How to pronounce the Arabic numbers
Five sounds in the number words have no English match. Learn those and the transliteration below reads straight off the page. The descriptions follow the phonetic account of Modern Standard Arabic by Thelwall and Sa’adeddin in the IPA’s Illustrations series.
Updated 8 October 2026
The sounds to learn
| Letter | Written | How it is said | Heard in |
|---|---|---|---|
| ث | th | as th in think, tongue between the teeth | ثلاثة thalātha, ثمانية thamāniya, ثلاثون thalāthūn |
| ح | ḥ | a breathy h from deep in the throat, as when fogging a glass, but tighter | واحد wāḥid, أحد عشر aḥada ʿashar |
| خ | kh | as ch in Scottish loch or German Bach | خمسة khamsa, خمسون khamsūn |
| ع | ʿ | ʿayn: a squeeze in the throat, voiced; no English equivalent | أربعة arbaʿa, سبعة sabʿa, تسعة tisʿa, عشرة ʿashara |
| ص | ṣ | an emphatic s, said with the back of the tongue raised; it darkens the vowel after it | صفر ṣifr |
| أ / ئ | ʾ | hamza: a glottal stop, the catch in uh-oh | أربعة arbaʿa, مائة miʾa |
| ة | -a / -at | ta marbuta: a at the end of a phrase, at before a following noun | ثلاثة thalātha, عشرة ʿashara |
Reading the transliteration
The site writes pronunciation in the scheme Ryding’s grammar uses. A macron marks a long vowel (ā, ī, ū), a dot under a letter marks the deeper consonant (ḥ, ṣ), ʿ is ʿayn and ʾ is hamza. A doubled letter is held longer: sitta has a long t, as in the middle of “cat tail”.
Stress falls on a long vowel near the end of the word, or on the syllable before the last if there is none: ʿiSHRŪN, KHAMsa, thaMĀniya. In 11 to 19 each of the two words keeps its own stress.
The tens, said
| Figure | Arabic | Said |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | عشرون | ʿishrūn |
| 30 | ثلاثون | thalāthūn |
| 40 | أربعون | arbaʿūn |
| 50 | خمسون | khamsūn |
| 60 | ستون | sittūn |
| 70 | سبعون | sabʿūn |
| 80 | ثمانون | thamānūn |
| 90 | تسعون | tisʿūn |
| 100 | مائة | miʾa |
The ending -ūn on the tens is the form used when counting. In a sentence, after a preposition or as an object, it becomes -īn: fī ʿishrīn. Spoken dialects use -īn throughout. The full 1 to 100 with pronunciation is on the printable chart, and each of 1 to 10 has its own note on the 1 to 10 page.
Questions
How do you pronounce the Arabic numbers 1 to 10?
wāḥid, ithnān, thalātha, arbaʿa, khamsa, sitta, sabʿa, thamāniya, tisʿa, ʿashara. A line over a vowel means it is long; ḥ and ʿ are the two throat sounds described on this page; th is the th of think. Stress falls on the long vowel where there is one: wĀḥid, ithNĀN, thaLĀtha.
Why does ثلاثة آلاف sound like thalāthat ālāf?
The ending ة is written the same everywhere but said two ways. At the end of a phrase it is a short a (thalātha). When the word is the first part of a construct with a noun after it, as in three thousand, the t is pronounced: thalāthat ālāf, miʾat alf (a hundred thousand).
Do I need the case endings when I read a number aloud?
Not for everyday reading. Formal reading, as in a news bulletin or Quran recitation, adds case endings: khamsatun wa-ʿishrūna for 25. Learners and most speakers of Modern Standard Arabic drop them at the end of a phrase, which is the pronunciation given on this site.