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.

Arabic Numbers
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.