Everyday Cairene uses حداشر ḥidāshar for eleven and اتناشر itnāshar for twelve. Both normally come before one singular counted noun: حداشر كتاب “eleven books,” اتناشر عربية “twelve cars.” The English translation is plural, but the Egyptian noun is not.
These two numerals expose an important diglossic boundary. Formal MSA distinguishes gender and, with twelve, case (formal). Mainstream urban Egyptian has one ordinary colloquial form for each number and no productive case ending, while still preserving the singular counted-noun pattern and the noun’s own lexical gender. The same singular-noun syntax continues through 13–19.
The two Cairene forms
| Value | House spelling | Cairene reading | Before a noun |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | حداشر | ḥidāshar | حداشر كتاب |
| 12 | اتناشر | itnāshar | اتناشر عربية |
Egyptian writing is not fully standardized. Spellings such as احداشر and اتنعشر occur (informal; platform- and speaker-sensitive), and the initial vowel may be reduced in fast speech. This page consistently writes حداشر، اتناشر. These are not careless spellings of formal أحد عشر، اثنا عشر; they represent specifically Egyptian spoken words.
عندي حداشر كتاب لسه ماقريتهمش.
ʿandi ḥidāshar kitāb lissa ma-ʾarēthumsh.
I have eleven books that I still have not read.
الشركة اشترت اتناشر عربية جديدة.
ish-sharika ishtarit itnāshar ʿarabiyya gidīda.
The company bought twelve new cars.
Rule 1: put the numeral before a singular counted noun
After both 11 and 12, the ordinary counted noun is singular. This contrasts with 3–10, which normally select a plural noun in Egyptian.
في الفصل حداشر ولد واتناشر بنت.
fil-faṣl ḥidāshar walad wi-itnāshar bint.
There are eleven boys and twelve girls in the class—literally ‘eleven boy and twelve girl.’
المشوار خد حداشر دقيقة.
il-mishwār khad ḥidāshar daʾīʾa.
The trip took eleven minutes.
The singular noun is not semantically singular: the whole phrase still refers to eleven or twelve items. It is a grammatical complement selected by the numeral. That is why English number marking cannot simply be copied onto the Arabic noun.
Rule 2: Cairene 11 and 12 do not change with noun gender
Nouns keep lexical gender: ولد، كتاب، جنيه are masculine, while بنت، عربية، دقيقة are feminine. In the mainstream Cairene baseline, however, the numeral remains حداشر or اتناشر with either gender.
وصل حداشر موظف وحداشر موظفة.
wiṣil ḥidāshar muwaẓẓaf wi-ḥidāshar muwaẓẓafa.
Eleven male employees and eleven female employees arrived.
طلبنا اتناشر كرسي واتناشر ترابيزة.
ṭalabna itnāshar kursi wi-itnāshar tarabēza.
We ordered twelve chairs and twelve tables.
The feminine adjective جديدة in اتناشر عربية جديدة agrees locally with singular feminine عربية. The numeral itself has not acquired a feminine ending. Human reference can trigger plural agreement elsewhere in the clause because the group contains multiple people, even though the counted noun after the numeral is morphologically singular.
Formal MSA behaves differently (formal): eleven has gender-sensitive أحد عشر/إحدى عشرة, and twelve has اثنا/اثني عشر versus اثنتا/اثنتي عشرة. Those distinctions are appropriate in formal writing, a prepared news register, or deliberate code-switching. They should not be smuggled into an otherwise casual Egyptian sentence.
Rule 3: there is no everyday case paradigm
Egyptian حداشر and اتناشر stay unchanged as subjects, objects, or complements of prepositions. The counted noun receives no MSA accusative ending or tanwīn.
اتكلمت مع اتناشر عميل النهارده.
itkallimt maʿ itnāshar ʿamīl innaharda.
I spoke with twelve clients today.
حداشر طلب وصلوا قبل الضهر.
ḥidāshar ṭalab wiṣlu ʾabl iḍ-ḍuhr.
Eleven orders arrived before noon—treated as individually tracked orders.
The preposition مع changes nothing in the first example. In the second, plural وصلوا presents the orders as individually tracked; neutral nonhuman agreement can vary by construal in Egyptian. Neither agreement choice creates a case form on the numeral.
Rule 4: word order distinguishes quantity from a label
For the cardinal meaning, use numeral + singular noun. Reversing the order often produces a label or ordinal-like interpretation.
اشتريت حداشر كتاب من المعرض.
ishtarēt ḥidāshar kitāb min il-maʿraḍ.
I bought eleven books at the fair.
الشرح موجود في كتاب حداشر.
ish-sharḥ mawgūd fi kitāb ḥidāshar.
The explanation is in book number eleven.
The first counts books. The second identifies an item in a numbered sequence. English can also say book eleven, but learners who have just mastered noun + واحد/واحدة sometimes overextend that order to all numbers. Eleven and twelve return to numeral-first cardinal order.
Scope words surround the whole quantity. حوالي makes it approximate, while بس limits it.
كان في حوالي اتناشر واحد مستني.
kān fi ḥawāli itnāshar wāḥid mistanni.
There were about twelve people waiting.
معانا حداشر دقيقة بس.
maʿāna ḥidāshar daʾīʾa bass.
We have only eleven minutes.
Neither scope word changes واحد or دقيقة into a plural. The quantity expression behaves as one constituent.
Prices, dates, and clock time
Common unit nouns usually remain singular: اتناشر جنيه “twelve pounds,” حداشر دقيقة “eleven minutes.” When the unit is already understood, the numeral can stand alone.
التذكرة بكام؟ باتناشر جنيه.
it-tazkara bikām? bitnāshar ginēh.
How much is the ticket? Twelve pounds.
الساعة كام؟ حداشر وربع.
is-sāʿa kām? ḥidāshar wi-rubʿ.
What time is it? Quarter past eleven.
In a date, the number labels the day: يوم حداشر “the eleventh / day eleven,” not eleven days. Context distinguishes that from duration.
الحجز يوم حداشر أكتوبر.
il-ḥagz yōm ḥidāshar ʾoktōbar.
The booking is for October eleventh.
Careful and fast connected speech
Careful citation forms retain an audible initial vowel, especially when a speaker is dictating a price, date, or code. Rapid connected speech can compress اتناشر toward tnāshar and حداشر toward ḥdāshar. The spelling and consonant skeleton stay unchanged.
المجموع اتناشر جنيه بالضبط.
il-magmūʿ itnāshar ginēh biḍ-ḍabṭ.
The total is exactly twelve pounds. (careful pronunciation)
فاضل اتناشر دقيقة ونمشي.
fāḍil tnāshar daʾīʾa wi-nimshi.
Twelve minutes left, then we leave. (fast connected pronunciation)
Romanization makes the reduction visible; the Arabic target does not invent a second spelling every time a vowel weakens. Such reduction is ordinary fluent speech (informal), not a new case or gender form.
Common Mistakes
1. Using a plural noun after eleven.
❌ اشتريت حداشر كتب.
Incorrect—eleven takes a singular counted noun in Egyptian.
✅ اشتريت حداشر كتاب.
ishtarēt ḥidāshar kitāb.
I bought eleven books.
2. Using a dual noun after twelve.
❌ الشركة اشترت اتناشر عربيتين.
Incorrect—twelve takes a singular counted noun, not a dual noun.
✅ الشركة اشترت اتناشر عربية.
ish-sharika ishtarit itnāshar ʿarabiyya.
The company bought twelve cars.
3. Reciting an MSA case form inside casual Cairene.
❌ اتكلمت مع اثني عشر عميل.
Register mismatch—the numeral used here is a formal MSA case form, not the ordinary Cairene form.
✅ اتكلمت مع اتناشر عميل.
itkallimt maʿ itnāshar ʿamīl.
I spoke with twelve clients.
4. Inventing a feminine Cairene form.
❌ عندهم اتناشرة عربية.
Incorrect in mainstream Cairene—the numeral is invariant with masculine and feminine nouns.
✅ عندهم اتناشر عربية.
ʿanduhum itnāshar ʿarabiyya.
They have twelve cars.
5. Putting the noun first when counting.
❌ اشتريت كتاب حداشر.
Wrong for ‘eleven books’—this order is understood as ‘book number eleven.’
✅ اشتريت حداشر كتاب.
ishtarēt ḥidāshar kitāb.
I bought eleven books.
Key Takeaways
- Use invariant Cairene حداشر and اتناشر with both masculine and feminine nouns.
- Put the numeral before one singular counted noun: حداشر كتاب، اتناشر عربية.
- Do not add MSA case endings, tanwīn, or formal gender forms to an ordinary Egyptian sentence.
- Noun + numeral usually labels an item; numeral + noun counts a quantity.
- Prices, dates, time, measures, and fast-speech reductions preserve the same core grammar.
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- One and Two with Counted NounsA1 — Use واحد and واحدة after singular nouns, form the invariant Egyptian dual in -ēn, and make agreement outside the dual noun plural.
- Numbers 3–10 and Gender PolarityB1 — Learn the short, largely gender-invariable Cairene numerals used before plural nouns and distinguish them from formal Arabic gender polarity.
- Numbers 13–19B1 — Count with Egyptian teen numerals, using one Cairene form across genders and a singular counted noun.
- 21–99: Coordinating Units and DecadesB1 — Build Egyptian numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine with unit-before-decade order, و coordination, and the correct singular counted noun.
- Dates, Years, and CenturiesB1 — Say everyday Egyptian dates in day–month–year order, read modern years naturally, and distinguish calendar labels from counted durations.
- Decimals, Prices, and CurrenciesB1 — Read decimal quantities and everyday prices with natural Cairene numeral and currency patterns.