Compared to some other languages (we’re looking at you, French), counting in Turkish is actually refreshingly simple and straightforward. There are no additional vocabulary terms to learn for the teen digits — those are essentially just “ten-one,” “ten-two,” and so on. As you continue to count higher, the same basic rule applies.
Whether you’re hard at work studying the Turkish language, you’re planning a trip to Istanbul or just want to know how to tell time in Turkish, counting in Turkish is a valuable skill that’ll make the difference between “having the right amount of baklava” and being sorely disappointed that you didn’t order more.
From Zero To Ten
zero — sıfır
one — bir
two – iki
three — üç
four — dört
five — beş
six — altı
seven — yedi
eight — sekiz
nine — dokuz
ten — on
The Rest Of The Tens
twenty — yirmi
thirty — otuz
forty — kırk
fifty — elli
sixty — altmış
seventy — yetmiş
eighty — seksen
ninety — doksan
one hundred — yüz
Putting It All Together
As mentioned above, the rules of counting in Turkish are very simple.
The numbers 11 to 19 take the construction of “ten [digit].” So eleven would be on bir, twelve would be on iki, and so on.
The rest of the two-digit numbers follow a similar rule. You simply take the ten-numbers and add the corresponding single digit. So sixty-seven would be altmış yedi; fifty-six would be elli altı.
If you’re describing a quantity of something, the numeral always comes before the noun, and the form of the noun never changes, regardless of whether there’s one or twenty.