Armenian Numbers & Counting
Zero to a million in Armenian, how the compound numbers are built, the ordinals, and the old system where the letters of the alphabet were the numbers.
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Armenian numbers are more forgiving than Armenian grammar. Learn one to ten and the words for twenty, thirty and so on, and you can build every number up to a hundred without learning anything new, because the compounds are just the parts stuck together.
The forms below are Eastern Armenian, the standard in Armenia. Western Armenian uses the same words with the usual consonant shift, so mek becomes meg, yerku becomes yergu, tasy becomes dasu.
Zero to ten
Eleven to twenty
Every teen is simply tasn (ten) with the unit stuck on the end. Once you see it, you never have to memorise them separately.
Tens, up to a hundred
| Number | Armenian | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | քսան | ksan |
| 30 | երեսուն | yeresun |
| 40 | քառասուն | karasun |
| 50 | հիսուն | hisun |
| 60 | վաթսուն | vatsun |
| 70 | յոթանասուն | yotanasun |
| 80 | ութսուն | utsun |
| 90 | իննսուն | innsun |
| 100 | հարյուր | haryur |
Hundreds, thousands and beyond
| Number | Armenian | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | երկու հարյուր | yerku haryur |
| 500 | հինգ հարյուր | hing haryur |
| 1,000 | հազար | hazar |
| 2,000 | երկու հազար | yerku hazar |
| 10,000 | տասը հազար | tasy hazar |
| 100,000 | հարյուր հազար | haryur hazar |
| 1,000,000 | միլիոն | milion |
Ordinal numbers
First, second, third. After the first three the pattern is regular: take the number and add -erord.
| Ordinal | Armenian | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | առաջին | arajin |
| 2nd | երկրորդ | yerkrord |
| 3rd | երրորդ | yerrord |
| 4th | չորրորդ | chorrord |
| 5th | հինգերորդ | hingerord |
| 6th | վեցերորդ | vetserord |
| 7th | յոթերորդ | yoterord |
| 8th | ութերորդ | uterord |
| 9th | իններորդ | innerord |
| 10th | տասներորդ | tasnerord |
Using numbers in real sentences
| English | Armenian | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| How much is it? | Իղնث արժ؝ | inch arzhe |
| Two coffees, please | Լրկու սուրإ, ؚնդր؝մ | yerku surch khndrem |
| I am thirty years old | ռս ؝ր؝սուն ءար؝կան ؝մ | yes yeresun tarekan em |
| Three people | ؝ր؝ք հոգի | yerek hogi |
| The first time | Առաջին անգամ | arajin angam |
When letters were the numbers
Before Arabic numerals arrived, Armenians counted with the alphabet. The 36 original letters were split into four groups of nine: the first nine are 1 to 9, the next nine are 10 to 90, the next nine are 100 to 900, and the last nine are 1000 to 9000. A number is read by adding its letters together.
You will still see this on khachkars, church walls, manuscripts and gravestones. It is how a date carved a thousand years ago is read today. The full letter-to-number table is on the alphabet page.
The shortcut worth knowing
Ten numbers and nine tens cover everything below a hundred. Armenian never invents a new word for 47 or 83, it just lines up the parts you already know. Learn nineteen words and you can count to ninety-nine.
Common questions
How do you count to ten in Armenian?
Mek, yerku, yerek, chors, hing, vets, yot, ut, iny, tasy. That is Eastern Armenian. In Western Armenian the same words shift slightly: meg, yergu, yerek, chors, hink, vets, yot, ut, inu, dasu.
How are Armenian numbers like 25 or 68 formed?
By putting the ten and the unit next to each other, with no joining word. Twenty-five is ksan hing, sixty-eight is vatsun ut. The only ones that merge into a single word are the teens, which are tasn plus the unit.
Do Armenian letters really work as numbers?
Yes. The 36 original letters of the alphabet carried numeric values, in four groups of nine covering units, tens, hundreds and thousands. The system predates Arabic numerals in Armenia and is still used on monuments, in manuscripts and for formal dates.
What is the Armenian word for zero?
Zro. It is a late borrowing, as you would expect, since the old letter-numeral system had no symbol for zero at all.
Are the numbers different in Eastern and Western Armenian?
They are the same words, pronounced differently. The consonant shift that runs through the whole language applies here too, so mek becomes meg and tasy becomes dasu. Written down, they are identical.
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