Numbers In Russian: The Ultimate Guide

How often do we use numbers during the day? How often do we talk about time, distance, prices or the quantity of something else? Very often! numbers chase us everywhere: in a cafe, at work, while driving a car, at the gym, while meeting friends. We pronounce them so often that we don't even notice them. In speech, we need them constantly. And there is one problem - if we use numbers in our native language without thinking, in a foreign language they can cause some inconvenience, especially when you're learning Russian as a foreign language.

Numbers in Russian – are they really difficult?

The use of numbers in the Russian language may indeed seem very complicated. Firstly, because in Russian there are three types of numbers - quantitative, ordinal and collective. Secondly, the numbers are inclined for cases and this is bad news, because it means that, depending on the case (in fact, the situation in which the number is used), the end of the numbers will be different. In Russian there are six major cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, prepositional and variant endings.

But that's not all. The fact is that different groups of cardinal numbers in Russian are declined differently. For example, the number один (one) is inflected for cases, gender and numbers, the number два (two) - for cases and genders, and all the others are inflected only for cases. Also the number три (three) четыре (four) have the same ending while declining and numbers from five to 30 have the same endings different from the previous group, the same endings also have the numbers from 50 to 80, etc. And the words тысяча, миллион and миллиард aren't numbers at all. These are nouns and are inflected as nouns. A bit tricky, isn't it?

So, how do you avoid getting confused and use the numbers correctly?

In this article I will try to provide as much detail as possible and explain how to inflect cardinal numbers from one to nine-hundred, as well as nouns in their thousands, millions and billions.

How is this article built?

As mentioned above, in the Russian language there are three kinds of numbers: quantitative, cardinal and collective. In this article the biggest and most complicated form of numbers is cardinal numbers.

For convenience the numbers from one to nine-hundred are divided into groups depending on whether they have any closure in the declensions. There are seven of them. Each group includes a comment, inflection table and examples. Groups with compound numbers (21, 35, 142 ...) also have schemes, which clearly show how they are inflected. All the information is structured in such a way to make it easy to memorize. So here we go!

1. Types of numbers

Let's consider the types of numbers in the Russian language. Please note that the quantitative and ordinal numbers exist both in Russian and in English, but the collective numbers don't exist in English.

2. Groups of numbers

For convenience, let us divide cardinal numbers into groups depending on whether they are inflected. As you can see I have identified seven groups. They differ in declension type and the quantity of figures in the group. Remember these groups! It is not difficult.

3. Separate groups of numbers

Consider the following as separate groups of numbers. Do not worry if you don't remember all endings at one time, the main thing is to memorize principle and structure.

Group 1-2

In this group there are only two numbers, but it won't be the easiest, because it is the only group in which numbers are inflected for genders, and the number один even for numbers. Endings in this group by numbers one and two will be different!

This is clearly seen in the following tables:

Let's see an example!

REMEMBER! In declensions of the number respectively the form of a noun is changed.

Example (masculine|feminine|neutral):

Let's move on!

Group 3-4

This group is much easier than the previous one. In it there are also two numbers, but it is inflected only for case and they both have the same endings! It is worth noting that the numbers of one group in some cases may have similar endings - и(е), ой(ей), мя(ми)

Let's look through the examples:

Group 5-30

This group is good because it includes a large number of numbers that in declensions have only three variants of endings.

1. In nominative and genitive - no ending
2. In genitive, dative, prepositional - и ending
3. In instrumental – ending ю

As we can see, in this group there are composite numbers which consist of two numbers, for example – двадцать один (21). How can such numbers be inflected?

In compound numbers all numbers that make it up are inflected! Where each number is inflected according to the group!

Пример: У меня нет двадцати одного рубля

Here, the number twenty-one is used in the genitive case.

Look at the scheme to see the principle of declensions of this composite number:

It's easy, isn't it?

Example:

Moving on!

Group 50-80

This group has its own feature! Since the numbers пятьдесят, шестьдесят, семьдесят и восемьдесят have two parts - both parts are inflected! Note that the numbers пять, шесть, семь, восемь and десять - belong to one group (three to 30), so that endings of both parts are identical! However, note that ь at the end of a word десят_ is not put here!

Look carefully at the following scheme:

Example:

Group 40 | 90 | 100

This is a very simple group; there are only two options of declensions in it:

1. Nominative, Accusative - ending о or _
2. Genitive, Dative, Instrumental, Prepositional - the ending а

Example:

Group 200-400

numbers from two-hundred to four-hundred also consist of two parts, двести, триста, четыреста. Accordingly, both parts are inflected. Pay attention to the endings! The number сто in the second part of the word is not inflected here as in the previous group, it has not two, but five different endings! The number два in the nominative and accusative inflecting feminine - две.

Example:

Let's recall once again how composite numbers are inclined, for example, the number 255 in the instrumental case:

Group 500-900

This is the last group of cardinal numbers. As in the group of two-hundred-four-hundred, both parts of the numbers are inflected. Note that in the numbers пятьсот, шестьсот, семьсот, восемьсот и девятьсот, the first part is inflected in accordance with the rules of the group five to 30, and the second part, сто – is inflected as well as in the previous group, except nominative and accusative which use the option сот.

Example:

Nouns тысяча, миллион, миллиард

The words тысяча, миллион, and миллиард are not numbers, but nouns. Declining nouns is easier as for all of them there are only three declensions and six cases. So let's look at how our nouns are inflected!

Тысяча

The word тысяча is inflected as feminine nouns in -a base. For example, as книга, игра, доска, игла.

This is well illustrated by the following example:

Миллион и миллиард

The words миллион and миллиард are inflected as masculine nouns endings in a consonant. For example, as стол, шкаф, рюкзак, канат.

An example:

To consolidate all the material, consider the declension of another composite number, including thousands, hundreds and tens!

How to use this article

So now you have the full material to inflect cardinal numbers, as well as an understanding of the principle of composite numbers declensions. You must agree there is a lot of information and you certainly can't remember it correctly the first time. This is normal.

So how do you put this theoretical knowledge into practice and start using numbers correctly? I offer you a few steps:

1. Try to inflect at least two numbers in each group, as well as a minimum of ten composite numbers. Do it in writing, looking at the article.
2. Try to decline ten numbers with nouns, for example: шесть птиц, десять рублей, двадцать пять игроков (six birds, ten rubles, twenty-five players) etc. Refer to the article when it is needed.
3. Practice declension of numbers orally. At first, only the numbers, then the numbers with nouns, and later as part of the sentence. Start with simple numbers and gradually move to the compound.
4. Work with your teacher. Let him/her have a lesson devoted to numbers.

And finally, try to decline the following numbers:

1

5

23

48

154

1365

Image Sources

Hero image from Pexels (CC0/public domain)

All other images by author.