семь
“семь” (sem) — seven in Russian. Numeral, level A1, topic — numbers and counting. A cousin of the "seven" days of the week. After it the counting form returns: sem dney. In a live sentence: “В неделе семь дней” — There are seven days in a week. Written with the characters с, е, м, ь. One of 57 words in the set “numbers and counting” in the Russian course.
In short
| Written in Russian | семь |
| Read in Latin letters | sem |
| Translation | seven |
| Part of speech | numeral |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
A cousin of the "seven" days of the week. After it the counting form returns: sem dney.
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.
- В неделе семь днейV nedele sem dneyThere are seven days in a week
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.
- 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.
- десятьdesyattenA cousin of decem and deka — one root for the whole of Europe. The stem desyat- is visible inside desyatok, "a group of ten".
- 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 “seven” in Russian?
A cousin of the "seven" days of the week. After it the counting form returns: sem dney.
- How do you say “eight” in Russian?
Starts with a vowel, like octo and ocho — one ancient root across Europe. Vosem chasov — "eight o'clock".
- 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 “seven” in Russian?
«семь», read “sem”. In a live sentence: “В неделе семь дней” — There are seven days in a week. Numeral, level A1, from the set “numbers and counting”; written with the characters с, е, м, ь.
How is “семь” written in Latin letters?
sem. 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 the "seven" days of the week. After it the counting form returns: sem dney. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.