Numbers are one of the most regular parts of Russian. Learn up to twenty and the rest almost builds itself; compound numbers work exactly as they do in English — два́дцать оди́н is literally "twenty one".

The difficulty isn't the counting. It's this: the noun that follows a number changes its form. "Two tables" and "five tables" require two different forms of стол. This article gives you the numbers first, then that rule.

1 to 10

The foundation everything else is built on.

No. Russian Sounds like
1 оди́н ah-DEEN
2 два dva
3 три tree
4 четы́ре chi-TY-ri
5 пять pyat'
6 шесть shest'
7 семь syem'
8 во́семь VO-sim'
9 де́вять DYE-vit'
10 де́сять DYE-sit'

The final ь (soft sign) makes no sound of its own — it softens the consonant before it, so пять ends a little closer to "pyat-y" than a flat "pyat".

11 to 19: the hidden logic

This group looks like nine separate words to memorise. It isn't. Every one follows the same pattern: unit + надцать, where надцать is a worn-down form of the old на де́сять — "on ten".

So оди́ннадцать is "one-on-ten" = eleven. English does the same thing in reverse with -teen ("three-teen" → thirteen).

No. Russian
11 оди́ннадцать
12 двена́дцать
13 трина́дцать
14 четы́рнадцать
15 пятна́дцать
16 шестна́дцать
17 семна́дцать
18 восемна́дцать
19 девятна́дцать

Note that 14 keeps its stress at the front (четы́рнадцать) while the others move it to -на́д-. Small detail, but it's the difference between sounding studied and sounding natural.

Tens: 20 to 100

No. Russian
20 два́дцать
30 три́дцать
40 со́рок
50 пятьдеся́т
60 шестьдеся́т
70 се́мьдесят
80 во́семьдесят
90 девяно́сто
100 сто

Three things to watch:

1. 40 and 90 are irregular. By the pattern they'd be четы́редесят and девятьдеся́т. They aren't. Со́рок and девяно́сто are simply learned separately.

2. Stress jumps forward at 70 and 80. It sits on the final syllable in 50 and 60 (пятьдеся́т, шестьдеся́т) but returns to the front in 70 and 80 (се́мьдесят, во́семьдесят). A very common mistake.

3. Сто is mercifully short — one syllable for 100.

Compound numbers: the easy part

Here Russian is generous. Ten plus unit, side by side, nothing added:

два́дцать оди́н — 21 три́дцать пять — 35 со́рок семь — 47 девяно́сто де́вять — 99

Identical in structure to English "twenty-one", "thirty-five". Know the tens and the units and you can say every number from 1 to 100 without learning a single new word.

The real issue: the noun after the number

This is where Russian parts company with English. In English the noun barely changes — "one table, two tables, five tables", and that's it. In Russian the number decides the form of the noun.

The rule has three branches:

Number Noun form Example
1 nominative singular оди́н стол — one table
2, 3, 4 genitive singular два стола́ — two tables
5–20 genitive plural пять столо́в — five tables

The same word appears in three different shapes: стол → стола́ → столо́в.

Past 21, the rule looks only at the last digit — not the whole number:

два́дцать оди́н стол — 21 tables (ends in 1 → nominative singular) два́дцать два стола́ — 22 tables (ends in 2 → genitive singular) два́дцать пять столо́в — 25 tables (ends in 5 → genitive plural)

It seems arbitrary at first — and if you've never met a case system, it's the strangest thing on this page. But it recurs so often in daily speech that within a few weeks your ear flags it before your brain does. For the wider logic, see The Six Russian Cases.

Saying your age — where you'll meet this rule most

Age is the most common place this shows up, because год (year) shifts exactly this way:

Мне два́дцать оди́н год. — I'm 21. Мне два́дцать два го́да. — I'm 22. Мне два́дцать пять лет. — I'm 25.

All three say "year", yet they look like three different words: год / го́да / лет. The surprise is лет — it comes from an entirely different root but supplies the form used from five upwards.

Also note the sentence doesn't start with "I" but with "to me" — Мне. Russian frames age as "to me, twenty-one years".

Один and два: the two gender-sensitive numbers

Most numbers never change. The first two do, according to the noun's gender:

Masculine Feminine Neuter
1 оди́н одна́ одно́
2 два две два

оди́н стол (table, m.) · одна́ кни́га (book, f.) · одно́ окно́ (window, n.)

два стола́ but две кни́ги

From three onwards this stops: три, четы́ре, пять treat every gender alike.

In daily use

Asking a price:

Ско́лько э́то сто́ит? — How much is this?

Telling the time:

Сейча́с два часа́. — It's two o'clock. Сейча́с пять часо́в. — It's five o'clock.

Same rule at work again: час → часа́ → часо́в.

Phone numbers and addresses are read digit by digit, so the rule doesn't apply — a small mercy.

Suggested order

  1. Nail 1–10. Everything rests on it.
  2. Take 11–19 as a pattern, not nine separate words — see the -надцать logic.
  3. Add the tens, flagging 40 and 90 as exceptions.
  4. Build compounds — no new vocabulary needed.
  5. Leave the noun-form rule until last. Get counting automatic first. Learning both at once is needless strain.

Numbers are the natural sequel to the 100 most common words: they're what you reach for at a till, at an appointment, or the first time someone asks your age.

In Glagol, numbers come with native audio and example sentences like every other word — and hearing where the stress lands in 70 and 80 is far easier than reading about it. The case shifts are drilled in context in the Cases section.