The big picture
Arabic text flows right-to-left, but numerals flow left-to-right — so within an RTL paragraph, the digits ٤٢ still read "42." Spoken numbers add complexity that the digits hide: gender agreement, polarity rules, and the famous units before tens pattern (eleven becomes "one and twenty" rather than "twenty one" when speaking).
Two digit systems
Both systems are used. Eastern Arabic-Indic digits (٠ ١ ٢ ٣) appear in Egypt, Iran, and most printed books and signage. Western Arabic numerals (the 0-9 you see on this page) are increasingly common in Maghreb countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria) and on the web globally. Read both.
Zero to ten
Forms below are masculine. Numbers 3–10 have a feminine partner that drops the tāʾ marbūṭa when counting feminine nouns — see "polarity" below.
Eleven to nineteen
Each teen is two words: unit + ʿashar ("ten"). The unit comes first.
The tens (20 – 90)
The tens are highly regular: take the unit root, attach -ūn. The only special case is 20, which uses the root of "two" not "two times ten."
Compound numbers — units first
Arabic says the unit before the ten, joined by wa- ("and"). 42 is literally "two and forty". Same pattern as German zweiundvierzig, opposite of English and Romance languages.
Hundreds & up
Miʾa (مِئة) for 100, alf (ألف) for 1,000, milyūn (مليون) for 1,000,000. The hundreds 200, 300, 400 are mostly regular — but 200 has its own dual form.
Things to remember
Five rules that cover the most common mistakes.
The hardest part is the unit-first order.
The companion iOS app reads numbers in MSA at adjustable speed. Train your ear to chunk "unit · wa · ten" automatically.
Get the app