десять
“десять” (desyat) — ten in Russian. Numeral, level A1, topic — numbers and counting. A cousin of decem and deka — one root for the whole of Europe. The stem desyat- is visible inside desyatok, "a group of ten". In a live sentence: “До вокзала десять минут” — It is ten minutes to the station. Written with the characters д, е, с, я, т, ь. One of 57 words in the set “numbers and counting” in the Russian course.
In short
| Written in Russian | десять |
| Read in Latin letters | desyat |
| Translation | ten |
| Part of speech | numeral |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
A cousin of decem and deka — one root for the whole of Europe. The stem desyat- is visible inside desyatok, "a group of ten".
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- До вокзала десять минутDo vokzala desyat minutIt is ten minutes to the station
Nearby words: numbers and counting
A price, the change, a house number, the time you agreed on, the floor. Numbers are the first thing you have to catch by ear — and the first thing people say fast.
- одинodinoneAgrees like an adjective: odna chashka, odno okno, odnu vodu. A rare numeral that changes form at all.
- дваdvatwoAfter it the noun takes a special counting form: dva chasa, dve chashki. English "two" does not care; this one does.
- триtrithreeThree consonants in a row at the start, and no, that is not a typo. After it the noun takes the same counting form as after dva.
- четыреchetyrefourThe last number that uses the counting form: chetyre stola. From five on, the grammar of counting changes.
- пятьpyatfiveFrom five on the noun goes into the of-many form: pyat minut, pyat chashek — the border where newcomers stumble first.
- шестьshestsixThe soft sign at the end holds the whole second five of the counting row: pyat, shest, sem, vosem, devyat.
- семьsemsevenA cousin of the "seven" days of the week. After it the counting form returns: sem dney.
- восемьvosemeightStarts with a vowel, like octo and ocho — one ancient root across Europe. Vosem chasov — "eight o'clock".
- девятьdevyatnineWith devyat the row to ten is complete; the tens are built on desyat. After it: devyat dney.
- одиннадцатьodinnadtsatelevenLiterally "one-on-ten": odin plus the -nadtsat tail, the same build as eleven after its own fashion. The tail runs through nineteen.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “numbers and counting”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “ten” in Russian?
A cousin of decem and deka — one root for the whole of Europe. The stem desyat- is visible inside desyatok, "a group of ten".
- How do you say “seven” in Russian?
A cousin of the "seven" days of the week. After it the counting form returns: sem dney.
- How do you say “three” in Russian?
Three consonants in a row at the start, and no, that is not a typo. After it the noun takes the same counting form as after dva.
- How do you say “eleven” in Russian?
Literally "one-on-ten": odin plus the -nadtsat tail, the same build as eleven after its own fashion. The tail runs through nineteen.
- How do you say “six” in Russian?
The soft sign at the end holds the whole second five of the counting row: pyat, shest, sem, vosem, devyat.
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “ten” in Russian?
«десять», read “desyat”. In a live sentence: “До вокзала десять минут” — It is ten minutes to the station. Numeral, level A1, from the set “numbers and counting”; written with the characters д, е, с, я, т, ь.
How is “десять” written in Latin letters?
desyat. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
A cousin of decem and deka — one root for the whole of Europe. The stem desyat- is visible inside desyatok, "a group of ten". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.