Arabic Numbers 1 to 100

Arabic Vocabulary Lists > Arabic Numbers

Arabic numbers 1 to 100 are written in two systems: the Eastern numerals ٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩ used in Egypt, the Levant, Iraq and the Gulf, and the Western digits 0-9 used across North Africa and worldwide. Spoken, they run from waaḥid (1) to mi'a (100), with the ones said before the tens: 21 is waaḥid wa-'ishroon, one and twenty.

The chart below gives all 101 numbers from zero to one hundred, each with its Eastern numeral, its spelling in Arabic script, and a transliteration. One scheme is used throughout: doubled vowels are long (aa, ee, oo), the apostrophe is ع, ḥ is the breathy ح, and ṣ is the heavy ص. The one exception is mi'a (100), where the apostrophe marks a hamza, a catch in the throat, rather than ع.

The full chart: Arabic numbers 0 to 100

These are Modern Standard Arabic, in the forms an Arabic speaker uses when counting aloud. Numbers 3 to 10 carry the ending ة, which is also the form you use when counting masculine nouns; counting feminine nouns drops it, and that rule is explained further down. The script is written without vowel marks, the way it appears in books, signs and messages, so the transliteration column carries the vowels.

"Arabic numerals" means two different things

The phrase points at two different sets of shapes, and which set someone means depends on the language they are speaking. In English, Arabic numerals almost always means the digits 0-9 on your keyboard. In an Arabic-speaking country, the numerals on the shop sign are more likely to be ٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩, which English calls Eastern Arabic numerals and which Arabic itself calls الأرقام الهندية, al-arqaam al-hindiyya, the Indian numerals.

Both sets are the same system wearing different clothes. The decimal, place-value system with a zero, the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, came from India. Arabic mathematicians adopted it and wrote it up, most famously al-Khwarizmi in Baghdad around 825, whose name reached Latin as the word algorithm. Latin translations carried the system into Europe, where Leonardo of Pisa argued for it in his Liber Abaci of 1202 against the Roman numerals still in use. Europe kept the Western Arabic shapes that had developed in North Africa and Spain; the Arab East kept the shapes it already had. The mathematics never diverged. Only the handwriting did.

So the answer to "what are Arabic numerals" depends on who is asking, and a page that answers only one of the two is half a page. That is why the chart above gives every number twice.

Where each set is used in daily life:

How to read Eastern Arabic numerals

Read them left to right, exactly as you read English numbers, even though the Arabic words around them run right to left. ١٩٩٥ is 1995: the leftmost digit is the thousands. Beginners get this wrong once, and once is usually enough.

The shapes are the other problem. Four of them look like a Western digit with a different value, which is worse than looking like nothing at all.

Three more marks belong to the same set and are worth recognising: ٫ is the decimal separator, so ٣٫٥ is 3.5; ٬ groups thousands, so ١٬٠٠٠ is 1,000; and ٪ is the percent sign.

The fastest way to make the shapes automatic is to read something that uses them constantly instead of drilling them from a list. A printed Quran numbers every ayah, every juz and every page in Eastern numerals, so anyone working through one absorbs them without trying. At first a single page took me 20 minutes and eventually 2, and somewhere in between the numbers stopped needing to be decoded at all. The full account is in how I learned Arabic as an adult.

The grammar: why "three books" changes the number

Arabic numbers are not simply parked in front of a noun the way English numbers are. The number changes gender and the noun changes both number and case, and which way each one moves depends on how big the number is. Four rules cover everything from 1 to 100.

1 and 2 agree normally, and are usually left out

These two behave like adjectives and follow the noun: كتاب واحد kitaab waaḥid, one book; بنت واحدة bint waaḥida, one girl. Arabic also marks two on the noun itself with the dual ending, so كتابان kitaabaan already means two books. You add ithnaan only for emphasis, the way English says two books, not one.

3 to 10 use polarity, the rule that catches everyone

For 3 to 10 the number takes the opposite gender marking from the noun it counts, and the noun becomes plural. Three books is ثلاثة كتب thalaathatu kutub, with the feminine ة on the number, because كتاب kitaab is masculine. Three girls is ثلاث بنات thalaathu banaat, with no ة, because بنت bint is feminine. It runs backwards to an English speaker and there is no shortcut around it: check the gender of the singular noun, then give the number the other one.

11 to 99 take a singular noun

Above ten the counted noun returns to the singular, in the accusative: عشرون كتابا 'ishroona kitaaban, literally twenty book. Polarity does not reach this far, which is a small mercy after wrestling with it for 3 to 10.

100 and above take a singular noun too

مئة كتاب mi'atu kitaab, a hundred book. Same singular, different case, and nothing else to memorise. Past a hundred the vocabulary stays small: مئتان mi'ataan is 200, ألف alf is 1,000, مئة ألف mi'at alf is 100,000, and مليون milyoon is a million. Everything between is built from the words already in the chart.

One more habit of Arabic worth naming: the ones are said before the tens, as in German and in older English. 25 is خمسة وعشرون khamsa wa-'ishroon, five and twenty. You notice it the first time someone reads a phone number out at speed and you write the digits down in the wrong order.

How the numbers change in spoken dialects

Nobody counts in Modern Standard Arabic in a shop. Every spoken dialect shortens the numbers, and two changes cover most of it: the MSA ending -oon on the tens becomes -een everywhere, and the letter ث th becomes t across the Levant and Egypt. The words stay recognisable, which is why learning the MSA set first is not wasted effort.

Polarity relaxes in speech too. Dialect speakers often use one short form of the number for both genders and let the noun carry the information, which is one of several places where the spoken language is easier than the written one. If a dialect is your target, our Levantine Arabic resources and Egyptian Arabic resources pages list the courses and audio worth your time.

Ordinal numbers: first to tenth

Ordinals are a separate set of words and they behave normally: no polarity, and a feminine formed by adding ة like any other adjective. The third lesson is الدرس الثالث ad-dars ath-thaalith; the third year is السنة الثالثة as-sana ath-thaalitha.

Sixth is the odd one out. The cardinal is ستة sitta but the ordinal is سادس saadis, with a d the cardinal has lost. The older root survives in the ordinal, and it is the only place in the first ten where the two sets stop matching.

Frequently asked questions

Are Arabic numbers written right to left?

No. Even inside right-to-left Arabic text, numbers are written and read left to right, with the highest place value on the left. The year 1995 is written ١٩٩٥, and you read it exactly as you would read 1995 in English. Only the words around the number run right to left.

What is the difference between Arabic numerals and Eastern Arabic numerals?

In English, Arabic numerals normally means the digits 0-9 used in Europe and worldwide, so called because Europe learned them from Arabic mathematics. Eastern Arabic numerals are the forms ٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩ used in Egypt, Sudan, the Levant, Iraq, and the Gulf. Both descend from the same Indian decimal system, and Arabic itself usually calls the ٠-٩ forms al-arqaam al-hindiyya, the Indian numerals.

How do you count from 1 to 10 in Arabic?

waaḥid (1), ithnaan (2), thalaatha (3), arba'a (4), khamsa (5), sitta (6), sab'a (7), thamaaniya (8), tis'a (9), 'ashara (10). The apostrophe is the letter ع, a tight squeeze from the throat, and ḥ is the breathy ح. These are the forms Arabic speakers use when counting aloud.

Why does the word for three change shape when you count things?

Because of gender polarity. For the numbers 3 to 10, the number takes the opposite gender marking from the noun it counts. Three books is thalaathatu kutub, with the feminine ة on the number, because kitaab is masculine. Three girls is thalaathu banaat, with no ة, because bint is feminine. Numbers 1 and 2 agree normally, and 11 upward do not use polarity.

Do all Arab countries use the ٠-٩ numerals?

No. Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya use the Western digits 0-9 in everyday life, the same shapes English uses. Egypt, Sudan, the Levant, Iraq, and the Gulf states use ٠-٩ in handwriting, printed Arabic text, and street signage, while Western digits still appear on phones, price tags, and anything aimed at an international audience.

Related Arabic reference charts

• Arabic alphabet chart, all 28 letters in their four positional forms, for reading the number words above instead of only the transliterations
• Common Arabic phrases, everyday expressions in Modern Standard, Levantine and Egyptian side by side, including the ones that carry prices and quantities
• Arabic months of the year, the Hijri months plus the two different sets of Gregorian month names used across the Arab world
• Arabic vocabulary lists, the word lists and Anki decks these charts feed into