Learning to count in Ukrainian is an essential step for navigating everyday conversations.

You’ll use numbers to tell time, buy groceries, and share your age.

Ukrainian numbers follow a highly logical pattern with a few specific grammar rules.

This guide breaks down cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers, and how nouns change when you count them.

You can practice listening to and speaking these numbers directly on Talk In Ukrainian.

Cardinal numbers: counting from 1 to 10

The most important numbers you’ll learn are zero through ten.

These form the foundation for all other numbers in the language.

There’s one important rule to remember about the numbers one and two.

They change depending on the gender of the noun you’re counting.

The number one has three forms: один for masculine words, одна for feminine words, and одне for neuter words.

The number two has two forms: два for masculine and neuter words, and дві for feminine words.

All other numbers from three to ten stay exactly the same regardless of gender.

Counting from 11 to 20

Counting from eleven to twenty in Ukrainian is very simple once you know the first ten numbers.

You simply take the base number and add the suffix -надцять (-nadtsiat).

This suffix literally translates to “on ten” in old Slavic.

Notice how the spelling shifts slightly for words like шістнадцять (sixteen).

The soft sign (ь) is dropped from the base number before adding the suffix.

Tens, hundreds, and thousands

Counting by tens uses the suffix -дцять for 20 and 30, and the suffix -десят for 50 through 80.

Forty and ninety are irregular and have their own unique words.

To create compound numbers like 21 or 35, you just say the ten and then the single digit.

There’s no “and” placed between the numbers in Ukrainian.

Ordinal numbers in Ukrainian

Ordinal numbers tell you the position of something in a list, like first, second, or third.

In Ukrainian, ordinal numbers act exactly like adjectives.

This means they must change their endings to match the gender, number, and case of the noun they describe.

The list below shows the basic masculine form of the ordinal numbers.

If you want to talk about the “first book” (a feminine noun), перший becomes перша.

How to use plurals with numbers

Using nouns alongside numbers is an important grammar skill for beginners.

The noun ending changes depending on the number that comes right before it.

You’ll need to use different grammar cases based on a simple set of rules.

Here’s the system you need to follow:

1. For numbers ending in 1 (except 11): Use the Nominative Singular (the dictionary form).
2. For numbers ending in 2, 3, or 4 (except 12-14): Use the Genitive Singular.
3. For numbers ending in 5 through 9, 0, and 11-19: Use the Genitive Plural.

Let’s look at how this works with the word брат (brother).

For large numbers, you only look at the very last digit to decide the rule.

If you have 21 brothers, the number ends in 1, so you use the singular form (брат).

If you have 24 brothers, the number ends in 4, so you use the Genitive Singular (брати).