How do you count to 10 in Kurdish?

In Kurmancî you count yek, du, sê, çar, pênc, şeş, heft, heşt, neh, deh. Soranî numbers sound very similar and are written in an Arabic-based script, starting with یەک (yek) for one.

How do you say twenty in Kurdish?

Twenty is bîst in Kurmancî. In Soranî it is بیست.

How are numbers like 21 formed in Kurdish?

Say the tens, then the word for “and”, then the units. In Kurmancî “and” is û, so twenty-one is literally “twenty and one”. Soranî builds it the same way.

How do you ask the time in Kurdish?

In Kurmancî, ask Saet çend e? In Soranî, ask کاتژمێر چەندە؟ (katjmêr çende).

Kurdish numbers from 1 to 10: count in Kurmancî and Soranî

Numbers are some of the most useful Kurdish words you can learn: you need them for the time, your age, prices and phone numbers. This guide gives each one in the two big written standards of Kurdish, Kurmancî (Northern Kurdish, written in Latin letters) and Soranî (Central Kurdish, written from right to left in an Arabic-based script). Every number and sentence below comes from the ZimanGo lessons.

Kurdish numbers 1 to 10

Start with one. It sounds the same in both dialects:

Yek /jɛk/ یەک yek One

Here is the full count from one to ten. Read each row across: Kurmancî first, then Soranî, then English.

Kurmancî	Soranî	English
Yek	یەک	One
Du	دوو	Two
Sê	سێ	Three
Çar	چوار	Four
Pênc	پێنج	Five
Şeş	شەش	Six
Heft	حەوت	Seven
Heşt	هەشت	Eight
Neh	نۆ	Nine
Deh	دە	Ten

The two columns are close cousins. Most numbers sound almost alike, and only a few change a vowel or a consonant:

Four is çar in Kurmancî and چوار çwar in Soranî.
Seven is heft in Kurmancî and حەوت hewt in Soranî.
Nine is neh in Kurmancî and نۆ no in Soranî.
Ten is deh in Kurmancî and دە de in Soranî.

Small sound differences like these show up in many other words too. Our guide to Kurmancî vs Soranî shows more of them.

Ten, twenty, thirty

The beginner lessons teach ten, twenty and thirty in the lesson about your age.

Kurmancî	Soranî	English
Deh	دە	Ten
Bîst	بیست	Twenty
Sî	سی	Thirty

The numbers from eleven to nineteen are single words in both dialects, just as “eleven” and “twelve” are in English. You will meet eleven in a bedtime sentence in the time section below.

Bigger numbers are joined with the word for “and”, which is û in Kurmancî. Soranî writes it و. You say the tens first, then “and”, then the units, so twenty-one is literally “twenty and one”. The same pattern carries on through the higher tens.

Counting things

To count things, put the number first and the noun straight after it. In its basic form the noun needs no plural ending: sêv is “apple” and pênc sêv is “five apples”. The Soranî sentence follows the same order, with سێو (apple) right after the number.

Kurmancî	Soranî	English
Pênc sêv hene	پێنج سێو هەن	There are five apples
Deh tilîyên min hene	دە پەنجەم هەیە	I have ten fingers
Ez avê vedixwim û heşt saetan razam	ئاو دەخۆمەوە و هەشت کاتژمێر خەوتم	I drink water, and I slept eight hours

In the second sentence the fingers belong to someone, and once a possessor is added, as in tilîyên min (my fingers), Kurmancî shows the plural ending -ên. The last sentence shows û doing its everyday job of linking two ideas. It is the same word that links the tens and the units in a bigger number.

Telling the time

To ask the time, Kurmancî uses saet (hour, clock). Soranî uses کاتژمێر.

Saet çend e? /saˈɛt tʃɛnd ɛ/ کاتژمێر چەندە؟ katjmêr çende What time is it?

To answer, put the number where the question word was. Kurmancî ends the sentence with e (is). Soranî joins “is” to the number itself, so کاتژمێر پێنجە means “it is five o'clock”.

Kurmancî	Soranî	English
Saet pênc e	کاتژمێر پێنجە	It is five o'clock
Niha saet heşt e	ئێستا کاتژمێر هەشتە	Now it's eight o'clock
Niha saet çend e? Niha saet deh e	ئێستا کاتژمێر چەندە؟ ئێستا کاتژمێر دەیە	What time is it now? It's ten o'clock
Ez di saet heftê de radibim	کاتژمێر حەوت هەڵدەستم	I get up at seven o'clock
Ez di saet heştê de taştê dixwim	کاتژمێر هەشت نانی بەیانی دەخۆم	I eat breakfast at eight o'clock
Di saet şeşê êvarê de	کاتژمێر شەشی ئێوارە	At six o'clock in the evening
Şev baş, ez di saet yazdehê de razam	شەو باش، کاتژمێر یازدە خەوتم	Good night, I slept at eleven

“Eight o'clock” or “at eight”?

Kurmancî wraps a time in di … de to say “at”, and in the lesson sentences the number ends in -ê. So saet heşt is “eight o'clock”, while di saet heştê de is “at eight o'clock”. The Soranî lesson sentences add no extra word for “at”: the time simply comes before the verb.

Your age and prices

Kurmancî has two question words here. It uses çend for the hour and for age, and çiqas (how much) for prices. In these sentences Soranî uses چەند for all of them.

Kurmancî	Soranî	English
Tu çend salî yî?	تۆ چەند ساڵانیت؟	How old are you?
Ez deh salî me	دە ساڵانم	I am ten years old
Ez bîst salî me	من بیست ساڵانم	I am twenty years old
Ev çiqas e?	ئەمە چەندە؟	How much is this?
Buha çiqas e	نرخ چەندە	What is the price?
Bi Euro çiqas e	بە یۆرۆ چەندە	How much is it in euros?

Notice how Ez deh salî me ends. “I am” is usually im, as in Ez baş im (I am fine), but after a word that ends in a vowel, such as salî, it becomes me. You can practise this in how to introduce yourself in Kurdish, and find more shopping phrases in basic Kurdish phrases.

Numbers inside the days of the week

Kurdish hides its numbers inside the names of the week. Saturday is Şemî, and the next days count up from it. Sunday, Yekşem, starts with yek (one).

Kurmancî	Soranî	English
Şemî	شەممە	Saturday
Yekşem	یەکشەممە	Sunday (from “one”)
Duşem	دووشەممە	Monday (from “two”)
Sêşem	سێشەممە	Tuesday (from “three”)
Çarşem	چوارشەممە	Wednesday (from “four”)

Soranî follows the same pattern, so the word for one sits at the start of یەکشەممە. Thursday carries on with the number five, while Friday has a name of its own. The full week and the months are in days and months in Kurdish.

How to practise Kurdish numbers

Numbers stick when you use them every day, not when you read a list once. Try these small habits:

Count things around you out loud: cups, stairs, apples in a bowl.
Say the time in Kurdish whenever you look at a clock.
Say your phone number digit by digit. The question you will hear is Numreya telefona te çi ye (What's your phone number?). In Soranî it is ژمارەی تەلەفۆنت چییە.
Tell a friend how old you are, then ask them back.

In the ZimanGo app, the Counting & Time lessons have audio from our own Kurdish text-to-speech voices, and speaking practice gives you feedback on your pronunciation.