Numbers in Turkish

In Brief

Turkish numbers follow a highly regular pattern. Put the tens before the units with no equivalent of English “and”: on bir is 11, yirmi beş is 25, and yüz kırk iki is 142. After a number, a counted noun normally stays singular: üç kitap (“three books”), not üç kitaplar.

Overview

Numbers are an A1 foundation in Turkish. You need them almost immediately to give your age, ask a price, share a phone number, read an address, arrange a meeting, or buy several items. The basic words are worth memorising, but the system itself involves much less memorisation than English: once you know the units, tens, yüz (“hundred”), and bin (“thousand”), you can construct a very large range of numbers predictably.

The main difference from English is not the order of the number words; that is often similar. The important difference appears after the number. English marks a counted noun as plural—“three books”—whereas standard Turkish normally uses a singular noun: üç kitap. Turkish also does not insert “and” inside a cardinal number (a number that states how many): 125 is yüz yirmi beş, literally “hundred twenty five.”

Pronunciation and spelling deserve care. Turkish number words are written separately when they form a compound number: otuz dört, iki yüz elli, üç bin on. Several familiar-looking forms can still surprise an English speaker, particularly dört (4), kırk (40), and yüz (100).

How It Works

Zero to nine

These ten forms are the building blocks of the system.

Number	Turkish	Approximate cue
0	sıfır	final r is pronounced
1	bir	also used as the indefinite article “a/an”
2	iki	—
3	üç	ç sounds like the “ch” in “chair”
4	dört	do not confuse it with kırk (40)
5	beş	ş sounds like “sh”
6	altı	the final ı is the Turkish dotless vowel
7	yedi	—
8	sekiz	—
9	dokuz	—

Ten to ninety

Unlike English, Turkish has a separate regular building word for every multiple of ten. There are no special “-teen” forms.

Number	Turkish	Number	Turkish
10	on	50	elli
20	yirmi	60	altmış
30	otuz	70	yetmiş
40	kırk	80	seksen
90	doksan	100	yüz

To form a number from 11 to 99, say the tens and then the units:

Pattern	Turkish	English
10 + 1	on bir	eleven
20 + 5	yirmi beş	twenty-five
40 + 8	kırk sekiz	forty-eight
90 + 9	doksan dokuz	ninety-nine

There is no hyphen and no linking word. Write yetmiş üç, not yetmiş-üç and not yetmiş ve üç.

Hundreds

Use yüz for 100. For 200–900, put the multiplier before it:

Number	Turkish
100	yüz
200	iki yüz
300	üç yüz
500	beş yüz
999	dokuz yüz doksan dokuz

Turkish normally says yüz, not bir yüz, for exactly one hundred or when the hundreds part is one: yüz elli (150). All parts are placed from largest to smallest, without “and”: dört yüz yirmi altı (426).

Thousands and larger numbers

Bin means “thousand.” As with yüz, 1,000 is simply bin, not bir bin. Other multipliers come first.

Number	Turkish
1,000	bin
2,000	iki bin
10,000	on bin
25,300	yirmi beş bin üç yüz
100,000	yüz bin
1,000,000	bir milyon
2,000,000	iki milyon
1,000,000,000	bir milyar

There is an important contrast: yüz and bin usually omit bir for 100 and 1,000, but milyon and milyar take it: bir milyon, bir milyar. In a large number, simply read each group in descending order: 3,247 is üç bin iki yüz kırk yedi.

In contemporary Turkish notation, a dot commonly separates groups of three digits and a comma marks decimals: 1.250,75. This is the reverse of the most common US English convention.

Numbers before nouns

A noun directly counted by a number normally remains singular:

• bir öğrenci — one student / a student
• iki öğrenci — two students
• on öğrenci — ten students
• yüz öğrenci — one hundred students

The plural suffix -lar/-ler is unnecessary because the number already expresses plurality. Compare kitaplar (“books,” with no exact number) and beş kitap (“five books”).

With bir, context distinguishes the exact number “one” from the indefinite article “a/an.” Bir kahve istiyorum will usually mean “I’d like a coffee,” while emphasis can make bir mean exactly one.

Using numbers in sentences

Turkish can add its ordinary suffixes directly to spoken or written numbers. A suffix carries grammatical information—for example, location or movement—that English often expresses with a preposition. When a number is written in digits, an apostrophe separates it from the suffix: 5'te (“at five”), 20'den (“from twenty”), 3'e (“to three”). The suffix is chosen according to how the number is pronounced, not according to the final digit’s appearance in another language.

When the number is written as words, no apostrophe is used: beşte, yirmiden, üçe. Sound changes can occur when suffixes are added: dört becomes dördü in “the four of it/the number four” because final t may soften to d before a vowel-initial suffix.

Examples in Context

Turkish	English	Note
Bir, iki, üç, dört, beş.	One, two, three, four, five.	Basic sequence
Bu çanta iki yüz lira.	This bag is two hundred lira.	Price; lira stays singular
Üç bilet istiyorum.	I would like three tickets.	Counted noun stays singular
Sınıfta yirmi beş öğrenci var.	There are twenty-five students in the classroom.	Compound number
Ben otuz yaşındayım.	I am thirty years old.	Age uses yaşında
Kardeşim on sekiz yaşında.	My sibling is eighteen years old.	No “years” plural after 18
Otobüs saat sekizde geliyor.	The bus arrives at eight o’clock.	sekiz + -de becomes sekizde
Toplantı 3'te başlıyor.	The meeting starts at three.	Apostrophe after a digit
Ev numaram kırk iki.	My house number is forty-two.	Number used as a label
Telefon numarası sıfır beş yüz otuz iki ile başlıyor.	The phone number begins with zero five hundred thirty-two.	Digits may be read in groups
Bu şehirde bir milyon insan yaşıyor.	One million people live in this city.	bir is required before milyon
Üç bin iki yüz kırk yedi kişi geldi.	Three thousand two hundred forty-seven people came.	Large cardinal number
Bir kilo elma alabilir miyim?	Can I have one kilo of apples?	The measured item may be plural in meaning
İndirim yüzde yirmi.	The discount is twenty percent.	Turkish puts yüzde before the number
Şişede bir buçuk litre su var.	There are one and a half litres of water in the bottle.	bir buçuk means 1½

Common Mistakes

Adding a plural suffix after an exact number

• Wrong: üç kitaplar
• Right: üç kitap
• Why: An exact number already shows that there is more than one. The directly counted noun normally stays singular in Turkish.

Copying English “and” into a number

• Wrong: yüz ve yirmi beş for 125
• Right: yüz yirmi beş
• Why: The components of a cardinal number are simply placed next to one another. Ve means “and,” but it does not link hundreds and tens inside an ordinary number.

Saying bir yüz or bir bin

• Wrong: bir yüz, bir bin
• Right: yüz, bin
• Why: Turkish normally omits bir before yüz and bin when the multiplier is one. Remember the contrast bir milyon, where bir is required.

Mixing up four and forty

• Wrong: dört lira when you mean 40 lira
• Right: kırk lira
• Why: Dört is 4; kırk is 40. Turkish tens are separate vocabulary items, so learn each ten as its own word.

Using English punctuation in Turkish decimals

• Wrong in Turkish notation: 2.5 litre for two and a half litres
• Right: 2,5 litre
• Why: Turkish normally uses a comma as the decimal separator. Read it iki virgül beş.

Attaching a suffix to a digit without an apostrophe

• Wrong: Saat 5te buluşalım.
• Right: Saat 5'te buluşalım.
• Why: In standard spelling, suffixes attached to numerals written as digits are separated by an apostrophe. Written fully in words, it is beşte.

Usage Notes

Prices, ages, and telephone numbers

In everyday price questions, you will hear Ne kadar? (“How much?”). A price may be stated without a verb: Yüz lira (“One hundred lira”). Turkish currency nouns generally remain singular after a number: elli lira, yirmi dolar, on avro.

To state age, Turkish uses a construction based on yaş (“age/year old”): Yirmi yaşındayım (“I am twenty years old”) and O, altmış yaşında (“He/She is sixty years old”). Do not translate English “I am twenty” word for word with the verb “to be” alone.

Telephone numbers are often divided into conventional groups rather than read strictly one digit at a time. Both grouping and digit-by-digit reading can occur, depending on clarity and context. Zero is sıfır. For confirmation, repeating smaller groups is often safest.

Exact and approximate quantities

An exact numeral goes before the noun: on kişi (“ten people”). For an approximation, everyday Turkish may use on kadar kişi (“about ten people”), yaklaşık on kişi (“approximately ten people”), or a range such as on on beş kişi (“ten or fifteen people / around ten to fifteen people”). The words chosen communicate whether the number is exact or only an estimate.

Number as quantity versus number as label

A number can count something or identify it. Üç otobüs means “three buses,” but üç numaralı otobüs means “bus number three.” Similarly, a room, route, page, or address may use a number as a label rather than a quantity. This distinction becomes useful when asking for oda numarası (“room number”) or telefon numarası (“phone number”).

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master all of these forms at A1, but they belong to the wider Turkish number system and appear frequently.

Ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers state position—“first,” “second,” and so on. Turkish forms them with the suffix -(I)ncI, whose vowels change to match the preceding word (a process called vowel harmony: suffix vowels adapt to nearby vowels).

Cardinal	Ordinal	English
bir	birinci	first
iki	ikinci	second
üç	üçüncü	third
dört	dördüncü	fourth
beş	beşinci	fifth
altı	altıncı	sixth
yedi	yedinci	seventh
sekiz	sekizinci	eighth
dokuz	dokuzuncu	ninth
on	onuncu	tenth

With compounds, the suffix goes only on the final number word: yirmi birinci (“twenty-first”), yüz ikinci (“one hundred and second”). With digits, write 1. or 1'inci according to style and context; the dot itself can mark an ordinal in Turkish.

Fractions, decimals, and percentages

Common fractions include yarım (“half”), çeyrek (“quarter”), and buçuk (“and a half”). In systematic fractions, Turkish usually names the denominator first with a locative suffix (roughly “in/out of”), followed by the numerator:

• üçte bir — one third (literally “one in three”)
• dörtte üç — three quarters
• yüzde yirmi — twenty percent

A decimal comma is read virgül: 3,14 is üç virgül on dört in ordinary reading. After the comma, different reading styles are possible depending on whether precision, measurement, or mathematics is in focus.

Distributive numbers

Distributives say how many each: birer (“one each”), ikişer (“two each”), üçer (“three each”), dörder (“four each”). The suffix has the form -(ş)Ar and follows vowel harmony. For example, Çocuklara ikişer elma verdim means “I gave the children two apples each.” These forms are regular but are better learned after the basic cardinals are automatic.

Collective and idiomatic uses

Numbers also occur in fixed expressions where a word-for-word English translation may be misleading. Bir iki dakika often means “a minute or two / a few minutes,” not a calculation. Yüzlerce insan means “hundreds of people,” and binlerce kez means “thousands of times.” Here -ler/-lar and -ce/-ca create an approximate large quantity; this is different from putting an exact number before a singular noun.

Practice Tips

1. Build numbers instead of memorising a long list. Choose a random two- or three-digit number, split it into hundreds, tens, and units, then say it aloud: 684 → altı yüz seksen dört. Check that you did not add ve.
2. Pair every number with a useful noun. Practise iki kahve, beş gün, on kişi, and yüz lira. This makes the singular-noun rule automatic and prepares you for real transactions.
3. Make a personal number set. Learn to say your age, birth year, phone number, postal code, a typical price, and a meeting time. Read each both from digits and from words, paying attention to sıfır, decimal commas, and suffixes such as 5'te.

Related Concepts

• Next step: Telling Time and Dates — uses numbers for clock times, calendar dates, days, and months.