Menu
English
РусскийEnglishEspañol

Numbers and counting in Turkish

51 words in Turkish on the topic “numbers and counting”: bir — one, iki — two, üç — three, dört — four. 51 words can be played from recordings.

Updated September 1, 2026 · Lingofly

51 words on the topic

  • bir
    one
    Also does duty as the article "a": bir kahve is "a coffee" — enough to order one.
  • iki
    two
    The root of ikinci ("second") and ikiz ("twin"). After a number the noun stays singular: iki kitap, not kitaplar.
  • üç
    three
    rounded ü plus ç like "ch" in "church": EWCH
  • dört
    four
    The voiceless t at the end voices before a vowel: dört becomes dördüncü ("fourth"), dörde ("to four"). Many words ending in p, ç, t, k behave this way, though not all: at → atı, saç → saçı.
  • beş
    five
    ş is "sh". Both a number and a school grade: Turkish schools grade from one to five, and beş is the top mark.
  • altı
    six
    ı — dotless, a hushed sound between "uh" and "e": al-TUH
  • yedi
    seven
    Matches 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.
  • sekiz
    eight
    The root of sekizinci ("eighth") — the root as-is plus -inci. Stress on the last syllable: se-KÍZ, like almost everything in Turkish.
  • dokuz
    nine
    The final rounded u drags its lip-tail along: dokuzuncu ("ninth"), dokuza ("to nine"). Harmony decides the whole ending, not just one letter.
  • on
    ten
    From here numbers simply add up: on bir is "eleven", yirmi bir is "twenty-one".
  • kilo
    kilo
    The full kilogram almost never appears in speech: at the market people say bir kilo.
  • yarım
    half
    dotless ı: ya-RUHM
  • on bir
    eleven
    No special word: "on" plus "bir", ten and one. Every number up to a hundred works the same — yirmi üç is exactly "twenty-three".
  • on iki
    twelve
    A dozen is düzine, but at the market people just say on iki. And Turkish counting holds its line: after a number the noun stays singular — on iki yumurta, never yumurtalar.
  • on üç
    thirteen
    ü like German ü; ç is "ch" as in "church": ohn-EWCH
  • on dört
    fourteen
    The only trap is spelling: "on dört" in two words, never "ondört". Numbers are joined only when spelled out in money documents, such as a cheque.
  • on beş
    fifteen
    A quarter of an hour is both on beş dakika and çeyrek saat. And dakika never takes a plural after a number.
  • on altı
    sixteen
    ı is the dotless letter, a short unstressed "uh" as in "sofa": ohn-al-TUH
  • on yedi
    seventeen
    Stress 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 sekiz
    eighteen
    In Turkey you come of age at eighteen, on sekiz yaşında. Age is said like this: the number, then yaş ("year") in the singular with the ending -ında — the possessive -ı plus "in".
  • on dokuz
    nineteen
    The last number built on "on". The tens have their own words after this: yirmi, otuz, kırk.
  • yirmi
    twenty
    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.
  • otuz
    thirty
    The tens have their own words, not derived from the units: otuz, kırk, elli. But altmış, yetmiş, seksen and doksan are built from the units altı, yedi, sekiz, dokuz.
  • kırk
    forty
    dotless ı in one syllable: KUHRK
  • elli
    fifty
    Do not confuse with el ("hand"): the numeral spells two l's. "Fifty-fifty" is yarı yarıya, "half and half".
  • altmış
    sixty
    You can see altı ("six") in there, but the ı drops out: altı becomes altmış. The same trick as yetmiş from yedi.
  • yetmiş
    seventy
    From yedi ("seven"), rebuilt the same way as altmış. seksen and doksan also come from the units, but in a different way.
  • seksen
    eighty
    From sekiz, but the -iz disappears entirely. A trap for fresh ears: seksen is eighty, not sixty.
  • doksan
    ninety
    From dokuz on the same pattern as seksen from sekiz. The nineties as a decade is doksanlar.
  • yüz
    hundred
    ü with lips pushed forward, voiced z: YEWZ
  • bin
    thousand
    Also 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.
  • milyon
    million
    A loanword, but it behaves like bin: iki milyon kişi, the noun stays singular. A billion is milyar, easy to mix up by ear.
  • sıfır
    zero
    both ı dotless and hushed: SUH-fuhr
  • birinci
    first
    The 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.
  • ikinci
    second
    The 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.
  • üçüncü
    third
    three rounded vowels in a row, ç like "ch": ewch-ewn-JEW
  • son
    last
    The same word as "the end": son works as both noun and modifier. Its pair is ilk — "first in a line", not birinci.
  • kaç
    how many
    Stands right before the noun, and the noun stays singular: kaç kişi?, kaç lira?. Without counting units, "how much?" is ne kadar?
  • çift
    pair
    A 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.
  • tane
    piece (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.
  • yüzde
    percent
    Literally "in the hundred", and the number comes AFTER: yüzde yirmi is "twenty percent" — the reverse of English. The % sign goes before the number: %20.
  • her
    every
    The noun after it is always singular: her gün, her insan. her biri is "each one separately", hepsi is "all together".
  • iki yüz
    two hundred
    the ü is like German ü — say "ew" with rounded lips: ee-KEE YEWZ
  • üç yüz
    three hundred
    ç is "ch" as in "church", both ü rounded like German ü: EWCH YEWZ
  • dört yüz
    four hundred
    Written 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 yüz
    five hundred
    But a five-hundred note is beşyüzlük — one word with the -lük tail: a fused name of a thing, no longer a number.
  • altı yüz
    six hundred
    ı is dotless and unvoiced, like the final "a" in "sofa": al-TUH YEWZ
  • yedi yüz
    seven hundred
    Stress 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 yüz
    eight hundred
    Numerals never decline: the case ending lands on the word after them — sekiz yüz kişiye, "to eight hundred people".
  • dokuz yüz
    nine hundred
    The 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.
  • sayı
    number
    From saymak, "to count". A phone number is numara, from Italian.

Download the word set (CSV) · Open the printable sheet

The CSV contains spelling, reading guides, translations and links to word pages. Use the browser menu to save the printable sheet as a PDF.

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.

What is worth knowing about these words

bir — one. Also does duty as the article "a": bir kahve is "a coffee" — enough to order one.

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"). Many words ending in p, ç, t, k behave this way, though not all: at → atı, saç → saçı.

Test yourself

First by ear — the way you will meet the word in conversation. Click the speaker and pick the translation.

  1. What is this word?

  2. What is this word?

  3. What is this word?

  4. What is this word?

  5. What is this word?

Now the other way around: recall the spelling from the meaning. That is harder, and therefore more useful.

  1. How do you say “one” in Turkish?

  2. How do you say “eight” in Turkish?

  3. How do you say “thirteen” in Turkish?

  4. How do you say “twenty” in Turkish?

  5. How do you say “ninety” in Turkish?

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.

Frequently asked

How do you say “one” in Turkish?

«bir». Also does duty as the article "a": bir kahve is "a coffee" — enough to order one. 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?

The whole set on this page is 51 words, but there is no need to start with all of it: the words you will need in the next few days are enough. Take them a few at a time — five to seven new ones per session.

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.

Next

Open the materialOpen the material