Russian numbers are mostly regular and surprisingly easy to read aloud — once you've decoded the Cyrillic alphabet. The first ten are foundational, the teens follow a clean -надцать pattern, and the tens are mostly predictable (with a couple of famous exceptions for 40 and 90). The catch? Russian numbers carry gender for 1 and 2, and they trigger different noun cases depending on the count. By the end of this page, you'll handle any Russian number you encounter.
What you'll walk away with
- Hear every Russian number from a native Moscow voice
- Crack the -надцать pattern that builds 11–19
- Walk away knowing why одна книга and две книги and пять книг are all correct (and different)
The foundational ten — 0 to 10 in Russian
These eleven words are the building blocks for every Russian number you'll ever say. Tap any to hear it spoken. Spend a minute here — the rest of the article assumes you've heard each of them.
- 0 — ноль
- 1 — один
- 2 — два
- 3 — три
- 4 — четыре
- 5 — пять
- 6 — шесть
- 7 — семь
- 8 — восемь
- 9 — девять
- 10 — десять
11 to 20 — where Russian shows its character
Some of these are unique words you'll need to memorize; others follow a pattern. Tap any to hear it. Pay attention to the rhythm — the teens often have a distinctive cadence in each language.
- 11 — одиннадцать
- 12 — двенадцать
- 13 — тринадцать
- 14 — четырнадцать
- 15 — пятнадцать
- 16 — шестнадцать
- 17 — семнадцать
- 18 — восемнадцать
- 19 — девятнадцать
- 20 — двадцать
The tens — 20, 30, 40… up to 100
Once you know these, you can build every two-digit number using the combining rule below. Tap any to hear it.
- 20 — двадцать
- 30 — тридцать
- 40 — сорок (irregular — not "четыредесят")
- 50 — пятьдесят
- 60 — шестьдесят
- 70 — семьдесят
- 80 — восемьдесят
- 90 — девяносто (irregular — not "девятьдесят")
- 100 — сто
How Russian counting works (and why it asks the noun for permission)
Combine tens and units with a space: двадцать один (21), тридцать два (32), девяносто девять (99). Hundreds and thousands chain the same way: сто пять (105), две тысячи двадцать четыре (2024). The teens are built with the suffix -надцать (a contraction of на десять, "on ten"): одиннадцать = один-на-десять ("one-on-ten"). Once you spot this pattern, every teen number becomes recognizable.
The real Russian challenge isn't building the numbers — it's how they affect what comes after them. One asks for the nominative (один дом), two/three/four ask for the genitive singular (два дома), and five and up ask for the genitive plural (пять домов). The numbers don't change; the noun does. This is gender-and-case agreement, and it's the famous Russian Number Trap.
Big numbers — 100, 1,000, and 1,000,000
These three words unlock everything from prices to populations to budgets. Tap any to hear it.
- 100 — сто
- 1000 — тысяча
- 1000000 — миллион
The Russian number quirks every learner needs to internalize
Six insights that take Russian counting from "recognizable" to "natural".
- 1 and 2 have gender. Один (m), одна (f), одно (n). Два (m/n), две (f). Один дом (one house, m), одна книга (one book, f), одно окно (one window, n). Match the gender of the noun.
- 40 and 90 are irregular. Сорок (40) doesn't follow the -десять pattern — it's a unique word. Девяносто (90) keeps an extra vowel. Memorize these two; the rest of the tens are regular.
- The case rule is the real Russian challenge. After 1 → nominative singular. After 2/3/4 → genitive singular. After 5+ → genitive plural. Один стол, два стола, пять столов. The noun ending changes; the number stays the same.
- Compound numbers follow the LAST digit. Двадцать один стол (21 tables, nominative singular — because of the 1). Двадцать два стола (22 tables, genitive singular — because of the 2). Двадцать пять столов (25 tables, genitive plural — because of the 5).
- Russian uses a comma for decimals, space for thousands. 1 234,56 руб.
- Phone numbers are read in chunks of 3 + 2 + 2. +7 (495) 123-45-67 reads as плюс семь, четыреста девяносто пять, сто двадцать три, сорок пять, шестьдесят семь.
Why Russian numbers reward your patience more than your memory
Russian counting itself is mostly regular — three irregularities (40, 90, gendered 1/2) and one unifying suffix (-надцать) cover almost everything. The hard part is the case agreement that follows: numbers don't just count, they trigger grammatical changes in the words around them. That rule takes a few weeks to internalize, but once it clicks, you'll have unlocked one of the most distinctive features of Russian.
Ready to count in real conversations?
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