The big picture
Persian numbers are compositional and predictable — every compound is built by stringing place values together with one connector: و. Spelled va, pronounced o, it appears between every digit group, so even 165 becomes sad o shast o panj. The Perso-Arabic script is RTL, but each individual number reads as a clean left-to-right place-value sequence.
Persian uses Eastern Arabic-Indic digits
Slightly different shapes than the Arabic standard (notably ۴, ۵, ۶ for 4, 5, 6).
Zero to twenty
If you know any other Indo-European language, the 1–10 cognates will look familiar — yek/un/eins, do/dos/zwei, se/tres/drei. The teens (11–19) are unique forms; the tens word bist for 20 stands alone.
21 – 99 & the و
Each tens word (30–90) is unique. Once you have them, every two-digit number is just tens + و + units. Stable, predictable, no fusion.
The tens (each unique)
Compounds: tens + و + units
Hundreds
All nine hundreds words are unique (Persian doesn't compose them from digit + sad). Each one has to be memorized. Past 100, just keep stacking with و between every group.
Thousands & millions
هزار = 1,000. میلیون = 10⁶. میلیارد = 10⁹. Persian matches English's short-scale-style values — no false-friend trap. Numbers stack with و between every part.
Ordinals
Add a -م (-om) suffix to the cardinal. The first three are irregular (or have alternative forms): اول for 1st, دوم for 2nd, سوم for 3rd. From 4th onward, just suffix away.
Things to remember
Five rules that cover most of what trips up new learners.
Reading is one thing.
Hearing it at speed is another.
The companion iOS app generates random numbers in your chosen range and reads them aloud in Persian. Five minutes a day.
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