Русский — Numbers cheat sheet

The big picture

Russian numbers are compositional, written as separate words. The lexical surprises are minor — сорок (40) and девяносто (90) are the two outliers. The real difficulty is the case agreement: the noun after a number changes form depending on whether the number ends in 1, 2-4, or anything else.

If you only remember one thing: the number doesn't change much, but the noun after it does. Один рубль, два рубля, пять рублей — all "rubles," all spelled differently because the number is doing grammar.

Zero to twenty

11–19 add the suffix -надцать to a stem (similar to English -teen). Pay attention to the soft signs (ь) — they change pronunciation.

ноль

nol'

gender

один

odin / одна / одно

gender

два

dva / две

три

tri

четыре

chetyre

пять

pyat'

шесть

shest'

семь

sem'

восемь

vosem'

девять

devyat'

десять

desyat'

одиннадцать

odinnadtsat'

двенадцать

dvenadtsat'

тринадцать

trinadtsat'

четырнадцать

chetyrnadtsat'

пятнадцать

pyatnadtsat'

шестнадцать

shestnadtsat'

семнадцать

semnadtsat'

восемнадцать

vosemnadtsat'

девятнадцать

devyatnadtsat'

двадцать

dvadtsat'

Gender on 1 and 2. Один (masc), одна (fem), одно (neut). Два (masc/neut), две (fem). The other digits don't change form for gender, but these two do — and you need to match the noun. Одна книга, две книги.

The tens (20 – 90)

Two patterns and two outliers. 20 and 30 use -дцать; 50-80 use -десят. Сорок (40) and девяносто (90) are lexical exceptions — they don't fit either pattern and have to be memorized.

двадцать

dvadtsat'

тридцать

tridtsat'

outlier

сорок

sorok

пятьдесят

pyat'desyat

шестьдесят

shest'desyat

семьдесят

sem'desyat

восемьдесят

vosem'desyat

outlier

девяносто

devyanosto

Compound tens (21–99)

Just ten + unit, as two separate words. No "and" connector.

двадцать один

dvadtsat' odin

тридцать четыре

tridtsat' chetyre

сорок два

sorok dva

пятьдесят семь

pyat'desyat sem'

шестьдесят восемь

shest'desyat vosem'

девяносто пять

devyanosto pyat'

девяносто девять

devyanosto devyat'

two words — no connector between them

Hundreds

Every hundred is a little irregular. 100 is its own word (сто). 200–400 take -ста with stem changes. 500–900 take -сот. Memorize them all individually — there's no clean formula.

100

сто

sto

-сти

200

двести

dvesti

300

триста

trista

400

четыреста

chetyresta

-сот

500

пятьсот

pyat'sot

600

шестьсот

shest'sot

700

семьсот

sem'sot

800

восемьсот

vosem'sot

900

девятьсот

devyat'sot

Three subgroups, not one rule. 100 stands alone. 200 (двести) uses a unique -сти ending; 300/400 use -ста (триста, четыреста). 500–900 all use -сот (пятьсот, шестьсот, семьсот, восемьсот, девятьсот). Three patterns, nine forms.

In the wild

375

триста семьдесят пять

trista sem'desyat pyat'

543

пятьсот сорок три

pyat'sot sorok tri

999

девятьсот девяносто девять

devyat'sot devyanosto devyat'

Thousands & millions

Тысяча (1,000), миллион (10⁶), миллиард (10⁹). All three are nouns — so their own form changes based on the number multiplying them. Same case rule as everything else.

fem noun

1.000

тысяча

tysyacha

2-4

2.000

две тысячи

dve tysyachi

3.000

три тысячи

tri tysyachi

5.000

пять тысяч

pyat' tysyach

10.000

десять тысяч

desyat' tysyach

100.000

сто тысяч

sto tysyach

1 M

миллион

million

2 M

два миллиона

dva milliona

5 M

пять миллионов

pyat' millionov

10⁹

1 B

миллиард

milliard

1.348

тысяча триста сорок восемь

tysyacha trista sorok vosem'

1.000 + 300 + 40 + 8

23.456

двадцать три тысячи четыреста пятьдесят шесть

dvadtsat' tri tysyachi chetyresta pyat'desyat shest'

23 × тысячи + 456

The тысяча trilogy. The number agrees: одна тысяча (1 thousand), две / три / четыре тысячи (2-4 thousand, genitive singular), пять / шесть / … тысяч (5+ thousand, genitive plural). Same pattern for миллион / миллиона / миллионов and миллиард / миллиарда / миллиардов.

Case agreement — the killer rule

The noun after a number takes a different case depending on the number's last digit. Three buckets. This is what makes Russian numbers feel grammatical rather than lexical — and it applies to every noun.

1 Nominative singular. The dictionary form. Один рубль. Also: 21, 31, 41, 101… … 1, 21, 31

2 – 4 Genitive singular. "Of one ruble," used three times. Два рубля, три рубля, четыре рубля. Also: 22-24, 32-34, etc. … 2, 22, 33, 44

5+ Genitive plural. "Of rubles." Пять рублей, десять рублей, сто рублей. Includes all teens 11-19, regardless of their last digit. … 5-20, 25, 99

The teens always go to bucket 3. 11, 12, 13, 14 use the 5+ rule (gen plur), not their last-digit rule. Одиннадцать рублей, not одиннадцать рубль. Двенадцать рублей, not двенадцать рубля. The "last digit" rule only kicks in once you're past the teens.

Years use a different form. "I'm 25 years old" = Мне 25 лет ("twenty-five years"), where лет is the special genitive plural form — not годов. Dates use neuter ordinals in genitive: 2022 год = две тысячи двадцать второго года.

Things to remember

Five rules that will save you from the most common mistakes.

The noun's case follows the number. Один рубль, два рубля, пять рублей — three forms for "rubles," chosen by the number. Teens always count as 5+.

Two tens are outliers: сорок (40) and девяносто (90). The other tens fit predictable patterns (-дцать or -десят). Just memorize these two.

Gender on 1 and 2 only. Один / одна / одно, два / две. The other digits don't inflect for gender.

Hundreds aren't predictable. 200 = двести, 300 = триста, 500 = пятьсот. Three subpatterns (-сти, -ста, -сот) across the nine forms.

Big numbers are separate words. No fusion (like German), no "and" (like Spanish). 1.348 = тысяча триста сорок восемь. Four words, four building blocks.

Drill it

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Numbers inРусский