You can know the grammar of numerals perfectly and still freeze when a phone number, a price, or an age has to come out of your mouth. This page is the spoken-and-spelled companion to the grammar pages: it drills the actual sounds and letters of 0 to 100, in the order you'll meet them. The numbers hide three kinds of trap — a fused teen suffix (-на́дцять), a set of compound tens (-деся́т) with a stubborn final stress, and a handful of apostrophe-and-soft-sign spellings (п’ять, шість, де́в’ять, ві́сім) that you can't even write without the orthography. Plus three numbers that simply have to be memorised: со́рок (40) and дев’яно́сто (90) don't follow the pattern, and сто (100) stands alone. Stress is marked on every form below — read them aloud as you go.
Zero and the units 1–10
Start here. Note that нуль is "zero" (and also "nought / O" when reading digits), and that four of the units already carry the apostrophe-and-soft-sign spellings you'll see again and again.
| Numeral | Digit | Spelling trap |
|---|---|---|
| нуль | 0 | soft sign -ль |
| оди́н | 1 | — |
| два | 2 | — |
| три | 3 | — |
| чоти́ри | 4 | stress on the first и |
| п’ять | 5 | apostrophe + soft sign |
| шість | 6 | soft sign -сть |
| сім | 7 | — |
| ві́сім | 8 | — |
| де́в’ять | 9 | apostrophe + soft sign |
| де́сять | 10 | soft sign -ть |
The apostrophe in п’ять and де́в’ять is the curly ’ (U+2019), and it's mandatory: it keeps the labial п/в hard before the iotated я. Drop it and the word is misspelled. (The full rule is on the apostrophe.)
Мій па́роль — нуль, сім, два, п’ять.
My passcode is zero, seven, two, five. (Reading digits aloud — нуль for the '0'.)
У ме́не три ко́ти й де́в’ять ри́бок.
I've got three cats and nine fish. (де́в’ять — note the apostrophe and soft sign.)
The teens: the -на́дцять fusion (11–19)
The teens are built by fusing a unit with the old phrase на де́сяти ("on ten") into the suffix -на́дцять. The whole series is stressed on the -на́- syllable, without exception. Watch the small adjustments where the unit's spelling changes: чотирна́дцять keeps its -р-, and п’ятна́дцять / шістна́дцять / дев’ятна́дцять keep the apostrophe/soft-sign of their unit.
| Numeral | Digit | Built from |
|---|---|---|
| одина́дцять | 11 | оди́н + -на́дцять |
| двана́дцять | 12 | два + -на́дцять |
| трина́дцять | 13 | три + -на́дцять |
| чотирна́дцять | 14 | чоти́ри + -на́дцять |
| п’ятна́дцять | 15 | п’ять + -на́дцять |
| шістна́дцять | 16 | шість + -на́дцять |
| сімна́дцять | 17 | сім + -на́дцять |
| вісімна́дцять | 18 | ві́сім + -на́дцять |
| дев’ятна́дцять | 19 | де́в’ять + -на́дцять |
Мені́ було́ чотирна́дцять, коли́ я перее́хав до Льво́ва.
I was fourteen when I moved to Lviv. (чотирна́дцять — the -на́- stress.)
Уро́к почина́ється о пів на одина́дцяту.
The lesson starts at half past ten. (одина́дцяту — the teen in the time expression.)
The tens: 20, 30, … 90, 100
Here are the three real irregulars. два́дцять and три́дцять are built on -дцять (and stressed on the first syllable). Then со́рок (40) is a one-off word with no relation to "four." The tens п’ятдеся́т, шістдеся́т, сімдеся́т, вісімдеся́т (50–80) are -деся́т compounds, and — crucially — they're all stressed on the final syllable. дев’яно́сто (90) is irregular again, stressed on the -но́-. And сто (100) stands completely apart.
| Numeral | Digit | Note |
|---|---|---|
| два́дцять | 20 | first-syllable stress |
| три́дцять | 30 | first-syllable stress |
| со́рок | 40 | IRREGULAR — its own word |
| п’ятдеся́т | 50 | -деся́т, final stress |
| шістдеся́т | 60 | -деся́т, final stress |
| сімдеся́т | 70 | -деся́т, final stress |
| вісімдеся́т | 80 | -деся́т, final stress |
| дев’яно́сто | 90 | IRREGULAR — stress on -но́- |
| сто | 100 | its own word |
The stress pattern is the thing to drill. два́дцять / три́дцять are front-stressed, but the moment you reach 50, the stress jumps to the end and stays there through 80: п’ятдеся́т, шістдеся́т, сімдеся́т, вісімдеся́т. A very common error (often from Russian) is to front-stress these — сі́мдесят is wrong; standard Ukrainian is *сімдеся́т.
Кварти́ра ко́штує со́рок ти́сяч гри́вень.
The apartment costs forty thousand hryvnias. (со́рок — the irregular '40', not built on 'four'.)
Ба́бці виповни́лося вісімдеся́т, і вона́ ще танцю́є.
Grandma turned eighty, and she still dances. (вісімдеся́т — final stress, like all the -деся́т tens.)
До ме́ти лиши́лося дев’яно́сто кіломе́трів.
Ninety kilometres left to the finish. (дев’яно́сто — irregular, stress on -но́-.)
Compounds: 21, 38, 76, 99
To build a two-digit number, you simply say the ten, then the unit, in that order, with no "and" — exactly like English "twenty-one," but written as two separate words: два́дцять оди́н, сімдеся́т ві́сім, дев’яно́сто де́в’ять. Each part keeps its own stress.
| Number | Said as |
|---|---|
| 21 | два́дцять оди́н |
| 33 | три́дцять три |
| 47 | со́рок сім |
| 58 | п’ятдеся́т ві́сім |
| 76 | сімдеся́т шість |
| 99 | дев’яно́сто де́в’ять |
Мій но́мер — со́рок ві́сім, дев’яно́сто два, сімна́дцять.
My number is forty-eight, ninety-two, seventeen. (Reading a phone number in two-digit chunks.)
У за́лі бу́ло три́дцять п’ять люде́й, не бі́льше.
There were thirty-five people in the hall, no more. (три́дцять п’ять — ten then unit, two words.)
A pronunciation-and-spelling drill
The numbers concentrate the two hardest Ukrainian spelling rules — the apostrophe and the soft sign — in tiny words you say constantly. Run this checklist whenever you write a numeral:
- Apostrophe before я/ю/є/ї after a hard labial: п’ять, де́в’ять, п’ятна́дцять, дев’ятна́дцять, п’ятдеся́т, дев’яно́сто. The ’ is U+2019, not a straight quote.
- Soft sign closing many of them: шість, сім → ві́сім (no soft sign on сім/ві́сім), де́сять, два́дцять, нуль.
- шість → шістна́дцять / шістдеся́т: the -т- of шість stays, so it's шіст-, not *шіс-.
Напиши́ цифра́ми: п’ятдеся́т сім — це 57.
Write it in digits: fifty-seven is 57. (п’ятдеся́т — apostrophe + final stress, the full spelling test.)
Source-language comparison
For an English speaker, the good news is the word order matches: ten-then-unit, no "and" (два́дцять оди́н = "twenty-one"). Three things differ. First, the teens fuse a suffix (-на́дцять) the way English -teen does, but it's always stressed on -на́-. Second, the tens 50–80 are -деся́т compounds with final stress (п’ятдеся́т), where English just adds "-ty." Third — and this has no English parallel — you can't write the numbers without the orthography: п’ять and де́в’ять need an apostrophe, шість and де́сять a soft sign. Saying the number aloud is half the job; spelling it is the other half.
For a Russian speaker, the false-stress trap is real: it's сімдеся́т, вісімдеся́т, шістдеся́т with final stress in standard Ukrainian (not front-stressed), and дев’яно́сто (not "девяносто"). The spelling uses the Ukrainian apostrophe ’ in п’ять, де́в’ять, дев’яно́сто.
Common Mistakes
❌ пять, девять (numbers without the apostrophe)
Incorrect — the apostrophe is mandatory: п’ять, де́в’ять.
✅ п’ять, де́в’ять
five, nine — with the curly apostrophe ’ (U+2019).
❌ сі́мдесят (front-stressed '70')
Incorrect stress — the -деся́т tens are final-stressed: сімдеся́т.
✅ сімдеся́т
seventy — stress on the final syllable, like all -деся́т tens.
❌ чотиридцять (building '40' on 'four')
Incorrect — 40 is the irregular word со́рок, unrelated to чоти́ри.
✅ со́рок
forty — its own word, memorise it.
❌ двадцятьодин (compound written as one word)
Incorrect — compounds are written as separate words: два́дцять оди́н.
✅ два́дцять оди́н
twenty-one — ten and unit, two words.
❌ шіснадцять ('16' without the -т-)
Incorrect — шість keeps its -т-: шістна́дцять.
✅ шістна́дцять
sixteen — шіст- + -на́дцять, with the -т-.
Key Takeaways
- The teens fuse -на́дцять and are always stressed on -на́-: одина́дцять, чотирна́дцять, вісімна́дцять.
- The tens 50–80 are -деся́т compounds with FINAL stress: п’ятдеся́т, шістдеся́т, сімдеся́т, вісімдеся́т (never front-stressed).
- Three irregulars: со́рок (40), дев’яно́сто (90, stress on -но́-), and сто (100); later, дві́сті (200).
- Compounds are ten-then-unit, two separate words: два́дцять оди́н, сімдеся́т ві́сім.
- You can't spell the numbers without the orthography: apostrophes in п’ять, де́в’ять, дев’яно́сто and soft signs in шість, де́сять, нуль.
Now practice Ukrainian
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Start learning Ukrainian→Related Topics
- Cardinal Numbers 1–20A1 — The numbers нуль to два́дцять — with the gendered оди́н/одна́/одне́ and два/дві, the fused -на́дцять teens, and the apostrophe/soft-sign spelling traps (п’ять, шість, ві́сім, де́в’ять) that make Ukrainian numerals an orthography test from day one.
- Tens, Hundreds, and Large NumbersA2 — The tens (два́дцять…дев’яно́сто), the hundreds (сто…дев’ятсо́т), and ти́сяча / мільйо́н / мілья́рд — featuring the three irregulars every learner must memorize (со́рок, дев’яно́сто, дві́сті), the -деся́т and -со́т compounding, and the crucial fact that ти́сяча and мільйо́н are NOUNS that govern the genitive plural.
- Apostrophe Spelling RulesA2 — The spelling-side rules for the Ukrainian apostrophe ’: write it before я ю є ї when a HARD consonant + /j/ glide precedes — after the labials б п в м ф, after hard р, and after consonant-final prefixes — but NOT when the consonant is genuinely soft. Omitting or misplacing it is one of the most common Ukrainian spelling errors.
- The Soft Sign ЬA1 — The soft sign ь (м’який знак) spells no sound of its own — it marks that the preceding consonant is soft (palatalized). It appears word-finally and before consonants, only after д т з с ц л н дз, never after a vowel or at the start of a word, and it is the exact opposite of the apostrophe.
- Numeral–Noun Agreement (The Hard Part)B1 — The notorious three-way rule: after 1 (and …1) the noun is nominative SINGULAR, after 2/3/4 (and …2/3/4) nominative PLURAL with the dual-reflex end-stress (два столи́, дві сестри́), and after 5+ genitive PLURAL — chosen by the LAST digit, and applying only when the whole phrase is nominative or inanimate-accusative.