’ishrun إثنان وعشرون

٢٣ 23 thalatha wa-’ishrun ثلاثة و عشرون

٢٤ 24 arba’a wa-’ishrun أربعة و عشرون

٢٥ 25 khamsa wa-’ishrun خمسة و عشرون

٢٦ 26 sitta wa-’ishrun ستة و عشرون

٢٧ 27 sab’a wa-’ishrun سبعة وعشرون

٢٨ 28 thamaniya wa-’ishrun ثمانية و عشرون

٢٩ 29 tis’a wa-’ishrun تسعة و عشرون

٣٠ 30 thalathun ثلاثون

٣١ 31 wahid wa-thalathun واحد و ثلاثون

٤٠ 40 arba’un أربعون

٤٢ 42 ithnan wa-arba’un إثنان و أربعون

٥٠ 50 khamsun خمسون

٥٣ 53 thalatha wa-khamsun ثلاثة و خمسون

٦٠ 60 sittun ستون

٦٤ 64 arba'a wa-sittun أربعة و ستون

٧٠ 70 sab’un سبعون

٧٥ 75 khamsa wa-sab’un خمسة و سبعون

٨٠ 80 thamanun ثمانون

٨٦ 86 sitta wa-thamanun ستة و ثمانون

٩٠ 90 tis’un تسعون

٩٧ 97 sab'a wa-tis’un سبعة و تسعون

١٠٠ 100 mi'a مائة

١٠٠٠ 1000 alf ألف

١٠٠٠٠٠ 100000 mi'at alf مائة ألف

٢٠٠٠ 2000 alfain ألفين

١٠٠٠٠٠٠٠ 10000000 Million مليون

Forming numbers in Arabic is quite easy, from 13 to 19 you just place a number before ten for example 13 = three ten, instead of thirteen in English, 17 is seven ten in Arabic. From 21 to 99 you just need to reverse the numbers and add (wa- between the two numbers) 36 would be six wa- thirty instead of thirty six (sitta wa-thalathun), (wa means and).

0 is sifr in Arabic, from which the word cipher came. For 11 and 12 they’re irregular, so just remember how to write them by now (11 = ehda ‘ashar, 12 = ithna ‘ashar).

So in general, numbers standing alone are easy to use, or say. The hard part is that numbers 3 to 10 have a unique rule of agreement with nouns known as polarity: A numeral in masculine gender should agree with a feminine referrer and vice versa (thalathatu awlaad = three boys), boys are masculine plural, so the feminine form of number 3 should be used (which is thalathatu, and not thalathu which is the masculine form, the u at the end of numbers is used when a number is followed by another word to make an easy jump to the next word) (thalathu banaat = three girls) banaat = girls, which is feminine plural, therefore a masculine form of number 3 should be used (thalathu). That may sound complicated but once you get used to it, it will not be as hard as it seems now, besides most Arab natives make mistakes or simply don’t care about matching the gender and the number.



Arabic Ordinal Numbers:

Ordinal numbers in Arabic are almost like the cardinal numbers, with some exceptions in the numbers from 1 to 10, and a slight difference in numbers from 11 and up.

Note that ordinal numbers in Arabic are somehow like adjectives, so they have to take the masculine, or feminine form. Please check the adjectives page for more information.

First Awwal Oula

Second Thani Thania



Third Thaleth Thaletha

Fourth Rabe’ Rabe’a

Fifth Khaames Khaamesa

Sixth Sadis Sadisa

Seventh Sabe’ Sabe’a

Eighth Thamen Thamena

Ninth Tase’ Tase’a

Tenth acher achera

Eleventh Hady achar Hadiata achar

Twelfth Thani achar Thania achar

After 10 only the first number takes the feminine, for example 13th is thaleth achar for masculine, and thalethata achar for feminine, achar stays the same, the first half “thaleth” which means 3rd takes “a” in the feminine, and so does the rest of the ordinal number, except ten numbers like 20, 30, 40, 50, they look like cardinal numbers but they add “a” as a prefix for numbers starting with a consonant, for example: 70 = sab’un, 70th = asab’un (for both masculine and feminine), and they add “al” for ten numbers starting with a vowel, like: 40= arba’un, 40th = alarba’un.

i hope that was usefule and can help you to unerstand arabic better.thank you