Cardinal Numbers and Compound Formation: Forms and Core Pattern

Hungarian cardinal numbers form a regular decimal system, but three details matter from the beginning: tíz and húsz have shortened compound stems, “two” alternates between két and kettő, and a noun after a number stays singular. The full written number is normally one compound word up to two thousand.

From zero to twenty

The long vowels shorten inside compounds: tíz → tizen- and húsz → huszon-. Thus 15 is tizenöt, and 25 is huszonöt. This is stem alternation, not ordinary vowel harmony.

Tens and the last digit

The multiples of ten are húsz, harminc, negyven, ötven, hatvan, hetven, nyolcvan, kilencven. Add the final digit directly: harmincegy 31, negyvenkettő 42, ötvenhat 56, kilencvenkilenc 99.

The form before a counted noun ends in két, so 32 euros is harminckét euró. When the number stands independently, use harminckettő.

In rapid informal speech, speakers do not always maintain the két–kettő distinction perfectly, but the contrast is stable in careful standard Hungarian: két könyv, but Kettőt kérek “I'd like two.”

Hundreds, thousands, and millions

The basic scale words are száz 100, ezer 1,000, and millió 1,000,000.

Egy is normally absent from bare száz and ezer, but it remains in egymillió. Exact-counting or contrastive contexts can make “one” explicit in speech, yet learners should use the neutral forms above.

Compound spelling

When cardinal numbers are written as words, all forms through 2,000 are written together: százöt, nyolcszázkilencvenhat, ezerhétszázhetvenkettő, kétezer. Above 2,000, a non-round number is divided from the right into three-digit groups with hyphens: kétezer-egy 2,001, háromezer-tizenhat 3,016, hétmillió-négyszázkilencvenezer-ötszázharminc 7,490,530. Round thousands and millions remain one word: ötvenezer, hatvankétmillió.

Years are an orthographic exception: a year written in words remains joined, as in kétezertizennégy “2014.” In practice, long numbers, measurements, money amounts, and statistics are usually written with digits. The spelling rule matters when words are required.

Primary word stress falls on the first syllable: HU-szon-öt, not on öt as English compound-number rhythm might suggest. Very long forms can acquire rhythmic secondary prominence, but the ordinary Hungarian initial-stress rule still structures them.

Every component nevertheless keeps its vowels and consonants. Say and write negyven, not négyven, but preserve long é in independent négy. Similarly, tizenhét contains shortened tizen- and long é in hét. Compound formation changes only the conventional stems already identified; it does not license general accent loss.

A quantified noun phrase is singular

After a cardinal or another quantity word, Hungarian uses the singular noun: öt könyv, húsz perc, száz ember. Adjectives before the noun are also invariant.

In neutral standard agreement, the verb is singular too: három üzenet érkezett, not érkeztek. Hungarian treats the number phrase as an explicitly quantified singular-form noun phrase. The number already supplies plurality, so a plural suffix would mark it twice. This contrasts directly with English three messages.

When the noun is omitted

The singular-noun rule applies when an overt noun follows the cardinal. If that noun is recoverable and omitted, the number becomes the head of the phrase and receives the required case suffix itself.

In öt-ö-t and kilenc-e-t, the vowel before accusative -t is a linking vowel. Other useful accusatives are egyet, kettőt, hármat, négyet, tízet, húszat, százat, ezret. The stem alternations in tízet and húszat resemble those used inside tizen- and huszon-, but the exact linking vowel must still be learned.

Other cases attach in the same way: ötből “out of five,” tízhez “to ten,” százzal “by/with a hundred,” ezerrel “by/with a thousand.” Harmony follows the number word's vowels, and instrumental -val/-vel assimilates to a final consonant.

This is not plural marking. Ötöt means “five of them” because the numeral stands for the omitted object; ötök would belong to a different, much more restricted nominal use.

Digits, decimals, and dates

Hungarian uses a decimal comma: 3,5 liter, not English-style 3.5 liter. Five-digit and longer numerals are conventionally divided into groups of three with spaces (or, less commonly, points): 20 611. A comma in that position would be read as a decimal marker, not a thousands separator.

Hungarian dates place year, month, and day in descending order, and the year and day normally take a point: 2026. szeptember 13. These topics receive fuller treatment on the date forms page, but they belong to the core transfer check because English punctuation can change the numerical interpretation.

Segmentation exercise

1. tizenhét → tizen-hét: shortened compound stem of tíz
   • seven.
2. huszonkét jegy → huszon-két jegy: shortened húsz stem + attributive form of two + singular noun.
3. kétszáznegyven → két-száz-negyven: two hundred and forty.
4. ezerkilencszázkilencvenöt → ezer-kilenc-száz-kilencven-öt: 1,995, written as one word.
5. kétezer-huszonhat → két-ezer-huszon-hat: 2,026, divided after the thousands group.
6. hárommillió → három-millió: three million, written together because it is round.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Learn tíz → tizen- and húsz → huszon- as compound stems.
• Use két before another number element or noun, but kettő when “two” stands alone.
• Neutral 100 and 1,000 are száz and ezer; one million is egymillió.
• Write number words together through 2,000; above that, hyphenate non-round forms by three-digit groups.
• After a number, the noun—and normally its verb agreement—remains singular.
• Hungarian uses a decimal comma and year–month–day date order.