Bengali Numbers 1 to 10: Words, Digits and Pronunciation

Bengali numbers 1 to 10: the full table

Bengali (also called Bangla) is spoken by more than 230 million people in Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. It has its own script and its own set of digits, so each number below has three forms you will meet in real life: the digit, the word written in Bengali script, and the way it sounds.

Zero is শূন্য (shunno), written with the digit ০. You will need it for phone numbers and prices, so learn it with the rest.

How to pronounce each number

Bengali spelling is fairly regular, but three letters in this list behave differently from what an English reader expects.

• স in সাত (7) is "sh", not "s". Standard Bengali pronounces all three s-letters (স, শ, ষ) as "sh" in most positions. Seven is "shaat". Saying "sat" with a hard s is the single most common beginner giveaway.
• ছ in ছয় (6) is an aspirated ch. Push a little puff of air out after the "ch", as if you were saying "church-h". Without the aspiration it becomes চ, a different letter.
• The chandrabindu (ঁ) in পাঁচ (5) marks a nasal vowel. Let the "aa" resonate through your nose, the way the French say "an". The final ch is soft.
• The vowel in দশ (10) and নয় (9) is the open "o" of "dot", not the "oh" of "dose". Bengali has two o sounds and this is the open one.
• য় at the end of ছয় and নয় is a glide. Both words end in a quick "oy" sound, like the English "boy" said fast.

Bengali has no strong word stress. Say each syllable with roughly even weight and the numbers will sound much more natural than if you stress the first syllable English-style.

Bengali digits vs Bengali number words

This is the part most guides skip. Bengali has its own numerals, ০ ১ ২ ৩ ৪ ৫ ৬ ৭ ৮ ৯, and in Bangladesh they are everywhere: banknotes, bus numbers, shop signs, official forms and newspapers. In West Bengal you will see a mix of Bengali and Western digits, with Western digits dominating in commerce and technology.

Three Bengali digits look like the wrong Western digit, so check these carefully:

• ৪ is 4, although it looks a lot like an 8.
• ৭ is 7, although it looks like a 9 that has been flipped.
• ৯ is 9, and beginners often read it as a 5 or a 6 because of its curl.

Bengali digits work exactly like Western ones: place value is the same, they are written left to right, and ১০ is one followed by zero. So once you know the ten symbols you can read any number, including prices like ২৫০ টাকা (250 taka) and years like ২০২৬.

Counting things: ta, ti and jon

You rarely say a bare number in front of a noun in Bengali. A small suffix, usually -টা (ṭa) or the slightly more formal -টি (ṭi), attaches to the number when you count objects, and -জন (jon) is used when you count people.

The bare number is used for maths, phone numbers, prices in taka (এটা পাঁচ টাকা, this is five taka) and time (পাঁচটা বাজে, it is five o'clock, where the ṭa is attached to the hour).

Example sentences

Say these out loud. Each one uses a number the way a Bengali speaker actually would.

• আমার দুটো ভাই আছে। (Amar duṭo bhai achhe.) I have two brothers.
• তিনটে চা দিন। (Tinṭe cha din.) Three teas, please.
• এটা পাঁচ টাকা। (Eṭa pãch ṭaka.) This is five taka.
• আমার বয়স দশ বছর। (Amar boyosh dosh bochhor.) I am ten years old.
• কটা বাজে? সাতটা বাজে। (Kôṭa baje? Shatṭa baje.) What time is it? It is seven o'clock.
• আমরা চারজন। (Amra charjon.) There are four of us.
• একটু দাঁড়ান। (Ekṭu dãṛan.) Wait a moment. (Literally "stand a little", built on the number one.)
• আমার একটা প্রশ্ন আছে। (Amar ekṭa proshno achhe.) I have a question.

Mistakes learners make

• Using Hindi numbers. Hindi and Bengali are related, and half the numbers are close (ek, tin, char, panch, sat, ath, das), but Bengali দুই (dui) is not Hindi "do", ছয় (chhoy) is not "chhe", নয় (noy) is not "nau" and দশ (dosh) is not "das". Bengali speakers notice immediately.
• Hard s in সাত. It is "shaat". See the pronunciation section above.
• Dropping the counter. "দুই বই" sounds like a maths problem; "দুটো বই" (two books) sounds like a person talking.
• Misreading ৪ and ৭. ৪ is four (not eight) and ৭ is seven (not nine). Prices in Bangladesh are written in these digits, so this mistake costs money.
• Confusing নয় (nine) with নয় (is not). They are spelled and pronounced the same. "এটা নয়" means "not this one", while "নয়টা বাজে" means "it is nine o'clock". Context always makes it clear, but do not panic when you hear "noy" in a sentence with no numbers in it.

Bangladesh vs West Bengal

The number words are the same on both sides of the border. What changes is the pronunciation and the counters. In Bangladesh (and in eastern dialects generally) you will hear দুইটা (duiṭa), তিনটা (tinṭa) and চাইরটা (chairṭa) for four in casual speech; in Kolkata the standard forms are দুটো, তিনটে, চারটে. Bangladesh uses Bengali digits on almost everything official, including the taka banknotes, while West Bengal leans toward Western digits. Some Bangladeshi speakers pronounce ছয় closer to "chhoe" and সাত closer to "haat" in fast speech; both are regional colouring, not different words.

Bengali numbers 11 to 20 and beyond

Unlike English, Bengali does not build 11 to 19 from smaller pieces in a regular way, so they have to be memorised as separate words. The good news is that once you have 1 to 20 you can read everything else with a handful of round numbers.

Note the lakh. Like Hindi and Urdu, Bengali counts large numbers in lakhs (100,000) and crores (10,000,000, কোটি, koṭi), and groups digits as ১,০০,০০০ rather than 100,000. Salaries, property prices and population figures are all quoted this way.

How to remember them

Bengali is an Indo-European language, so several of its numbers are distant cousins of the English ones. Use the family resemblance:

• dui and two, tin and three (think "teen" in thirteen).
• sat and seven (Latin septem), at and eight (Latin octo).
• noy and nine, dosh and ten (Latin decem, as in decimal).
• pãch and the Greek pente, as in pentagon.

That leaves ek, char and chhoy to learn cold. Say the whole set out loud in rhythm, ek dui tin char, pãch chhoy sat at, noy dosh, and count real things: stairs, coins, the taka in your pocket. Ten minutes a day for a week is enough.

Also useful

• Basic Bengali words: the first 100 words to learn after the numbers.
• Days of the week in Bengali: pairs naturally with telling the time.
• Bengali greetings: what to say before you start counting.
• Bengali slang words: how people actually talk in Dhaka and Kolkata.