Words & Vocabulary · 6 min read
Russian Numbers 1 to 100 (and Beyond): How to Count in Russian From Zero
Russian numbers are one of the first things you want to get right, and honestly, they are one of the nicest early wins in the language. The system is logical. Once you learn the base numbers 1 to 10, you can build almost everything else from there. Prices, dates, phone numbers, ages: it all starts here.
The base: Russian numbers 0 to 10
These ten words are the foundation of the whole system. Spend ten minutes with them and everything after gets easier.
| Russian | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| Ноль | Nol' | 0 |
| Один | Adin | 1 |
| Два | Dva | 2 |
| Три | Tri | 3 |
| Четыре | Chetyre | 4 |
| Пять | Pyat' | 5 |
| Шесть | Shest' | 6 |
| Семь | Sem' | 7 |
| Восемь | Vosem' | 8 |
| Девять | Devyat' | 9 |
| Десять | Desyat' | 10 |
A few things to notice. The soft sign (ь) at the end of пять, шесть, семь, восемь, девять and десять softens the final consonant. It is not silent, it just makes the consonant a little gentler. In practice, you will pick it up from hearing Russian spoken. Do not let it slow you down at the start.
Один (one) also has a feminine form: одна (adna). So if the noun you are counting is feminine, it pulls одна rather than один. But for counting out loud, like prices, phone numbers and ages, один is what you use.
Teens: 11 to 19
Here is where Russian shows you its logic. The teens are built by combining the base number with "на десять" (on ten), which contracts into the suffix -надцать.
| Russian | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| Одиннадцать | Adinnatsat' | 11 |
| Двенадцать | Dvenatsat' | 12 |
| Тринадцать | Trinatsat' | 13 |
| Четырнадцать | Chetyrnatsat' | 14 |
| Пятнадцать | Pyatnatsat' | 15 |
| Шестнадцать | Shestnatsat' | 16 |
| Семнадцать | Semnatsat' | 17 |
| Восемнадцать | Vosemnatsat' | 18 |
| Девятнадцать | Devyatnatsat' | 19 |
Once you see the pattern, the teens stop being a memory task and become a puzzle you can solve. Пять (5) becomes пятнадцать (15). Семь (7) becomes семнадцать (17). The suffix does the work; you just attach it to the base.
Tens: 20 to 100
The tens follow their own pattern. Twenty and thirty are a little irregular; from forty onward the system becomes more regular again.
| Russian | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| Двадцать | Dvatsat' | 20 |
| Тридцать | Tritsat' | 30 |
| Сорок | Sorak | 40 |
| Пятьдесят | Pyat'desyat | 50 |
| Шестьдесят | Shest'desyat | 60 |
| Семьдесят | Sem'desyat | 70 |
| Восемьдесят | Vosem'desyat | 80 |
| Девяносто | Devyanosta | 90 |
| Сто | Sto | 100 |
Сорок (40) is the one that surprises people. It does not follow the "number + десят" pattern the others use from 50 onward. Just learn it as its own word. Девяносто (90) is also its own shape. Everything from 50 to 80 is straightforward: base number plus десят.
Building numbers between the tens: 21 to 99
To say a number like 25, you say the tens and then the units, one after the other. No connecting word needed.
- 21 = двадцать один (dvatsat' adin)
- 35 = тридцать пять (tritsat' pyat')
- 47 = сорок семь (sorak sem')
- 83 = восемьдесят три (vosem'desyat tri)
The pattern is simple: tens + units. That is it. So if you know 1 to 10 and the tens, you can say any number from 1 to 99. This is how the whole system works: you combine pieces rather than memorizing a hundred separate words.
Beyond 100: hundreds, thousands, and more
The logic keeps going. Here are the key milestones, all from the number list in my book.
| Russian | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| Сто | Sto | 100 |
| Двести | Dvesti | 200 |
| Триста | Trista | 300 |
| Четыреста | Chetyresta | 400 |
| Пятьсот | Pyat'sot | 500 |
| Тысяча | Tysyacha | 1,000 |
| Миллион | Million | 1,000,000 |
| Миллиард | Milliard | 1,000,000,000 |
The hundreds from 200 to 400 contract a little (двести, not два сто). From 500 onward it is base number plus сот. Тысяча for a thousand, миллион for a million, and yes, Russian uses миллиард for a billion rather than the English billion.
The one rule that trips everyone up: number agreement
This is the part most guides skip, and it matters the moment you try to use numbers in a real sentence. In Russian, the noun after a number changes its form depending on what number precedes it. My book covers this in Lesson 7 using time units like years, months and weeks:
- After 1: plain singular form (один год, one year)
- After 2, 3, 4: the "of-one" form (четыре года, four years)
- After 5 and up: the "of-many" form (шесть дней, six days)
You can see it in the book's own examples: один год for one year, четыре года for four years, шесть дней for six days. The number decides which ending the noun takes.
Think of it in English this way: "one hour" / "a couple of hours" / "five hours." Russian just marks that distinction every time, not only sometimes, and the ending on the noun carries the signal.
The good news: you do not need all the endings memorized today. What matters first is understanding when the rule applies. Once you know why the ending changes, the forms start to make sense rather than just being random noise to memorize. That is the approach I use from the start: understand the function before drilling the form.
Russian numbers in practice
A few situations where you will use these immediately.
Prices. If someone says "пятьсот" you know that is 500. "Двадцать пять" is 25. Once you have the system, you can follow a price without needing to see it written.
Phone numbers. Russians often read digits individually or in pairs. Hearing "семь, восемь, три" is 7, 8, 3.
Ages. "Мне двадцать семь лет" (Mne dvatsat' sem' let) means I am 27 years old. This is straight from my book in Lesson 7.
Dates. Numbers slot directly into the date system once you have them down, so this is genuinely foundational vocabulary.
The short version
Russian numbers reward a small upfront investment. Learn 0 to 10 properly, learn the teen pattern (-надцать), learn the tens (and yes, сорок is its own thing), and you can say any number from 0 to 99. Add сто, тысяча, and миллион and you have the full system. The number agreement rule, 1 / 2-3-4 / 5-plus, is the one structural thing to keep in the back of your mind as you go further.
If you want a printable starter pack with the key vocabulary, numbers included, the free Beginner Starter Pack is a good first download. And if you want to go deeper with the full language, with the complete number list, cases, verbs and everyday phrases, the Simple Russian e-book is where it all builds from there.