Large Numbers & Ordinals
14 words · ~16 min
Remaining hundreds (600-900) follow the same iḍāfa pattern. For thousands: 2000 uses dual أَلْفَان, 3-10 thousand use broken plural آلاف, 11+ use singular أَلْف. مِلْيُون is a loanword. Ordinal numbers (1st-10th) follow the فَاعِل pattern and agree in gender and definiteness with the noun they describe.
Large numbers are important in Arabic culture for discussing populations of major cities, historical dates, and prices. The Arab world spans from Morocco to the Gulf, with a combined population of over 400 million.
Lesson overview
Large Numbers & Ordinals is a level A2 lesson of 14 words: 9 numerals and 5 adjectives. Its words come from 7 Arabic roots, listed below with links to each root family.
- Builds on: More Compounds, Feminine Forms & Hundreds (A2)
- Leads to: Practical Number Words (A2)
Word list
| Arabic | Meaning | Type | Root |
|---|---|---|---|
سِتُّمِئَة sittu-miʾa | six hundred | numeral | م-ء-ي |
سَبْعُمِئَة sabʿu-miʾa | seven hundred | numeral | م-ء-ي |
ثَمَانُمِئَة thamānu-miʾa | eight hundred | numeral | م-ء-ي |
تِسْعُمِئَة tisʿu-miʾa | nine hundred | numeral | م-ء-ي |
أَلْفَانِ alfāni | two thousand | numeral | أ-ل-ف |
ثَلَاثَةُ آلَافٍ thalāthatu ālāfin | three thousand | numeral | أ-ل-ف |
عَشَرَةُ آلَافٍ ʿasharatu ālāfin | ten thousand | numeral | أ-ل-ف |
مِئَةُ أَلْفٍ miʾatu alfin | one hundred thousand | numeral | أ-ل-ف |
مِلْيُون milyūn | one million | numeral | |
السَّادِس as-sādis | sixth | adjective | س-د-س |
السَّابِع as-sābiʿ | seventh | adjective | س-ب-ع |
الثَّامِن ath-thāmin | eighth | adjective | ث-م-ن |
التَّاسِع at-tāsiʿ | ninth | adjective | ت-س-ع |
الْعَاشِر al-ʿāshir | tenth | adjective | ع-ش-ر |
Themes these words belong to: Numbers (14), Numbers Large (5), Numbers Ordinals (5), Numbers Hundreds (4)
Sample word cards
Exercises and spaced review for all 14 words
"Large Numbers & Ordinals" is one of 144 vocabulary lessons in Fahm Premium, each with guided exercises and spaced-repetition review. The first 10 lessons are free to try.
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