Cardinal and ordinal numerals in Russian
Today we’re going to talk about Russian numbers. Phone numbers, counting people, things and money – numerals are everywhere. That’s why this topic is essential if you want to speak Russian very well.
Cardinal numerals
Let’s learn how to count to ten at first.
раз (один) – one
два – two
три – three
четыре – four
пять – five
шесть – six
семь – seven
восемь – eight
девять – nine
десять – ten
Note that numbers 5-10 have the soft sign at the end. So, you have to make the preceding consonant sound softer when pronouncing.
What’s the difference between один and раз? We use раз only when counting. But not when you name what you are counting. For example, when you count apples, you say in Russian: одно яблоко, два яблока, три яблока and so on.
Раз is also a noun and means “time” n Russian. Interesting that there is an expression один раз with two of these words at the same time that means “one time” (two times – два раза, three times – три раза, etc.).
Cardinal numerals from 11 to 19 are not easy to remember. But they all have one common part. Maybe it will help you in memorizing them.
одиннадцать – eleven
двенадцать – twelve
тринадцать – thirteen
четырнадцать – fourteen
пятнадцать – fifteen
шестнадцать – sixteen
семнадцать – seventeen
восемнадцать – eighteen
девятнадцать – nineteen
For the next ten numerals, the things are going to be much easier. Because we only need to remember one new word and then you just add the number we started with. Just like in English (but without a hyphen):
двадцать – twenty
двадцать один – twenty-one
двадцать два – twenty-two
двадцать три – twenty-three
двадцать четыре – twenty-four
двадцать пять – twenty-five
двадцать шесть – twenty-six
двадцать семь – twenty-seven
двадцать восемь – twenty-eight
двадцать девять – twenty-nine
тридцать – thirty
тридцать один – thirty one
тридцать два – thirty two
and so on
сорок – forty
сорок один – forty-one
сорок два – forty-two
and so on
пятьдесят – fifty
пятьдесят один – fifty-one
пятьдесят два – fifty-two
and so on
шестьдесят – sixty
семьдесят – seventy
восемьдесят – eighty
девяносто – ninety
And now, again, we need to memorize several words, because they are different for evey hundred (with the common part and the biginning that you are already familiar with).
сто – one hundred
двести – two hundred
триста – three hundred
четыреста – four hundred
пятьсот – five hundred
шестьсот – six hundred
семьсот – seven hundred
восемьсот – eight hundred
девятьсот – nine hundred
We just add word like we do it with numbers:
1 – один
41 – сорок один
141 – сто сорок один
1 141 – тысяча сто сорок один
Numbers are placed in decrising order.
The word один changes its form depending on the gender and the number of the noun: один (m.), одна (f.), одно (n.), одни (pl.). It is the only changeable word in the list. All the other cardinal numerals don’t change their forms.
Ordinal numerals
If you’re very good at the cardinal numerals, it won’t be a problem for you to remember ordinal ones. Why is it easy? Because ordinal numerals are very similar to cardinal ones. They just change their form a little.
The secret of forming the ordinal numerals is that you take the cardinal numeral and change the ending of the last word.
You had 2305 – две тысяч триста пять
Now you have две тысячи триста пятый
Easy, isn’t it?
But there is a problem about the first and the second number. They differ from their cardinal relatives. Let’s see:
один – первый (first)
два – второй (second)
This is what you need to keep in your memory.
And all the other ordinal numbers are very similar to cardinal ones.
три – третий
четыре – четвертый
пять – пятый
шесть – шестой
семь – седьмой
восемь – восьмой
девять – девятый
десять – десятый
одиннадцать – одиннадцатый
двенадцать – двенадцатый
тринадцать – тринадцатый
четырнадцать – четырнадцатый
пятнадцать – пятнадцатый
шестнадцать – шестнадцатый
семнадцать – семнадцатый
восемнадцать – восемнадцатый
девятнадцать – девятнадцатый
двадцать – двадцатый
двадцать один – двадцать первый
двадцать два – двадцать второй
двадцать три – двадцать третий
тридцать – тридцатый
сорок – сороковой
пятьдесят – пятидесятый
шестьдесят – шестидесятый
семьдесят – семидесятый
восемьдесят – восьмидесятый
девяносто – девяностый
сто – сотый
двести – двухсотый
триста – трехсотый
четыреста – четырехсотый
пятьсот – пятисотый
шестьсот – шестисотый
семьсот – семисотый
восемьсот – восьмисотый
девятьсот – девятисотый
тысяча – тысячный
две тысячи – двухтысячный
три тысячи – трехтысячный
четыре тысячи – четырехтысячный
пять тысяч – пятитысячный
шесть тысяч – шеститысячный
семь тысяч – семитысячный
восемь тысяч – восьмитысячный
девять тысяч – девятитысячный
десять тысяч – десятитысячный
Well, before this list of numbers was written, I thought it was easy to remember cause there are not so many new words to remember. I was mistaken. But still, it’s easy for many situations when the big numeral ends in figures from 1 to 9. When it comes to figures from 11 to 19 it makes a little harder cause these numbers are difficult to pronounce. But as you can see they don’t change so much. They all get the same ending. If you know the cardinal numerals from 11 to 19, it will be easy for you to create the ordinal ones using them.
Much harder it gets when it comes to numbers ending in zero – 100, 1000, etc. You need to remember many words, as you can see in the previous list. So, the task gets really hard.
It’s not the only difficulty here. Don’t forget that ordinal numbers are similar to adjectives. They also change their endings depending on the gender, number and the cases they are in. So, you need to remember the adjectives rules in order to use ordinal numerals correctly.
All the ordinal numerals I listed before are masculine. To make those words feminine or neuter you need to change their endings. It’s -ая for feminine and -ое for neuter. There are some exceptions though:
первый – первая – первое
второй – вторая – второе
третий – третья – третье
четвертый – четвертая – четвертое
пятый – пятая – пятое
and so on
Now you can count in Russian. Good luck!