Arabic · Topic Chapter 1 · Numbers
Numbers and Their Forms
One number wears five costumes. By the end you can say all five for any number up to ten: the digit on the door, the counting word, the number in front of a noun, the ranking word, and the weekday hiding it — flat ٥ · five · five rooms · the fifth floor · Thursday.
What is the book's and what isn't
Everything unmarked is on your class pages. Anything tagged beyond the book completes a pattern the book has started — it is there so the pattern makes sense, for recognition; the class will teach it properly when it gets there.
1. Costume 1 — the digit
The book writes its numbers with these digits (page numbers, drill numbers, and the flat number in Unit 3's first dialogue):
Multi-digit numbers read left → right
Even inside right-to-left text, the digits of one number sit in the same order as in English: ١٠ = 10 · ٢٥ = 25 · ٢٠٢٦ = 2026. The biggest digit is on the left.
رَقْم = a label number
ما رَقْمُ شَقَّتِكَ؟ — ٥.
A flat number, bus number, phone number is a رَقْم, and you read it with the plain
counting word: ٥ → خَمْسَة.
Zero is صِفْر beyond the book — you need it the moment someone reads a phone number.
2. Costume 2 — the counting word
The ten words Units 1–2 gave you. They are what you say when you count, read a digit aloud, or answer “what number?”:
| digit | word | digit | word | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ١ | واحِد | ٦ | سِتَّة | ||
| ٢ | اِثْنان | ٧ | سَبْعَة | ||
| ٣ | ثَلاثَة | ٨ | ثَمانِيَة | ||
| ٤ | أَرْبَعَة | ٩ | تِسْعَة | ||
| ٥ | خَمْسَة | ١٠ | عَشَرَة |
Count to ten in one breath. Notice that three to ten all end in ة — that ة is about to matter.
3. One number, five costumes
Watch five change clothes. Press ▶, or step with ‹ ›; every form is one you have already met on a class page.
1 · The digit — on the door of the flat: رَقْمُ شَقَّتي ٥.
2 · The counting word — what you say when you read that digit.
3 · Counting things — the ة drops in front of a feminine noun, and the noun goes plural: five rooms.
4 · Ranking — the fifth floor. A new shape, خامِس, sitting after its noun.
5 · A day — Thursday is literally “the five”: the day names count from Sunday.
4. Costume 3 — counting things (3–10)
Unit 3's landlord says خَمْسُ غُرَفٍ, not خَمْسَة غُرْفَة. Two things happened. Step through them:
Start with the two words you know: five, room.
Make the noun plural: rooms. (Plurals come word by word — the book gives you this one.)
غُرْفَة is a she-noun (it ends in ة) — so the number takes its ة off. Opposites.
Join them: five rooms. في الشَّقَّةِ خَمْسُ غُرَفٍ — in the flat there are five rooms.
The book's drill 4 gives you the three forms it needs:
- ثَلاثُ
- أَرْبَعُ
- خَمْسُ
three rooms · four rooms · five rooms.
The rule behind it: opposites
For 3–10, the number takes the opposite gender of the thing counted, and the thing goes plural. Grammars call it polarity. The book only shows she-nouns so far, so you only need the no-ة forms — but here is the whole picture:
| counting a… | number | example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| she-noun (غُرْفَة، شَقَّة، سَجّادَة) | drops its ة | ثَلاثُ غُرَفٍ · خَمْسُ غُرَفٍ | |
| he-noun (يَوْم، شَهْر) | keeps its ة | خَمْسَةُ أَيّامٍ · ثَلاثَةُ أَشْهُرٍ |
Both halves are now the book's. Until Unit 7 the right-hand row had to be shown with an invented example and tagged beyond the book, because every noun the book had counted was feminine. Unit 7's first dialogue counts two masculine ones: الدِّراسَةُ خَمْسَةُ أَيّامٍ في الأُسْبوعِ and العُطْلَةُ ثَلاثَةُ أَشْهُرٍ.
The unit's listening text puts the two rows one clause apart, which is the whole rule in one sentence:
يَدْرُسُ أَحْمَدُ سِتَّةَ أَيّامٍ في الأُسْبوعِ، ويَدْرُسُ سَبْعَ حِصَصٍ في اليَوْمِ.
Six days (he-noun, ة stays), seven periods (she-noun, ة goes).
Unit 8 runs both halves across the whole range
Page 201 prints two frames next to each other, and between them they are this section's rule for every number from 3 to 8 (p.198 adds 9):
| # | hours ساعات, a she-noun | children أَطْفال, a he-noun |
|---|---|---|
| ٣ | ثَلاثَ ساعاتٍ | ثَلاثَةُ أَطْفالٍ |
| ٤ | أَرْبَعَ ساعاتٍ | أَرْبَعَةُ أَطْفالٍ |
| ٥ | خَمْسَ ساعاتٍ | خَمْسَةُ أَطْفالٍ |
| ٦ | سِتَّ ساعاتٍ | سِتَّةُ أَطْفالٍ |
| ٧ | سَبْعَ ساعاتٍ | سَبْعَةُ أَطْفالٍ |
| ٨ | ثَمانِيَ ساعاتٍ | ثَمانِيَةُ أَطْفالٍ |
| ٩ | تِسْعَةُ أَطْفالٍ |
The hours column ends -a because each is what you work (أَعْمَلُ ثَمانِيَ ساعاتٍ); the children column ends -u because each is what you have (لي خَمْسَةُ أَطْفالٍ). That is the number's own ending, which follows its job in the sentence (§6). The passage on p.210 says both in one sentence: يَعْمَلُ عُمَرُ سَبْعَ ساعاتٍ في اليَوْمِ، ويَعْمَلُ خَمْسَةَ أَيّامٍ في الأُسْبوعِ .
Eight keeps its yāʾ
Before a she-noun eight drops its ة like the rest, but it does not become ثَمانَ. It stays ثَمانِيَ : the word is ثَمانٍ on its own, and its ي shows whenever something follows it. The book prints it both with its last fatḥa (ثَمانِيَ, p.191 and frame 8) and without (ثَماني, p.190 and p.205). Before a he-noun it is the ordinary ثَمانِيَةُ أَطْفالٍ.
1 and 2 don't play this game · “two” beyond the book
“One” and “two” behave like describing words after the noun, agreeing with it, like جَميل in Lesson 3. “One” is now the book's: Unit 8 p.213 prints لَدَيَّ طِفْلٌ واحِدٌ , I have one child, with the number after the noun. The feminine follows the same way, غُرْفَةٌ واحِدَةٌ. “Two” uses a special ending on the noun itself, which the course teaches later. For now: only 3–10 go in front.
When the thing is the thing, the number goes after
Unit 6 says الصَّلَواتُ الخَمْسُ, the five prayers. Once the noun wears الـ, the number stops standing in front and follows it like any adjective, wearing الـ too, and taking the same ending as the noun. The opposites rule does not switch off: صَلاة is a she-noun, so the number is still the no-ة الخَمْس.
| indefinite: number first | definite: number after | |
|---|---|---|
| خَمْسُ صَلَواتٍ | الصَّلَواتُ الخَمْسُ | |
| أُصَلّي خَمْسَ صَلَواتٍ beyond the book | أَيْنَ تُصَلّي الصَّلَواتِ الخَمْسَ؟ |
In the second row both words end -a, because both are the thing being prayed: the number now agrees with its noun in ending, the way الخامِس does in الدَّوْرِ الخامِسِ. The book prints only the right-hand column (Unit 6 p.1, exercise 1 twice, and the review paper's passage); the left-hand خَمْسُ صَلَواتٍ is Unit 3's shape on Unit 6's word.
5. Asking “how many?”
كَمْ takes a singular noun with the ـًا/ـةً ending (drill 7); the answer comes back in costume 3 (drill 4):
ask
- غُرْفَةً
- سِتارَةً
- حَمّاماً
- سَجّادَةً
- ثَلاجَةً
how many rooms / bathrooms are in the flat?
answer
في الشَّقَّةِ خَمْسُ غُرَفٍ.
In the flat there are five rooms.
Singular after كَمْ, plural after the number — the mismatch is the point.
6. Three bands, three endings
Unit 5 weighs two men, and in doing so it shows you the other two counting bands. The number in front decides two things about the word behind it: whether it is singular or plural, and how it ends. Only three patterns exist, and you now have all of them on a class page:
كَمْ — one of it, ending -an. The same shape you drilled with كَمْ غُرْفَةً in Unit 3.
3–10 — many of it, ending -in. §4's costume, on a new noun.
11–99 — back to one of it, ending -an. Exactly كَمْ's shape. Arabic does not say “sixty kilos”.
100 — one of it again, but ending -in. Literally “a hundred of kilo”, built like غُرْفَةُ النَّوْمِ.
| in front | the thing counted | ending | the book's line | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| كَمْ | singular | ـًا | كَمْ وَجْبَةً تَأْكُلُ؟ | |
| ٣–١٠ | plural | ـٍ | ثَلاثَ وَجَباتٍ · خَمْسُ غُرَفٍ | |
| ١١–٩٩ | singular | ـًا | ٦٠ كيلاً | |
| ١٠٠ | singular | ـٍ | ١٠٠ كيلٍ |
The plural band is the odd one out, not the rule. Say the four aloud back to back and the pattern lands in the ear rather than the head: كَمْ وَجْبَةً · ثَلاثَ وَجَباتٍ · سِتّونَ كيلاً · مِائَةُ كيلٍ
Why the endings fall that way
Two of the three bands are the shape you already know from غُرْفَةُ النَّوْمِ — a two-word possessive, where the second word ends -i. That is what ثَلاثُ غُرَفٍ and مِائَةُ كيلٍ are: three of rooms, a hundred of kilo. The 11–99 band is not a possessive at all — the counted word is a separate piece answering “sixty of what?”, and that piece ends -a. So the endings are not four facts, they are two shapes: possessive twice, and the odd one in between.
The number's own ending is a separate question
Unit 3 said في الشَّقَّةِ خَمْسُ غُرَفٍ with -u; Unit 5 says آكُلُ ثَلاثَ وَجَباتٍ with -a. Nothing about counting changed — the number simply takes whatever ending its own job in the sentence calls for (خَمْسُ is what is there; ثَلاثَ is what is eaten, like any object). The counted word's ending, the one in the table above, never moves.
Saying the numbers out loud beyond the book
Unit 5 prints the figures ٦٠ and ١٠٠, not the words, so the endings are the book's but the number-words are not yet. When you read the lines aloud they are سِتّونَ and مِائَة . The tens are built from the units you have — سِتَّة → سِتّونَ — and the class will teach the set properly when it gets there.
7. Costume 4 — ranking
“Which floor?” is answered with a ranking word: first, second, third… Stack the building from the ground up (Unit 3 drill 6):
the first floor
the second floor
the third floor
the fourth floor
the fifth floor — الشَّقَّةُ في الدَّوْرِ الخامِسِ, the flat is on the fifth floor.
Three things to see in that stack:
- Position. The ranking word comes after the noun, and both carry الـ: الدَّوْرُ الخامِسُ. Same slot as جَميل in بَيْتٌ جَميلٌ.
- Shape. From 3 upward it is the counting word poured into the mould فاعِل: ثَلاثَة → ثالِث، أَرْبَعَة → رابِع، خَمْسَة → خامِس. “First” and “second” have their own words.
- Gender. It agrees like any describing word — add ة for a she-noun. No polarity here; that was only for counting.
| # | counting | ranking (he-noun) | ranking (she-noun) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ١ | واحِد | الأَوَّل | الأُولى | |
| ٢ | اِثْنان | الثّاني | الثّانِيَة | |
| ٣ | ثَلاثَة | الثّالِث | الثّالِثَة | |
| ٤ | أَرْبَعَة | الرّابِع | الرّابِعَة | |
| ٥ | خَمْسَة | الخامِس | الخامِسَة |
The she-column is the ة rule you already own, applied: الغُرْفَةُ الثّانِيَة the second room. Only “first” is irregular (الأُولى, no ة).
The mould goes all the way to ten, and the book prints it
Unit 7 p.171 prints the whole ranking set as a strip of ten, in both genders, and its drill 3 pairs each masculine with its feminine. Nothing in this section is beyond the book any more. One catch survives: “sixth” is سادِس, from an older root, not from سِتَّة.
| # | ٦ | ٧ | ٨ | ٩ | ١٠ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| he-noun | السّادِس | السّابِع | الثّامِن | التّاسِع | العاشِر | |
| she-noun | السّادِسَة | السّابِعَة | الثّامِنَة | التّاسِعَة | العاشِرَة |
Unit 4 had already brought 6 and 7 on as clock hours (السّاعَةُ السّادِسَة · السّاعَةُ السّابِعَة, Lesson 4 §5), and the book's own Unit 6 word list contained سادِس to عاشِر all along; the class pages your course was built from simply had not printed them. Unit 7 does.
The ranking word tells the time
السّاعَة the hour is a she-noun, so a clock time is the she-column above: السّاعَةُ الواحِدَة · الثّانِيَة · … · السّابِعَة — one o'clock to seven o'clock (Unit 4 p.1, drill 6). Saying at seven needs no preposition: أَذْهَبُ السّاعَةَ السّابِعَةَ, with the ending turned to -a — see the prepositions chapter.
The whole clock face (Unit 8 p.197). Eight to ten are the ranking words above. Eleven and twelve are two words each, and both words end -a in every slot, even where every other hour has -u:
| # | the book's caption | |
|---|---|---|
| ١١ | السّاعَةُ الحادِيَةَ عَشْرَةَ | |
| ١٢ | السّاعَةُ الثّانِيَةَ عَشْرَةَ |
Only these clock (feminine) forms are printed. In a sentence: يَنْتَهي السّاعَةَ الثّانِيَةَ عَشْرَةَ ظُهْراً , it ends at twelve noon (p.210).
8. Costume 5 — the days of the week
Unit 3's strip of seven names starts on Saturday, the way the working week does in much of the Arab world. But the names count from Sunday: five of them are a number with الـ in front, and الأَحَد is day one.
Saturday — “the cessation, the rest day” (the same root as Sabbath): the seventh day, so no number of its own.
Sunday — “the one”. أَحَد is another word for one (you hear it in the shahāda's الله أَحَد).
Monday — “the two”. That is اِثْنان in the shape it takes after a preposition.
Tuesday — “the three”: ثَلاثَة in an old dress.
Wednesday — “the four”: أَرْبَعَة.
Thursday — “the five”: خَمْسَة. Same three letters as خامِس, fifth.
Friday — “the gathering”, the congregational prayer day. Same root as جامِعَة, the university.
Say the week through, Saturday to Friday, and hear the count 1–2–3–4–5 in the middle.
9. Build it yourself
Tap chips right-to-left, say it aloud as you build. Each task wants a different costume — pick the right one. The later ones mix every costume, including the clock.
“In the flat there are five rooms.”
في الشَّقَّةِ خَمْسُ غُرَفٍ.
خَمْسَةُ غُرْفَةً
“The flat is on the fifth floor.”
الشَّقَّةُ في الدَّوْرِ الخامِسِ.
خَمْسَة الخَميس
“How many rooms are in the flat?”
كَمْ غُرْفَةً في الشَّقَّةِ؟
غُرَفٍ ما
“What's your flat number? — Five.”
ما رَقْمُ شَقَّتِكَ؟ خَمْسَة.
الخامِس خَمْسُ
“What's your house number? — Nine.”
ما رَقْمُ بَيْتِكَ؟ تِسْعَة.
التّاسِع تِسْعُ
“In the flat there are three rooms.”
في الشَّقَّةِ ثَلاثُ غُرَفٍ.
ثَلاثَةُ غُرْفَةً
“The flat is on the second floor.”
الشَّقَّةُ في الدَّوْرِ الثّاني.
اِثْنان الإِثْنَيْن
“Which floor? — On the fourth floor.”
في أَيِّ دَوْرٍ؟ في الدَّوْرِ الرّابِعِ.
أَرْبَعَة الأَرْبِعاء
“I go at six o'clock.”
أَذْهَبُ السّاعَةَ السّادِسَةَ.
سِتَّة السّادِسَ
“When do you go to school? — I go at one o'clock.”
مَتى تَذْهَبُ إِلى المَدْرَسَةِ؟ أَذْهَبُ السّاعَةَ الواحِدَةَ.
واحِد الأَوَّلَ
“I work eight hours a day.” “I have eight children.” (Unit 8)
أَعْمَلُ ثَمانِيَ ساعاتٍ في اليَوْمِ. لي ثَمانِيَةُ أَطْفالٍ.
ثَمانَ ثَمانِيَةَ
“The school day ends at twelve noon.” (Unit 8)
يَنْتَهي اليَوْمُ الدِّراسِيُّ السّاعَةَ الثّانِيَةَ عَشْرَةَ ظُهْراً.
الثّانِيَةُ عَشَرَةُ
10. Quick check
“Three rooms” is:
- ثَلاثَةُ غُرَفٍ
- ثَلاثُ غُرَفٍ
- ثَلاثُ غُرْفَةٍ
- ثَلاثَةُ غُرْفَةٍ
“The third floor” is:
- الدَّوْرُ ثَلاثَةُ
- الثُّلاثاءُ دَوْرُ
- الدَّوْرُ الثّالِثُ
- الثّالِثُ دَوْرُ
Which day is literally “the four”?
- الثُّلاثاء
- الخَميس
- الإِثْنَيْن
- الأَرْبِعاء
What number is ٢٥?
- 25
- 52
- 35
- 53
After كَمْ, the noun is:
- غُرَفٍ — plural
- غُرْفَةً — single
- الغُرَفُ — plural
- الغُرْفَةُ — single
Say aloud: “The flat is on the fourth floor.”
الشَّقَّةُ في الدَّوْرِ الرّابِعِ.
Say the five costumes of four: digit, counting word, “four rooms”, “the fourth floor”, the weekday.
٤ · أَرْبَعَة · أَرْبَعُ غُرَفٍ · الدَّوْرُ الرّابِعُ · الأَرْبِعاء
Say the week from Saturday, and name the number inside each day that has one.
السَّبْت (—) · الأَحَد (١) · الإِثْنَيْن (٢) · الثُّلاثاء (٣) · الأَرْبِعاء (٤) · الخَميس (٥) · الجُمْعَة (—)
“I have six children” is:
- لي سِتُّ أَطْفالٍ
- لي سِتَّةُ طِفْلاً
- لي سِتَّةُ أَطْفالٍ
- لي سِتَّ أَطْفالٍ
11. Where this came from
- Class textbook (Al-Arabiyyah Bayna Yadayk, Book 1): numbers 1–5, Unit 1 p.7; 6–10, Unit 2 p.4; the flat number, Unit 3 p.1; خَمْسُ غُرَفٍ and الدَّوْر الخامِس, Unit 3 p.2; days of the week, Unit 3 p.4; drills 4 (counting), 6 (ordinals), 7 (كَمْ), Unit 3 p.5; the clock hours السّاعَة + a feminine ordinal, Unit 4 p.1 and drill 6 (added 2026-09-02); ٦٠ كيلاً, ١٠٠ كيلٍ, ثَلاثَ وَجَباتٍ and كَمْ وَجْبَةً, Unit 5 pp.1 and 6 (added 2026-09-10); الصَّلَواتُ الخَمْسُ, Unit 6 p.1 and exercise 1 (added 2026-09-20); خَمْسَةُ أَيّامٍ and ثَلاثَةُ أَشْهُرٍ (p.164), سِتَّ حِصَصٍ (p.168), the ten ranking words in both genders (p.171), and سِتَّةَ أَيّامٍ beside سَبْعَ حِصَصٍ (the listening script, p.254), Unit 7 (added 2026-09-23, from the book PDF); the clock from one to twelve (p.197), ثَلاثَةُ … تِسْعَةُ أَطْفالٍ (p.198), frames 6 and 8 (p.201), سَبْعَ ساعاتٍ beside خَمْسَةَ أَيّامٍ (p.210) and طِفْلٌ واحِدٌ (p.213), Unit 8 (added 2026-10-05, from the book PDF). Photos and the book in your library.
- All the Arabic You Never Learned the First Time Around, “Arabic Numbers” (re-read 2026-10-05), for eight and for eleven and twelve: “the word for ‘eight,’ ثمانٍ/ثمانية is a defective word. Therefore, the final ي will only appear if the word is in an idaafa”; in 11 to 19 “both elements of the number are always accusative without nunation”, and “the ordinals from 11 to 19 are always in the accusative case, just as are the cardinals”. Wiktionary, ثمانية gives ثَمَانٍ for feminine nouns, construct ثَمَانِي, accusative ثَمَانِيَ.
- All the Arabic You Never Learned the First Time Around, “Arabic Numbers” (read 2026-09-20), for the number after a definite noun in §4: “the numbers 3 through 10 are often used in noun adjective phrases … the principle of reverse agreement will still apply, but now the number will follow the noun just as any adjective does”, with the example الكتبُ الثلاثةُ. Neither Wikipedia's numerals section nor the two grammars above cover this shape.
- Wikipedia — Arabic grammar, § Numerals (read 2026-08-30): 1–2 are adjectives that follow the noun; 3–10 show gender polarity and take a plural; ordinals above “second” use the فاعِل shape and agree normally; “sixth” comes from a different, older root.
- The counting bands in §6 — 3–10 plural genitive, 11–99 singular accusative, 100 singular genitive — checked against two independent grammars (read 2026-09-10): Kalimah, العدد والمعدود and The Arabic Pages, “The Grammar of Using Arabic Numbers”. They agree; the book's own ٦٠ كيلاً / ١٠٠ كيلٍ is the primary evidence used here.
- Word forms verified on Wiktionary (2026-08-30): الأحد, الاثنين, الثلاثاء, الأربعاء, الخميس, الجمعة, السبت; سادس and عاشر for the beyond-the-book ordinals.
Drill the counting, ranking and day cards in the Unit 3 deck (filter by numbers, ranking, days), then hear the forms in context in the Unit 3 reader. The compact table lives in the reference sheet. Anything unclear? Bring it to your teacher — in class.