Numbers 21 to 1000: tens, hundreds and bin

The idea

Each ten has its own name: yirmi, otuz, kırk, elli, altmış, yetmiş, seksen, doksan. Larger numbers are built from the biggest part down, each word written apart: yüz yirmi beş, iki yüz elli, bin dokuz yüz doksan beş. The multiplier comes before yüz and bin, and the noun after a number stays singular: elli kitap.

Examples

• Babam elli yaşında.My father is fifty years old.
• Otobüste yetmiş kişi var.There are seventy people on the bus.After a number the noun stays singular: yetmiş kişi, not yetmiş kişiler.
• Dükkânda beş yüz kitap var.There are five hundred books in the shop.
• Bu çanta üç yüz elli lira.This bag costs three hundred fifty lira.The multiplier comes first (üç yüz), then the ten (elli); every word is written apart.
• yüz liraone hundred liraThere is no bir before yüz: yüz lira, never bir yüz lira. The same goes for bin lira.
• Doğum yılım bin dokuz yüz doksan beş.My birth year is 1995.A year is one ordinary number read from the largest part down: bin dokuz yüz doksan beş, not split into two halves.
• Bu yıl iki bin yirmi altı.This year is 2026.
• yedi yüz seksen dört784

Watch out

Do not put bir before yüz or bin: it is yüz lira and bin lira, never bir yüz lira. A year is read as one ordinary number, so 1995 is bin dokuz yüz doksan beş, not two halves.

Try it yourself

1. Write the number 40 in words.

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   kırk

   kırk: forty has its own word with the dotless ı; it is not built from dört and on, and kırık means broken.

2. Write the number 70 in words.

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   yetmiş

   yetmiş: seventy is also a name of its own, ending in ş, unlike 17, which is on yedi.

3. This notebook costs one hundred lira. Write 100 in words, with no bir.

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   yüz

   yüz: a hundred stands alone, because yüz never takes bir in front of it.

4. Write the number 250 in words.

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   iki yüz elli

   iki yüz elli: the multiplier iki comes before yüz, then the ten elli, all written apart.

Use it today

Write this year, a house number and the price of something you bought, all in words.