общее число
“общее число” (obshchee chislo) — total number in Russian. Phrase, level A2. Obshchee chislo uchastnikov prevysilo sotnyu — "the total number of participants exceeded a hundred" — everything together, counted; kolichestvo measures even the uncountable, while the total number is only the counted. In a live sentence: “Общее число участников превысило сотню” — The total number of participants exceeded a hundred. Written with the characters о, б, щ, е, е, ч, и, с, л, о. A word from the everyday Russian course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Russian | общее число |
| Read in Latin letters | obshchee chislo |
| Translation | total number |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Obshchee chislo uchastnikov prevysilo sotnyu — "the total number of participants exceeded a hundred" — everything together, counted; kolichestvo measures even the uncountable, while the total number is only the counted.
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.
- Общее число участников превысило сотнюObshchee chislo uchastnikov prevysilo sotnyuThe total number of participants exceeded a hundred
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 “total number” in Russian?
«общее число», read “obshchee chislo”. In a live sentence: “Общее число участников превысило сотню” — The total number of participants exceeded a hundred. Phrase, level A2; written with the characters о, б, щ, е, е, ч, и, с, л, о.
How is “общее число” written in Latin letters?
obshchee chislo. 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?
Obshchee chislo uchastnikov prevysilo sotnyu — "the total number of participants exceeded a hundred" — everything together, counted; kolichestvo measures even the uncountable, while the total number is only the counted. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.