Arabic Numbers 0–100: Words, Digits, and Practice

01Recognise the digits

Arabic uses both 0–9 and Arabic-Indic digits. These pairs show the same values:

Arabic words run right to left, but do not reverse a written number: ٢٥ is 25. In many fonts, zero ٠ looks like a dot, while five ٥ has a loop.

02Learn a few numbers at a time

Begin with these MSA counting words:

• صِفْر sifr — zero
• وَاحِد wahid — one
• اِثْنَان ithnan — two
• ثَلَاثَة thalatha — three
• خَمْسَة khamsa — five

Find all eleven entries, from zero through ten, in the reference below. Mix the digits rather than always reciting them in sequence. Seeing five should eventually bring khamsa to mind without counting from one.

These plain reading aids support recognition; use audio to learn sounds and vowel length.

03Separate teens from tens

• 13: ثَلَاثَةَ عَشَر — thalathata ashar
• 20: عِشْرُون — ishrun
• 30: ثَلَاثُون — thalathun
• 100: مِئَة — mia

Eleven and twelve have special forms. The teens do not contain وَ (wa, and). Learn them separately from the pattern in the next block.

The tens share the ending un in these reference forms. You may hear in in other grammatical contexts. Both مِئَة and the traditional spelling مِائَة mean one hundred.

04Build twenty-five

For a number between 21 and 99 with a nonzero unit, use this order:

The written digits remain ٢٥. Only the spoken word order differs from English.

For 35, keep the five and change twenty to thirty: خَمْسَةٌ وَثَلَاثُون (khamsatun wa thalathun). The ending in khamsatun connects it to the next word; it is not a different number.

The word وَ attaches to the following word in Arabic spelling, as in وَعِشْرُون.

05Use the chart with care

Recognising a number and using it with a noun are different skills.

• Our chart gives MSA reference forms, using masculine counted nouns and nominative forms where relevant.
• Gender and grammar can change a number. Three books is ثَلَاثَةُ كُتُبٍ; three cars is ثَلَاثُ سَيَّارَاتٍ. Notice the change in three.
• These are cardinal numbers: one, two, three. First, second and third use different forms.

For now, read five price tags as numbers without adding a currency. Then revisit the ones you missed. The optional charts contain every value from 0 to 100; you can study them over several sessions.