Gujarati Numbers 1 to 100: The Patterns That Make Them Easy to Learn

Gujarati numbers have a reputation for being hard, and the reputation is half-earned: unlike English, where "twenty-one" is transparently twenty plus one, every number from 1 to 99 in Gujarati is a distinct word that has to be learned. But the words follow patterns, and once you see them the hundred numbers collapse into ten stems and a handful of rules. This is the shortcut we use with children and adults.

One to ten: the foundation

These are the stems everything else is built from.

  • ૧ એક — ek
  • ૨ બે — be
  • ૩ ત્રણ — tran
  • ૪ ચાર — chaar
  • ૫ પાંચ — paanch
  • ૬ છ — chha
  • ૭ સાત — saat
  • ૮ આઠ — aath
  • ૯ નવ — nav
  • ૧૦ દસ — das

Learn these to the point of instant recall — counting stairs, spoons, cars — before touching anything else. Note that Gujarati has its own digit shapes (૧ ૨ ૩ ...), though Western digits are used everywhere in daily life; the Gujarati digits are worth recognising but not essential.

Eleven to twenty

These are their own words, but most contain the unit stem with a "-r" or "-ar" ending: અગિયાર agiyaar (11), બાર baar (12), તેર ter (13), ચીદ chaud (14), પંદર pandar (15), સોળ sol (16), સત્તર sattar (17), અઢાર adhaar (18), ઓગણીસ oganees (19), વીસ vees (20). The pattern to notice: 12 has "ba" (two) in it, 13 has "te" (three), 15 has "pan" (five), 17 has "sat" (seven), 18 has "adh" (eight). And 19 introduces the most useful rule in the whole system.

The "one less than" rule

Nineteen is "oganees": og- (one less) + vees (twenty). Every number ending in 9 works the same way — it is named as one less than the next ten. So 29 is ઓગણત્રીસ ogantrees (one less than thirty), 39 is ઓગણચાલીસ oganchaalees, 49 is ઓગણપચાસ oganpachaas, and so on to 99, નવ્વાણું navvaanu (which is the exception, built from nav + so). If you know the tens, you get all the nines free.

The tens

  • ૨૦ વીસ — vees
  • ૩૦ ત્રીસ — trees
  • ૪૦ ચાલીસ — chaalees
  • ૫૦ પચાસ — pachaas
  • ૬૦ સાઠ — saath (note the retroflex "th"; different from saat, seven)
  • ૭૦ સિત્તેર — sitter
  • ૮૦ એંસી — ensi
  • ૯૦ નેવું — nevu
  • ૧૦૦ સો — so

Twenty-one to ninety-eight: the compounds

Each number is unit-stem + tens-stem, fused and slightly worn down by centuries of use. Take the twenties: એકવીસ ekvees (21), બાવીસ baavees (22), તેવીસ tevees (23), ચોવીસ chovees (24), પચ્ચીસ pachees (25), છવ્વીસ chhavvees (26), સત્તાવીસ sattaavees (27), અઠ્ઠાવીસ aththaavees (28), ઓગણત્રીસ ogantrees (29). You can hear ek, ba, te, cho, pach, chha, satta, aththa in front of "vees". The same eight unit-stems recur in the thirties (ekatrees, batrees, tetrees, chotrees, paantrees, chhatrees, sadatrees, adatrees), forties (ektaalees, betaalees, tetaalees, chummaalees, pistaalees, chhetaalees, sudtaalees, adtaalees) and so on. The stems shift shape a little in each decade — that is the part that needs practice — but the skeleton is always unit then ten.

The decade-by-decade method

Do not try to learn 1–100 as a list. Do it in this order:

  1. 1–10 to automatic recall.
  2. The tens (20, 30 ... 100) as a chant.
  3. All the nines using the "one less" rule.
  4. One decade a week: say each number in the twenties while pointing at the written form, then the thirties, and so on. Ten weeks covers everything.
  5. Reverse it: someone says a number, the learner writes the digits.

Beyond a hundred

From here the system becomes regular: 101 is "ek so ek", 250 is "baso pachaas" (two hundred fifty), 1,000 is હજાર hajaar, and 100,000 is લાખ laakh — the famous Indian unit that English-speaking children find delightful because it does not exist in English. "Be laakh" is 200,000; "das laakh" is a million; and ten million is a કરોડ karod.

Everyday uses to practise on

Prices at the shop, ages of family members ("ba ketla varas na che?" — how old is ba?), phone numbers digit by digit, the time ("saat vaagya" — seven o'clock), and cricket scores, which are the single best motivator for a nine-year-old to master the nineties.

The number cards in our flashcard pack are grouped by decade for exactly this method, with the Gujarati digit, the word in script, the transliteration and audio for every one of the hundred.

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