If you’re looking for the numbers 1-10, and you should before you read this, go here.

When it comes to the higher numbers, everything after ۱۰ (10) follows some kind of pattern, so after we get through the teens I’ll only be showing a few examples to illustrate the pattern.

11-19; as in English, where we say “thirteen” or “three-ten,” Arabic will say ثلاثة عشر (thalāthah ʿashr, literally “three-ten”). Unlike English, Arabic doesn’t break the patter for “eleven” and “twelve,” and good for Arabic in my opinion.

English name	Western Arabic numeral	Eastern Arabic numeral	Arabic name	Arabic name transliterated
eleven	11	۱۱	أحَد عَشر	aḥad ʿashr
twelve	12	۱۲	اِثنا عشر	ithnā ʿashr
thirteen	13	۱۳	ثَلاثة عشر	thalāthah ʿashr
fourteen	14	۱٤	أربَعة عشر	arbaʿah ʿashr
fifteen	15	۱۵	خَمْسة عشر	khamsah ʿashr
sixteen	16	۱٦	سِتّة عشر	sittah ʿashr
seventeen	17	۱۷	سَبعة عشر	sabʿah ʿashr
eighteen	18	۱۸	ثَمانية عشر	thamāniyah ʿashr
nineteen	19	۱۹	تِسعة عشر	tisʿah ʿashr

‌

Now we can count up by tens:

• 20 (twenty): عَشرون (ʿashrūn) or ۲۰
  
• 30 (thirty): ثَلاثون (thalāthūn) or ۳۰
  
• 40 (forty): أربَعون (arbaʿūn) or ٤۰
  
• 50 (fifty): خَمسون (khamsūn) or ۵۰
  
• 60 (sixty): سِتّون (sittūn) or ٦۰
  
• 70 (seventy): سَبعون (sabʿūn) or ۷۰
  
• 80 (eighty): ثَمانون (thamānūn) or ۸۰
  
• 90 (ninety): تِسعون (tisʿūn) or ۹۰
  

And now by hundreds:

• 100 (one hundred): مِئة (miʾah or, more archaically, مائة) or ۱۰۰
  
• 200: مئتان (miʾatān — dual form of مئة) or ۲۰۰
• 300: ثلاث مئة (thalāth miʾah) or ۳۰۰
  
• 400: أربع مئة (arbaʿ miʾah) or ٤۰۰
  
• 500: خمس مئة (khams miʾah) or ۵۰۰
  
• 600: ستّ مئة (sitt miʾah) or ٦۰۰
  
• 700: سبع مئة (sabʿ miʾah) or ۷۰۰
  
• 800: ثمان مئة (thamān miʾah) or ۸۰۰
  
• 900: تسع مئة (tisʿ miʾah) or ۹۰۰
  
• 1000 (one thousand): ألف (alf) or ۱۰۰۰
  

When you’re stringing numbers together you just use a lot of “ands,” and you read largest to smallest until you get to the tens and singles places, which are inverted, like so:

• 28 (twenty-eight): ۲۸ (ثمانية و عشرون, thamāniyah wa ʿishrūn)
• 51 (fifty-one): ۵۱ (واحد و خَمسون, wāḥid wa khamsūn)
• 739 (seven hundred thirty-nine): ۷۳۹ (سبع مئة و تسعة و ثلاثون, sabʿ miʾah wa tisʿah wa thalāthūn)

To somebody accustomed to a left-to-right writing system, it seems like Arabic strangely writes its large numerals left-to-right (above, “739” is ۷۳۹), even though the rest of the language is written from right-to-left. Like many things in Arabic, it’s best if you just roll with it.

When counting things with these higher numbers, you counter-intuitively follow the number with the singular noun, in indefinite accusative (direct object) case, and the singles digit part of the whole number takes the opposite gender as the noun. I know; again, just try not to think about it. For example, “73 books” (book is a masculine noun, كتاب) would be ثلاثة و سبعون كتاباً (thalāthah wa sabʿūn kitāban), and “57 magazines” (magazine is a feminine noun, مجلّة) would be ًسبع و خمسون مجلّة (sabʿ wa khamsūn majallatan).