Hausa forms hundreds with ɗari and thousands with dubu. The magnitude comes first and its multiplier follows: ɗari uku is “three hundred,” while dubu uku is “three thousand.” This order matters because English puts three before hundred and thousand.
All unlabelled forms here are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko spelling requires the hooked letter ɗ in ɗari and ɗaya. The page uses no tone or vowel-length marks, in keeping with normal Hausa writing.
If the tens and units are not yet familiar, review Building Complex Cardinal Numbers alongside the magnitude patterns below.
The hundred series with ɗari
For an exact multiple of one hundred, use ɗari + basic numeral. Bare ɗari already means “one hundred”; ɗari ɗaya makes “one” overt and is also possible.
| Digits | Hausa | Internal order |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | ɗari / ɗari ɗaya | hundred (one) |
| 200 | ɗari biyu | hundred two |
| 300 | ɗari uku | hundred three |
| 400 | ɗari huɗu | hundred four |
| 500 | ɗari biyar | hundred five |
| 600 | ɗari shida | hundred six |
| 700 | ɗari bakwai | hundred seven |
| 800 | ɗari takwas | hundred eight |
| 900 | ɗari tara | hundred nine |
Na karanta shafuka ɗari biyu a wannan makon.
I read two hundred pages this week.
Mutane ɗari uku sun halarci taron.
Three hundred people attended the meeting.
Kuɗin rajistar naira ɗari biyar ne.
The registration fee is five hundred naira.
Notice two orders at once: inside the numeral, Hausa says ɗari biyu “hundred two”; inside the larger noun phrase, it says shafuka ɗari biyu “pages hundred two.” Translating from English one word at a time would reverse both relationships.
Adding tens and units after a hundred
When a lower value follows a hundred, join it with da “and.” Do not put da between ɗari and its multiplier.
| Digits | Hausa | Structure |
|---|---|---|
| 101 | ɗari da ɗaya | hundred + and + one |
| 120 | ɗari da ashirin | hundred + and + twenty |
| 125 | ɗari da ashirin da biyar | hundred + and + twenty + and + five |
| 208 | ɗari biyu da takwas | hundred two + and + eight |
| 347 | ɗari uku da arba’in da bakwai | hundred three + and + forty + and + seven |
| 990 | ɗari tara da casa’in | hundred nine + and + ninety |
Akwai ɗalibai ɗari da ashirin da biyar a makarantar.
There are one hundred and twenty-five students at the school.
Mun sayar da tikiti ɗari biyu da takwas.
We sold two hundred and eight tickets.
Kuɗin ya kai naira ɗari uku da saba’in da biyar.
The amount reached three hundred and seventy-five naira.
In ɗari uku da arba’in da bakwai, the first da joins the hundreds to the remainder and the second joins the tens to the units. The connector marks addition between numerical parts; it does not mark plural number and does not agree with a noun.
The thousand series with dubu
The same magnitude-first logic applies to dubu “thousand.” Bare dubu can mean one thousand, while dubu ɗaya makes the multiplier explicit.
| Digits | Hausa | Internal order |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | dubu / dubu ɗaya | thousand (one) |
| 2,000 | dubu biyu | thousand two |
| 3,000 | dubu uku | thousand three |
| 5,000 | dubu biyar | thousand five |
| 8,000 | dubu takwas | thousand eight |
| 10,000 | dubu goma | thousand ten |
Hayar ɗakin naira dubu ashirin ce a wata.
The room rent is twenty thousand naira per month.
Kamfanin ya buga kwafi dubu biyar.
The company printed five thousand copies.
Garin yana da mazauna dubu goma.
The town has ten thousand inhabitants.
Dubu does not become a special plural form in ordinary cardinal multiplication. Hausa does not imitate English thousands in exact five thousand; it simply places biyar after dubu.
Combining thousands, hundreds, tens, and units
Proceed from the largest place to the smallest. Add da before each nonzero lower section. A missing place is simply omitted; Hausa does not say a spoken “zero hundred” inside an ordinary number.
Sabuwar kwamfutar naira dubu ɗaya da ɗari biyu ce.
The new computer costs one thousand two hundred naira.
An tattara naira dubu biyu da ɗari biyar da hamsin.
Two thousand five hundred and fifty naira was collected.
Jimillar ta zama dubu uku da goma sha huɗu.
The total came to three thousand and fourteen.
The number 3,014 has no hundreds or tens section, so dubu uku da goma sha huɗu moves directly from thousands to fourteen. The da still announces that a lower remainder is being added.
Hundreds and thousands inside noun phrases
A cardinal normally follows what it counts. The noun is not a decorative addition to the numeral: its form and its role determine the whole phrase.
Ma’aikata ɗari huɗu suna aiki a nan.
Four hundred employees work here.
Kamfanin ya sayi kujera ɗari biyu domin sabon ofis.
The company bought two hundred chairs for the new office.
Animate count nouns such as ma’aikata normally appear in the plural above one. Inanimate nouns may occur in singular counting style, as kujera ɗari biyu, or in a plural form where the discourse treats them as an ordinary plural set. Unit expressions are especially likely to remain singular: naira dubu biyar, shekara ɗari biyu, kilo dubu ɗaya.
The numeral itself does not have masculine and feminine variants. Gender still matters elsewhere: a singular feminine noun with one takes feminine clause agreement, while a quantity greater than one normally controls plural agreement.
A price exchange
A: Nawa ne wannan injin? B: Naira dubu takwas da ɗari shida ne. A: Za ka rage naira ɗari biyu? B: To, ka biya dubu takwas da ɗari huɗu.
A: How much is this machine? B: It is eight thousand six hundred naira. A: Will you reduce it by two hundred naira? B: All right, pay eight thousand four hundred.
The currency noun naira precedes the number. In the final answer it is recoverable and omitted; the numerical expression still keeps its internal magnitude-first order.
Practice: build by place
Say each number by naming the nonzero places from left to right.
- 406 = ɗari huɗu da shida
- 780 = ɗari bakwai da tamanin
- 1,032 = dubu ɗaya da talatin da biyu
- 2,405 = dubu biyu da ɗari huɗu da biyar
- 6,999 = dubu shida da ɗari tara da casa’in da tara
The hardest item is often 1,032. English may encourage an unnecessary hundred section, but Hausa expresses only the places that actually contribute to the value.
Common Mistakes
1. Copying English multiplier-first order.
❌ uku ɗari
Incorrect — this copies English ‘three hundred’ order.
✅ ɗari uku
Three hundred.
2. Inserting da between the magnitude and its multiplier.
❌ dubu da biyar
Incorrect for exactly five thousand — da introduces a lower remainder.
✅ dubu biyar
Five thousand.
3. Omitting da before a lower place.
❌ ɗari biyu talatin
Incorrect standard composition for two hundred and thirty.
✅ ɗari biyu da talatin
Two hundred and thirty.
4. Putting the number before the counted noun.
❌ dubu biyar naira
Incorrect neutral Hausa noun-phrase order.
✅ naira dubu biyar
Five thousand naira.
Key Takeaways
- Ɗari and dubu precede their multipliers: ɗari huɗu, dubu shida.
- Bare ɗari/dubu can express one hundred/one thousand; ɗari ɗaya/dubu ɗaya makes “one” explicit.
- Use da to add a lower place, never between a magnitude and its multiplier.
- State only nonzero places and proceed from largest to smallest.
- Put the counted noun before the numeral: ma’aikata ɗari uku, naira dubu biyar.
Related Topics
- Cardinal Numbers Zero to TenA1 — Count from sifili to goma and place Hausa cardinal numbers naturally after nouns in quantities, prices, times, and digit strings.
- Tens from Twenty to NinetyA1 — Learn the lexical Hausa decade words from ashirin to casa’in and join a unit with da in numbers such as ashirin da uku.
- Building Complex Cardinal NumbersA1 — Assemble Hausa cardinal numbers from the largest place downward, using sha for 11–19 and da between additive sections.
- Counting Nouns with gudaA1 — Use the unit counter guda between a counted expression and its numeral, and distinguish its unit meaning from the ordinary cardinal ɗaya ‘one’.
- Cardinals inside Noun PhrasesA1 — Place Hausa cardinal numbers after the noun and its identifying material but before later adjectives and relative clauses.