Numbers and counting
Yes, when you learn any language, there comes a time for numbers – the most boring topic in the world… Although let’s admit, we Turkic people are weirdly obsessed with numbers, starting to count in front of any other Turkic person to show them we speak their language! If you want to do this trick using Tatar on your vacation in Türkiye, repeat after me:
▶️ 1 – ber
▶️ 2 – ike
▶️ 3 – öç
▶️ 4 – dürt
▶️ 5 – biş
▶️ 6 – altı
▶️ 7 – cide
▶️ 8 – sigez
▶️ 9 – tuğız
▶️ 10 – un
You can’t make numbers more exciting, unless maybe you’re Superalisa. Here is a song for you to memorize some numbers in Tatar.
And the list goes on:
▶️ 11 – unber
▶️ 12 – unike
…
▶️ 20 – yegerme
▶️ 21 – yegerme ber
▶️ 22 – yegerme ike
…
▶️ 30 – utız
▶️ 40 – qırıq
▶️ 50 – ille
▶️ 60 – altmış
▶️ 70 – citmeş
▶️ 80 – siksən
▶️ 90 – tuqsan
▶️ 100 – yöz
200 – ike yöz
300 – öç yöz
…
▶️ 1000 – meñ
Note that when a number is followed by a noun, the plural suffixes are not used.
ike dus – two friends
unbiş yəş(tә) – fifteen years (old)
biş kitap – five books
Ordinal numerals answer the question niçənçe? “which (number)?” and are formed using the number and adding -(ı)nçı or -(e)nçe:
▶️ 1st – berençe
▶️ 2nd – ikençe
▶️ 3rd – öçençe
▶️ 4th – dürtençe
▶️ 5th – bişençe
▶️ 6th – altınçı
▶️ 7th – cidençe
▶️ 8th – sigezençe
▶️ 9th – tuğızınçı
▶️ 10th – unınçı
…
21st – yegerme berençe
You can practice your knowledge by playing these games:
That’s it! Learn these numbers and it’s all going to be super good 😉