Cardinal Numbers | Turkish Grammar

Cardinal numbers are the counting numbers — one, two, three. Turkish numbers are wonderfully regular: once you know one to ten and the names of the tens and the big units, you can build any number by simply lining the words up. But two habits from English have to be unlearned. First, Turkish puts no "and" between the parts of a number: yüz yirmi beş is literally "hundred twenty five" = 125. Second, a noun counted by a number stays singular — beş elma "five apples," never beş elmalar. This page teaches the building blocks and both of these rules.

One to ten

The first ten numbers are the foundation; everything else is built from them. Note the dotted/undotted vowels carefully — altı and yedi have ı, while iki and bir have i.

Figure	Turkish	Figure	Turkish
1	bir	6	altı
2	iki	7	yedi
3	üç	8	sekiz
4	dört	9	dokuz
5	beş	10	on

Bir kahve, iki çay alalım lütfen.

Let's get one coffee and two teas, please.

Elimde sadece üç lira kaldı, yetmez.

I've only got three lira left in my hand — it's not enough.

The teens: on + unit

There is no special word for "eleven" or "twelve." The teens are simply on "ten" followed by the unit, written as two separate words: on bir (11), on iki (12), on dokuz (19).

Saat on bir oldu, artık kapatmamız lazım.

It's eleven o'clock now — we need to close up.

Sınıfta on yedi öğrenci var, üçü bugün gelmedi.

There are seventeen students in the class — three didn't come today.

The tens

Each ten has its own name. Watch the spelling of altmış (60): it has an undotted ı, not altmiş. Its rhyme-partner yetmiş (70), by contrast, keeps the dotted i — so the two look alike but differ in that one vowel.

Figure	Turkish	Figure	Turkish
10	on	60	altmış
20	yirmi	70	yetmiş
30	otuz	80	seksen
40	kırk	90	doksan
50	elli	100	yüz

To form numbers between the tens, write the ten and the unit as separate words, with no "and" and no hyphen: yirmi üç (23), kırk dokuz (49), seksen beş (85).

Babam altmış yaşında ama hâlâ her sabah koşuyor.

My dad is sixty years old, but he still runs every morning.

Yirmi üç numaralı otobüs nereden kalkıyor?

Where does the number twenty-three bus leave from?

Hundreds, thousands, millions

The big units are yüz (100), bin (1.000), milyon (1.000.000), and milyar (1.000.000.000). For "one hundred" and "one thousand" you normally drop the bir — Turkish says yüz and bin, not bir yüz or bir bin. But bir milyon "one million" keeps the bir.

Figure	Turkish
100	yüz
200	iki yüz
1.000	bin
2.000	iki bin
1.000.000	bir milyon

Bu ceket iki yüz elli lira, biraz pahalı geldi bana.

This jacket is two hundred and fifty lira — it seems a bit pricey to me.

Konsere yaklaşık beş bin kişi gelmiş.

About five thousand people came to the concert, apparently.

💡

Turkish writes numbers with a period as the thousands separator and a comma for decimals — the opposite of English. So 1.500 is "one thousand five hundred" and 3,5 is "three point five." Don't read 1.500 as "one point five."

Building big numbers: no "and," ever

This is the rule English speakers most often break. To read a large number, you say each unit from the largest down, lining the words up with no connector at all. English inserts "and" — "a hundred and twenty-five" — but Turkish never does.

125 → yüz yirmi beş (hundred twenty five)
348 → üç yüz kırk sekiz (three hundred forty eight)
1.990 → bin dokuz yüz doksan (thousand nine hundred ninety)

Dedem bin dokuz yüz kırk iki yılında doğmuş.

My grandfather was born in nineteen forty-two.

Hesap yüz yirmi beş lira tuttu, kartla ödedim.

The bill came to a hundred and twenty-five lira — I paid by card.

The counted noun stays singular

In English, a number above one forces a plural: "five apples." In Turkish the number itself already tells you there is more than one, so the noun stays singular: beş elma, not beş elmalar. The plural suffix -lAr would be redundant, and adding it is one of the most common beginner errors.

Markete gidip beş elma ve iki ekmek aldım.

I went to the shop and bought five apples and two loaves of bread.

Üç çocuğu var, hepsi de okula gidiyor.

She has three children — all of them go to school.

On iki ay sonra yine buluşmaya söz verdik.

We promised to meet again in twelve months' time.

This singular rule holds however large the number gets: yüz kişi "a hundred people" (not yüz kişiler), bin yıl "a thousand years."

💡

A number already counts for you, so the noun never takes a plural: beş elma = "five apples." Reserve the plural -lAr for unspecified groups — elmalar "the apples / apples (in general)" — where no number does the counting.

Common mistakes

These five errors are exactly the ones English and other European-language speakers carry over.

❌ Markette beş elmalar aldım.

Incorrect — a number keeps the noun singular; drop the plural.

✅ Markette beş elma aldım.

I bought five apples at the market.

❌ yüz ve yirmi beş

Incorrect — Turkish puts no 'and' between number parts.

✅ yüz yirmi beş

a hundred and twenty-five (125)

❌ Konsere bir bin kişi geldi.

Incorrect — 'one thousand' drops the bir: it's just bin.

✅ Konsere bin kişi geldi.

A thousand people came to the concert.

❌ Babam altmiş yaşında.

Incorrect — 'sixty' is altmış with undotted ı, not altmiş.

✅ Babam altmış yaşında.

My dad is sixty years old.

❌ Bu ceket 2,500 lira.

Incorrect — Turkish uses a period for thousands; the comma marks decimals.

✅ Bu ceket 2.500 lira.

This jacket is 2,500 lira.

Key takeaways

Learn one–ten, the tens, and yüz / bin / milyon; everything else is built by stacking words.
The teens are on + unit: on bir (11), on dokuz (19) — two words, no special name.
Numbers concatenate with no "and": yüz yirmi beş = 125, bin dokuz yüz doksan = 1.990.
Drop the bir in yüz (100) and bin (1.000); keep it in bir milyon.
A counted noun stays singular: beş elma, yüz kişi — never add -lAr.
Mind the spelling: altmış (60) has an undotted ı (not altmiş), while yetmiş (70) keeps a dotted i.

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