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When discussing standings in a tournament or a sequence of events, you will need ordinal numbers. To form ordinals from eleventh to nineteenth, Arabic uses a two-part compound number.

Let's first look at an important noun you will use frequently when discussing rankings:

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### Eleventh and Twelfth

The masculine ordinals for 11th and 12th consist of a first part ending in a long ي followed by the word عشر. Because they function as adjectives, they directly follow the noun they modify.

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### Thirteenth through Nineteenth

For the 13th to the 19th, the first part is the standard ordinal number (الثالث, الرابع, and so on), followed by عشر.

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### Indeclinable Endings (مبني على فتح الجزأين)

Usually, an adjective changes its case ending to match the noun it modifies (taking a ضمة, فتحة, or كسرة). However, compound ordinal numbers from 11th to 19th are **indeclinable**—their vowel endings are locked and do not change.

For numbers 13th to 19th, **both parts** of the compound end in a fixed فتحة regardless of their grammatical role in the sentence. This locked state is known as مبني على فتح الجزأين. For 11th and 12th, the second part (عشر) maintains this fixed فتحة.

Even after prepositions like في or إلى—which normally force a word to take a كسرة—these compound ordinals stubbornly keep their fixed endings. Likewise, they do not take a ضمة when describing the subject of a sentence.

Notice how the numbers remain unchanged in the following sentences, despite being in genitive or nominative positions:

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### Seeing the endings

This course writes Arabic the way books and newspapers print it, without the short-vowel marks, so the ending this lesson is about is something you hear in the audio but never see in the drills. Here are some of them with every vowel written out:

| as written | fully vocalized | position |
|---|---|---|
| حقق الفريق المركز الحادي عشر في المسابقة. | حَقَّقَ الفَرِيقُ المَرْكَزَ الحَادِيَ عَشَرَ فِي المُسَابَقَةِ. | object |
| هذا هو اليوم الثالث عشر من التدريب. | هَذَا هُوَ اليَوْمُ الثَّالِثَ عَشَرَ مِنَ التَّدْرِيبِ. | predicate (nominative) |
| انسحبت فاطمة في الأسبوع الثامن عشر. | اِنْسَحَبَتْ فَاطِمَةُ فِي الأُسْبُوعِ الثَّامِنَ عَشَرَ. | after في (genitive) |

The noun in front of the ordinal changes its ending (**المَرْكَزَ**, **اليَوْمُ**, **الأُسْبُوعِ**), but the ordinal does not: both halves keep their fatha, **الثَّالِثَ عَشَرَ**, **الثَّامِنَ عَشَرَ**. In الحادي عشر and الثاني عشر the ي may also be read without a vowel: **الثَّانِي عَشَرَ**.

Ordinal numbers 11th to 19th (الحادي عشر إلى التاسع عشر)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

interrogative

noun

numeral

particle

prefix

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

The definite article and locatives (الـ)

Basic noun gender (ة)

Sun and moon letters

Singular subject pronouns (أنا، أنت، هو، هي)

Indefinite nouns and nominal sentences (ـٌ)

Demonstrative pronouns for 'this' (هذا / هذه)

Separate prepositions (في، من، إلى، على)

Attributive adjectives

Predicative adjectives

Yes/No questions (هل، أ)

Basic questions (من، ما، أين)

Singular possessive pronouns (ـي، ـك، ـه، ـها)

Plural subject pronouns (نحن، أنتم، هم)

Plural possessive pronouns (ـنا، ـكم، ـهم)

Noun possession

Attached prepositions (بـ، لـ، كـ)

Pronouns with prepositions

Having and possessing (عند، لـ، مع)

Regular plural nouns (ـون، ـين، ـات)

Broken plurals

Dual nouns (ـان / ـين)

Plural and distant demonstratives (هؤلاء، ذلك، تلك)

Non-human plural agreement

Present tense singular verbs

Verbal sentences (VSO)

Present tense plural verbs

Topicalized sentences (SVO)

The indefinite accusative case (ـاً)

Verb object pronouns (-ني، -ك، -ه)

Present tense negation (لا)

Question words with verbs (متى، كيف...)

Adverbs of time and place

The future tense (سـ / سوف)

Intentions and desires (أن)

Negating states and possession (ليس)

Past tense singular suffixes

Past tense plural suffixes

Negating past events (ما)

Singular commands

Numbers 1 to 10

Number agreement for 1 and 2 (واحد، اثنان)

Asking how many (كم)

Numbers 3 to 10 (ثلاثة إلى عشرة)

Ordinal numbers 1 to 10 (الأول، الثاني)

Basic conjunctions (فـ، أو، لكن)

Ordering at a café (واحد، اثنان)

Food and drink with conjunctions (و، ف، أو، لكن)

There is and there are (هناك / ليس هناك)

Direct address (يا)

Giving reasons (لأنّ)

Relative pronouns (الذي / التي)

Quantifiers (كل / بعض)

The past tense of 'to be' (كان)

Past possession

Numbers 11 to 19 and tens to 80

Telling time (الساعة)

This book vs this is a book (هذا الكتاب، هذا كتاب)

Greetings (مرحبا، السلام عليكم)

How are you? and goodbye (كيف حالك، مع السلامة)

Nationalities (مصري، مصرية)

Roots and patterns (كتب، كتاب، مكتب)

Politeness (من فضلك، آسف)

Complex possession chains

Colors and traits (أفعل / فعلاء)

Plural colors and traits (فُعْل)

Comparative adjectives (أفعل من)

Superlative adjectives (أفعل)

Adverbs of manner (ـاً)

The nominative case (ـُ)

The genitive case (ـِ)

The accusative case (ـَ)

Dual noun cases (ـان / ـين)

Masculine plurals and 'the best of' (أفضل النجارين)

Emphasizing sentences (إنّ)

Connecting clauses (أنّ)

Reporting speech (قال إنّ)

Expressing contrast (لكنّ)

Comparison and probability (كأنّ, لعلّ)

Distant plural pointing (أولئك)

Plural relative pronouns (الذين, اللواتي)

Past habits (كان + present)

Ongoing actions (ما زال)

Masculine plurals online (مبرمجون، مؤثرون)

Perfective past (قد)

Probability (قد)

The subjunctive mood (أن)

Question	Answer
place (rank)	مركزmarkaz
the eleventh	الحادي عشرal-hâdi 'ashara
The team achieved eleventh place in the competition.	حقق الفريق المركز الحادي عشر في المسابقة.haqqaqa l-farîqu l-markaza l-hâdiya 'ashara fî l-musâbaqah
The eleventh player on the team is excellent.	اللاعب الحادي عشر في الفريق ممتاز.allâ'ibu alhâdiya 'ashara fi alfariqi mumtâzun
the twelfth	الثاني عشرath-thâni 'ashar
They reached twelfth place quickly.	هن وصلن إلى المركز الثاني عشر سريعا.hunna waṣalna ila al-markazi ath-thâni ʿashara sarîʿan
Is your friend the twelfth participant?	هل صديقك هو المشارك الثاني عشر؟hal sadîquka huwa al-mushâriku ath-thâniya 'ashara?
the thirteenth	الثالث عشرath-thâlitha 'ashara
The athlete achieved thirteenth place after hard effort.	نال الرياضي المركز الثالث عشر بعد جهد شاق.nâla ar-riyâdiyyu al-markaza ath-thâlitha 'ashara ba'da juhdin shâqq
This is the thirteenth day of training.	هذا هو اليوم الثالث عشر من التدريب.hâdhâ huwa al-yawmu ath-thâlitha 'ashara mina at-tadrîb
the fourteenth	الرابع عشرar-râbi'a 'ashar
The fourteenth participant got a prize.	حصل المشارك الرابع عشر على جائزة.hasala al-mushariku al-rabi'a 'ashara 'ala ja'izatin
Aisha watched the fourteenth goal in the match.	شاهدت عائشة الهدف الرابع عشر في المباراة.shâhadat ʿâ'ishatu al-hadafa ar-râbiʿa ʿashara fî al-mubârâh
the fifteenth	الخامس عشرal-khâmisu 'ashar
He stayed in fifteenth place for a week.	بقي في المركز الخامس عشر لمدة أسبوع.baqiya fî al-markazi al-khâmisa ashara limuddati usbûin.
Where is the fifteenth candidate on the list?	أين المرشح الخامس عشر في القائمة؟ayna al-murashshahu al-khâmisa 'ashara fî al-qâ'imati?
the sixteenth	السادس عشرas-sâdisa ashar
The sixteenth athlete is slower than the first.	الرياضي السادس عشر أبطأ من الأول.ar-riyâdiyyu as-sâdisa 'ashara abta'u mina al-awwali
Maryam read the sixteenth report about the match.	قرأت مريم التقرير السادس عشر عن المباراة.qara'at maryamu at-taqrîra as-sâdisa 'ashara 'ani al-mubârâh
the seventeenth	السابع عشرas-sâbi'a 'ashara
What happened on the seventeenth day?	ماذا حدث في اليوم السابع عشر؟mâdhâ hadatha fi l-yawmi s-sâbia ashara?
The seventeenth participant won a medal.	فاز المشارك السابع عشر بميدالية.fâza al-mushâriku as-sâbi'a 'ashara bimîdâliyatin
the eighteenth	الثامن عشرath-thâmina 'ashar
Fatima withdrew in the eighteenth week.	انسحبت فاطمة في الأسبوع الثامن عشر.insahabat fâtima fil-usbû'i th-thâmina ashar
This is the eighteenth goal for the team.	هذا هو الهدف الثامن عشر للفريق.hâdhâ huwa alhadafu aththâmina ashara lilfarîqi
the nineteenth	التاسع عشرat-tâssi'a 'ashara
The nineteenth champion is faster than everyone.	البطل التاسع عشر أسرع من الجميع.albatalu ttâsi'a 'ashara asra'u mina ljamî'.
The team scored the nineteenth goal today.	سجل الفريق الهدف التاسع عشر اليوم.sajjala al-fariqu al-hadafa at-tasi'a 'ashara al-yawma

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