Learning to Count in Russian

When it comes to mastering a language, what skills are more essential than counting? Knowing numbers is an essential piece of everyday conversation, language learning, and life in general. Whether in the grocery store, at the bank, or gambling in Russia, understanding the local language’s numbers is of the utmost importance. If you’re getting ready to tackle the Russian language and its fascinating number system, then read on to learn the basics to counting in Russian!

Let’s begin by first taking a look at the numbers in Russian, which are written in the Cyrillic script like the alphabet. The numbers range from 1–10, and then fluctuate from 11–19, before becoming a consistent 10’s based system. Here’s a quick breakdown of the characters and numbers in Russian:
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Character	Number
один	one
два	two
три	three
четыре	four
пять	five
шесть	six
семь	seven
восемь	eight
девять	nine
десять	ten

Unlike other languages, the value of the numbers in Russian increase by adding a modifier to the end. For instance, if we want to increase the value of два, we can add “десять” to the end to make it 12. This same principle can be seen all the way up to 99.

In addition to numbers, it is important to learn the plurals of words such as “four” and “five.” In Russian, these are written out as “четыре четыре” and “пять пять.” This means that if you want to ask for four items, you would say“Четыре четыре?”, and likewise for five items, you would say “Пять пять?” Once you get familiar with the numbers and plurals of Russian, it’s time to put it all into practice!

One fun way to practice counting in Russian is to practice counting items in a room. Start small and count items from one to ten. If you can’t think of enough items in the room to continue, try counting household items or objects in a picture. As your number skills improve, move on to counting in the teens, twenties, and so on.

Speaking of practice, don’t forget to practice writing out the numbers in Russian too! There’s no better way to reinforce the numbers you know than by writing them down. Have fun counting in Russian, and soon you’ll be able to converse in the language like a pro.
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What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned while counting in Russian? Leave a comment below and tell us all about it!

If you’re looking for resources to help enhance your Russian-language skills, then why not bookmark or save this article as a quick reference guide? It can be a big help when you’re stumped on how to pronounce a number or when you need a reminder on how to say "two" in Russian.

Learning to count in Russian can feel like a challenge at first, but with patience and practice, you’ll be counting in no time. Get the basics down, and soon you’ll be counting in Russian like a true native.