Numbers and counting in Turkish
51 words Turkish words on the topic “numbers and counting”: bir — one, iki — two, üç — three, dört — four. 51 words can be played from recordings.
51 words on the topic
- bironeAlso does duty as the article "a": bir kahve is "a coffee, please".
- ikitwoThe root of ikinci ("second") and ikiz ("twin"). After a number the noun stays singular: iki kitap, not kitaplar.
- üçthreerounded ü plus ç like "ch" in "church": EWCH
- dörtfourThe voiceless t at the end voices before a vowel: dört becomes dördüncü ("fourth"), dörde ("to four"). Every word ending in p, ç, t, k behaves this way.
- beşfiveş is "sh". Both a number and a school grade: Turkish schools grade from one to five, and beş is the top mark.
- altısixı — dotless, a hushed sound between "uh" and "e": al-TUH
- yedisevenMatches a form of the verb yemek: yedi is "he ate". Only its place in the sentence tells them apart — one of the first listening traps in Turkish.
- sekizeightThe root of sekizinci ("eighth") — the root as-is plus -inci. Stress on the last syllable: se-KÍZ, like almost everything in Turkish.
- dokuznineThe final rounded u drags its lip-tail along: dokuzuncu ("ninth"), dokuza ("to nine"). Harmony decides the whole ending, not just one letter.
- ontenFrom here numbers simply add up: on bir is "eleven", yirmi bir is "twenty-one".
- kilokiloThe full kilogram almost never appears in speech: at the market people say bir kilo.
- yarımhalfdotless ı: ya-RUHM
- on birelevenNo special word: "on" plus "bir", ten and one. Every number up to a hundred works the same — yirmi üç is exactly "twenty-three".
- on ikitwelveA dozen is düzine, but at the market people just say on iki. And the golden rule of Turkish counting: after a number the noun stays singular — on iki yumurta, never yumurtalar.
- on üçthirteenü like German ü; ç is "ch" as in "church": ohn-EWCH
- on dörtfourteenThe only trap is spelling: "on dört" in two words, never "ondört". Turkish joins numerals only within one digit place, and here there are two.
- on beşfifteenA quarter of an hour is both on beş dakika and çeyrek saat — the second usually about travel time. Note that dakika never takes a plural after a number.
- on altısixteenı is the dotless letter, a short unstressed "uh" as in "sofa": ohn-al-TUH
- on yediseventeenStress lands on the last syllable, on ye-DÍ — as it does on almost everything in Turkish. kişi after a number stays singular: on yedi kişi.
- on sekizeighteenComing of age is on sekiz yaşında. Age is said like this: the number, then yaş ("year") in the singular with a possessive ending -ında.
- on dokuznineteenThe last number built on "on". The tens have their own words after this: yirmi, otuz, kırk.
- yirmitwentyIts own word, not "two-ten". After it everything follows the pattern and stays two words: yirmi bir, yirmi beş — no "and" between the places.
- otuzthirtyThe tens have their own words, not derived from the units: otuz, kırk, elli. Only altmış and yetmiş echo their units.
- kırkfortydotless ı in one syllable: KUHRK
- ellififtyDo not confuse with el ("hand"): the numeral spells two l's. Yarı yarıya is "fifty-fifty", but people do not say elli elli.
- altmışsixtyYou can see altı ("six") in there, but the ı drops out: altı becomes altmış. The same trick as yetmiş from yedi.
- yetmişseventyFrom yedi ("seven"), rebuilt the same way as altmış. After this the tens stop resembling the units again.
- sekseneightyFrom sekiz, but the -iz disappears entirely. A trap for fresh ears: seksen is eighty, not sixty.
- doksanninetyFrom dokuz on the same pattern as seksen from sekiz. The nineties as a decade is doksanlar.
- yüzhundredü with lips pushed forward, voiced z: YEWZ
- binthousandAlso without bir: a thousand is bin, two thousand is iki bin. The same word is the command "get on!" from binmek — so Bin! shouted in a dolmuş is about boarding, not money.
- milyonmillionA loanword, but it behaves like bin: iki milyon kişi, the noun stays singular. A billion is milyar, easy to mix up by ear.
- sıfırzeroboth ı dotless and hushed: SUH-fuh
- birincifirstThe suffix -inci makes ordinals by vowel harmony: bir becomes birinci, iki becomes ikinci, altı becomes altıncı. With no gender in Turkish, one form serves all.
- ikincisecondThe same suffix: iki becomes ikinci. Careful with floors: what a Turk calls zemin kat is the ground floor, and birinci kat is already above it.
- üçüncüthirdthree rounded vowels in a row, ç like "ch": EWCH-ewn-JEW
- sonlastThe same word as "the end": son works as both noun and modifier. Its pair is ilk — "first in a line", not birinci.
- kaçhow manyStands right before the noun, which stays singular: kaç kişi?, kaç lira?. About price the question is different — ne kadar? from the second unit.
- çiftpairA pair of shoes — bir çift ayakkabı — and a married couple — bir çift. As an adjective the same word means "even": çift sayı, an even number.
- tanepiece (counting word)A counting word: between number and thing a Turk often slips in tane — beş tane elma. Leaving it out is also right, but at the shop beş tane sounds more natural.
- yüzdepercentLiterally "in the hundred", and the number comes AFTER: yüzde yirmi is "twenty percent" — the reverse of English. The % sign goes before the number: %20.
- hereveryThe noun after it is always singular: her gün, her insan. her biri is "each one separately", hepsi is "all together".
- iki yüztwo hundredboth ü are like German ü — say "ew" with rounded lips: ee-KEE YEWZ
- üç yüzthree hundredç is "ch" as in "church", both ü rounded like German ü: EWCH YEWZ
- dört yüzfour hundredWritten in separate words, and so on down the line: dört yüz elli beş, "four hundred fifty-five", four words in a row without a single hyphen.
- beş yüzfive hundredBut a five-hundred note is beşyüzlük — one word with the -lük tail: a fused name of a thing, no longer a number.
- altı yüzsix hundredı is dotless and unvoiced, like the final "a" in "sofa": al-TUH YEWZ
- yedi yüzseven hundredStress falls on the last syllable of each word: ye-DÍ YÜZ. The flat tone between them is what tells you it is one number.
- sekiz yüzeight hundredNumerals never decline: the case ending lands on the word after them — sekiz yüz kişiye, "to eight hundred people".
- dokuz yüznine hundredThe last of the hundreds: next comes bin ("thousand"), and it no longer adds on but stands as its own word. Prices are read in full — dokuz yüz doksan dokuz.
- sayınumberFrom saymak, "to count". A phone number is numara, from Italian.
How it sounds in a sentence
A word list is a blank. Conversation is made of sentences, and these are the ones the words fit into most often.
- Bir kahve ve bir su alalımLet us take one coffee and one water
- Masada iki sandalye varThere are two chairs at the table
- Üç gün burada kalacağızWe will stay here for three days
- Dört kişilik bir masa lütfenA table for four, please
- Beş dakika sonra çıkıyoruzWe leave in five minutes
- Altı yumurta yeterSix eggs will be enough
What is worth knowing about these words
bir — one. Also does duty as the article "a": bir kahve is "a coffee, please".
iki — two. The root of ikinci ("second") and ikiz ("twin"). After a number the noun stays singular: iki kitap, not kitaplar.
üç — three. From it, üçüncü ("third"): the tail -üncü is chosen to match the rounded front ü — harmony runs through the whole word.
dört — four. The voiceless t at the end voices before a vowel: dört becomes dördüncü ("fourth"), dörde ("to four"). Every word ending in p, ç, t, k behaves this way.
Test yourself
First by ear — the way you will meet the word in conversation. Click the speaker and pick the translation.
- What is this word?
It is bir — one.
- What is this word?
It is sekiz — eight.
- What is this word?
It is on üç — thirteen.
- What is this word?
It is yirmi — twenty.
- What is this word?
It is doksan — ninety.
Now the other way around: recall the spelling from the meaning. That is harder, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “one” in Turkish?
Also does duty as the article "a": bir kahve is "a coffee, please".
- How do you say “eight” in Turkish?
The root of sekizinci ("eighth") — the root as-is plus -inci. Stress on the last syllable: se-KÍZ, like almost everything in Turkish.
- How do you say “thirteen” in Turkish?
Numbers simply stand side by side: no "and", no hyphen between on and üç, and it is written as two words.
- How do you say “twenty” in Turkish?
Its own word, not "two-ten". After it everything follows the pattern and stays two words: yirmi bir, yirmi beş — no "and" between the places.
- How do you say “ninety” in Turkish?
From dokuz on the same pattern as seksen from sekiz. The nineties as a decade is doksanlar.
How to learn the set instead of just reading it
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.
A list is read in a minute and forgotten in a day. What works: hide the translation, try to recall, get it wrong — and come back to the same words tomorrow.
- 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.
- This holds not only in experiments but in ordinary classrooms, with real students.checked many timesMawson & Kang, 2025, Behavioral Sciences 15(6):771 · 22 studies, d = 0.54 (confidence interval 0.31–0.77). The authors warn that individual studies disagree widely.
Frequently asked
How do you say “one” in Turkish?
«bir». Also does duty as the article "a": bir kahve is "a coffee, please". It is one of 51 words in the set “numbers and counting” — the rest are in the table above.
How many numbers do you need to start?
A dozen is enough. The set of 51 words on this page covers nearly every everyday case on the topic — but it is best taken a few at a time, not all at once.
Is there audio?
Yes, 51 words on this page can be played — click the speaker next to the word. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.