Hindi Numbers 1 to 100: Full List, Devanagari and Pronunciation

Hindi numbers 1 to 10

Learn these ten first. Everything else is built on them, even if the building is irregular.

Pronunciation notes for the ones that matter:

• teen (3) rhymes with the English "teen" and is the same word as the English number, by coincidence and by ancient relation: Hindi and English are both Indo-European, which is why teen/three, do/two, saat/seven, nau/nine and das/ten look similar.
• paanch (5) has a nasal vowel; the "n" is felt through the nose, not fully pronounced.
• chhah (6) starts with an aspirated ch: a "ch" with a strong puff of air after it. Say "ch" and blow. It is often pronounced "chhay" in everyday speech.
• aath (8) has a retroflex t: curl the tip of your tongue back to the roof of your mouth. It is a heavier sound than the English t. Then a puff of air (the h).
• nau (9) rhymes with "now" or "how".
• das (10) is "duss", with a short vowel, not "dass" or "dahs".

Hindi numbers 11 to 20

Notice that 11 to 18 all end in -rah (from an old word for ten), and that 19 is "un-nees", which literally means "one less than twenty". That "one less than the next ten" idea is the key to the whole system.

The hidden pattern in Hindi numbers

Hindi numbers look random. They are not quite random. Each decade has a tens word that runs through it, and the unit is fused on the front, with sound changes that happened over centuries. And every number ending in 9 is formed as "one less than" the next ten.

And the nines:

• 19 unnees (one less than 20)
• 29 untees (one less than 30)
• 39 untaalees (one less than 40)
• 49 unchaas (one less than 50)
• 59 unsath (one less than 60)
• 69 unhattar (one less than 70)
• 79 unyaasee (one less than 80)
• 89 navaasee (this one breaks the rule: nine-eighty)
• 99 ninyaanve (nine-ninety)

So the units have recognisable prefixes: ik- (1), ba- (2), te-/ti-/tir- (3), chau- (4), pach-/pain- (5), chha-/chhi- (6), sat-/sain-/sar- (7), at-/ar- (8), un- (one less, for 9). Once you see "chau" in chaubees, chauntees, chauvaalees, chauvan, chaunsath, chauhattar, chauraasee and chauraanve, you know every number ending in 4 at a glance.

It is still a lot of memorisation. But it is a pattern with exceptions, not a hundred unrelated words.

Hindi numbers 21 to 100: the complete list

Two sounds in this table need a note. The ड़ in artees, sarsath, arsath and artaalees is a retroflex flap, a "r" made by flicking the tongue tip off the roof of the mouth; it is between an r and a d. And the ैं / ौं in taintees, chauntees, paintees are nasal vowels: "tain" is roughly "tayn" through the nose.

The tens in Hindi

If you learn only the tens, you can get by with "tees, then something" and a lot of pointing.

Watch saath (60) and saat (7): the only difference is the aspirated, retroflex "th" at the end of sixty. And saath with a long a also means "together" or "with" (साथ), which is a different word again.

Hundreds, thousands, lakh and crore

100 is sau (सौ). The hundreds are regular: do sau (200), teen sau (300), chaar sau (400), paanch sau (500), nau sau (900). For 101 to 199, say sau plus the number: ek sau ek (101), ek sau pachaas (150). In everyday speech "ek sau" is often just "sau".

1,000 is hazaar (हज़ार). do hazaar (2,000), das hazaar (10,000), pachaas hazaar (50,000), ninyaanve hazaar (99,000).

Then Hindi stops counting in thousands and switches to its own system, which is used across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal:

1,00,000 (one hundred thousand) is ek lakh (लाख). Not "sau hazaar". One lakh. Two hundred thousand is do lakh. A million is das lakh (ten lakh).

1,00,00,000 (ten million) is ek crore (करोड़). A hundred million is das crore. A billion is sau crore (a hundred crore) or ek arab (अरब), and a hundred billion is ek kharab (खरब), though most people stop at crore and say "sau crore", "hazaar crore".

Indian numerals are grouped to match: after the first three digits, commas come every two digits. 1,000,000 in the Western system is written 10,00,000 in India and read as das lakh. A salary of ₹12,50,000 is "baarah lakh pachaas hazaar" (twelve lakh fifty thousand).

This matters far beyond language: Indian newspapers, salaries, property prices and company reports all use lakh and crore, and "1.5 crore" means fifteen million.

Hindi numerals (the digits)

Hindi has its own digits, ०१२३४५६७८९, which you will see on rupee notes, older signs, and in Hindi newspapers. Western digits (0 to 9) are far more common in daily life in cities, on phones and on prices, so you can read Hindi numbers without learning the Devanagari digits, but they take five minutes and are worth it.

The ones that confuse: ४ (4) looks a little like an 8; ६ (6) looks like an English 6 with a tail; ७ (7) looks like a 9; ९ (9) looks like an English 9 with a hook. Everything else is close to its Western shape, which is not a coincidence: the Western digits descend from these Indian ones by way of Arabic.

Ordinals: first, second, third

• 1st: पहला (pahla), feminine पहली (pahli)
• 2nd: दूसरा (doosra), feminine दूसरी (doosri)
• 3rd: तीसरा (teesra), feminine तीसरी (teesri)
• 4th: चौथा (chautha), feminine चौथी (chauthi)
• 5th: पाँचवाँ (paanchvaan), feminine पाँचवीं (paanchveen)
• 6th onward: number + -vaan (masculine) / -veen (feminine): छठा (chhatha) is the irregular 6th, then सातवाँ (saatvaan), आठवाँ (aathvaan), नौवाँ (nauvaan), दसवाँ (dasvaan)

The first four are irregular and must be memorised; from fifth onward it is number plus -vaan. Ordinals agree with the gender of the noun: pahla din (first day, masculine), pahli baar (first time, feminine).

Numbers in real life

Age

• आपकी उम्र क्या है? (Aapki umr kya hai?) How old are you? (Polite.)
• मैं पच्चीस साल का हूँ। (Main pachchees saal ka hoon.) I'm 25. (Male speaker.)
• मैं पच्चीस साल की हूँ। (Main pachchees saal ki hoon.) I'm 25. (Female speaker.)

Prices

• यह कितने का है? (Yeh kitne ka hai?) How much is this?
• दो सौ रुपये। (Do sau rupaye.) Two hundred rupees.
• डेढ़ सौ (derh sau) = 150, literally "one and a half hundred". Derh (1.5) and dhaai (2.5) are their own words and are used constantly: derh hazaar (1,500), dhaai lakh (250,000), derh ghanta (an hour and a half).
• सवा (sava) = a quarter more: sava sau (125), sava do (2.25). पौने (paune) = a quarter less: paune do sau (175), paune teen (2.75).

Time

• कितने बजे हैं? (Kitne baje hain?) What time is it?
• तीन बजे हैं। (Teen baje hain.) It's three o'clock.
• साढ़े तीन (saadhe teen) = half past three. Saadhe = plus a half, used from 3 onward. Half past one is derh baje; half past two is dhaai baje.
• सवा चार (sava chaar) = quarter past four. पौने पाँच (paune paanch) = quarter to five.

Phone numbers

Read digit by digit, in Hindi or English; English digits are extremely common for phone numbers even among Hindi speakers. Zero is shunya in Hindi or simply "zero".

Counting things

Hindi has no counters like Japanese. Number plus noun: teen kitaaben (three books), paanch log (five people), das rupaye (ten rupees). Note that the noun is plural.

How to memorise Hindi numbers 1 to 100

Honestly: not in an afternoon. But there is a sane order.

1. 1 to 10 cold. One day.
2. The tens: das, bees, tees, chaalees, pachaas, saath, sattar, assee, nabbe, sau. One day. With these plus 1 to 10 you can already say "bees... paanch" and be understood as 25 by anyone patient.
3. 11 to 20, as a chant. One day.
4. The unit prefixes. Learn that ik = 1, ba = 2, te/ti = 3, chau = 4, pach/pain = 5, chha/chhi = 6, sat/sain = 7, at/ar = 8, un = one less. Then read the 21 to 99 table looking only for the prefixes. Two days.
5. One decade a day for eight days. Say it out loud: iktees, battees, taintees, chauntees, paintees, chhattees, saintees, artees, untaalees, chaalees.
6. Your own numbers. Age, house number, birth year, phone number. Say them daily.
7. Use Bollywood. Song titles and film names are full of numbers: "Chaudhvin Ka Chand" (the fourteenth-night moon), "Ek Villain", "3 Idiots", "Do Bigha Zamin". They stick.

Do not feel bad if your Hindi-speaking friends can not count to a hundred either. Many urban Indians say "forty-seven" in English mid-sentence. You will be in good company.

Common mistakes with Hindi numbers

• Confusing saat (7) and saath (60). The aspirated retroflex "th" at the end of sixty is the only difference. Listen for the puff of air.
• Saying "das hazaar hazaar" for a million. It is das lakh. Learn lakh and crore before you need them in a salary negotiation.
• Pronouncing chhah (6) as "chah". The aspiration is the whole point; without it, it is a different word (चाह, desire).
• Forgetting the nasal vowels. Paanch, taintees, chauntees, paintees all have vowels through the nose.
• Using "ek sau" where "sau" is natural. Both are correct; "sau" is what people say for exactly 100.
• Translating "one and a half" as "ek aur aadha". It is derh. Two and a half is dhaai. These are not optional; nobody says it any other way.
• Reading Indian commas as Western ones. 10,00,000 is ten lakh, one million, not ten million.

Say them out loud before you need them

The list is only useful if the numbers come out of your mouth when a rickshaw driver says "paintees" and looks at you expectantly. Hindi numbers are, more than any other language on this site, a listening-and-speaking skill, because there is no way to work them out on the fly; you either know chauhattar is 74 or you do not.

1. Say 1 to 10 and the tens out loud ten times, with the aspirated chh, the retroflex th and the nasal vowels.
2. Say one full decade a day, out loud, on the way to work.
3. Say your own numbers, and prices with derh, dhaai, sava and paune, until they are one breath.
4. Then practise with something that talks back. SPAIKING's AI speaking partner will quote you prices in Hindi, ask your age, and make you say "sattaaees" and "unhattar" back, correcting the missing aspiration and the flat nasal vowels in real time. That is the fastest way from a table on a screen to a number you can actually use.