Numbers in Greek

ένα, δύο, τρία, τέσσερα

How Modern Greek builds its numbers, how each word is spelled with its accent and how it is said, from μηδέν to ένα εκατομμύριο. Every word on the site comes from one engine, checked against a second, separately written one.

Greek numbers 1-100 chart (PDF)One A4 page with figures, Greek and how to say each number.Worksheet generatorFresh sheets for any range up to a million, answer key as its own file.The full 1 to 100 tableEvery number on one page, with the patterns that make it easy.

Zero to ten

The accented letter is in ochre. The respelling puts the stressed syllable in capitals; TH is the sound in “this”, KH the throaty sound in Scottish “loch”. The pronunciation page covers each sound.

FigureGreekSay itListen
0μηδένmee-THEN
1έναE-na
2δύοTHEE-o
3τρίαTREE-a
4τέσσεραTE-se-ra
5πέντεPEN-de
6έξιE-ksee
7εφτάef-TA
8οχτώokh-TO
9εννιάe-NYA
10δέκαTHE-ka

How Greek builds every number

Five rules take you from eleven to a million. The examples are read by the site's engine.

  1. 1

    Eleven and twelve have their own names; the teens add δεκα-

    έντεκα and δώδεκα stand alone. From 13 the word is δεκα- with the unit fused on, written as one word: δεκατρία, δεκαέξι.

    11 έντεκα EN-de-ka12 δώδεκα THO-the-ka13 δεκατρία the-ka-TREE-a16 δεκαέξι the-ka-E-ksee

  2. 2

    The tens have names, and the unit follows as a second word

    είκοσι, τριάντα, σαράντα and on to ενενήντα. From 21 the unit comes after the ten as its own word, with no word for “and”.

    21 είκοσι ένα EE-ko-see E-na34 τριάντα τέσσερα tree-AN-da TE-se-ra58 πενήντα οχτώ pe-NEEN-da okh-TO99 ενενήντα εννιά e-ne-NEEN-da e-NYA

  3. 3

    A hundred is εκατό, but εκατόν when the number carries on

    On its own, εκατό. From 101 to 199 it takes a final ν: εκατόν ένα. The other hundreds end in -κόσια: διακόσια, εννιακόσια.

    100 εκατό e-ka-TO101 εκατόν ένα e-ka-TON E-na250 διακόσια πενήντα thya-KO-sya pe-NEEN-da900 εννιακόσια e-nya-KO-sya

  4. 4

    A thousand is χίλια; from two thousand, χιλιάδες

    χιλιάδες is a feminine noun, so the number in front of it turns feminine where it can: τρεις, τέσσερις, διακόσιες.

    1,000 χίλια HEE-lya2,026 δύο χιλιάδες είκοσι έξι THEE-o hee-LYA-thes EE-ko-see E-ksee3,000 τρεις χιλιάδες TREES hee-LYA-thes200,000 διακόσιες χιλιάδες thya-KO-syes hee-LYA-thes

  5. 5

    A million is ένα εκατομμύριο

    The top of the range this site reads, and the last number the worksheets go to.

    1,000,000 ένα εκατομμύριο E-na e-ka-to-MEE-ree-o

The three numbers that change

Counting aloud, a Greek speaker says ένα, τρία, τέσσερα. In front of a noun those three agree with it: ένας καφές (one coffee, masculine), μία μέρα (one day, feminine), ένα βιβλίο (one book, neuter); τρεις φίλοι but τρία παιδιά. The same happens inside bigger numbers, which is why 3,000 is τρεις χιλιάδες. The gender page has the full tables.

Go further

Greek numbers 1 to 10Each number with its sound, its stress and the English words it gave us.Hundreds, thousands, a millionεκατόν, the -κόσια hundreds and the feminine χιλιάδες, with a number reader.Telling the timeWhy it is μία η ώρα and τρεις και τέταρτο.Dates, years and agesστις είκοσι πέντε Μαρτίου, δύο χιλιάδες είκοσι έξι, and how old you are.Prices in eurosευρώ and λεπτά, the decimal comma and the thousands point.Ordinal numbersπρώτος, δεύτερος, τρίτος, with all three genders.

Questions teachers and learners ask

How do you count to ten in Greek?

ένα, δύο, τρία, τέσσερα, πέντε, έξι, εφτά, οχτώ, εννιά, δέκα. Said roughly E-na, THEE-o, TREE-a, TE-se-ra, PEN-de, E-ksee, ef-TA, okh-TO, e-NYA, THE-ka, with the stress where the accent mark sits. Zero is μηδέν (mee-THEN).

Is seven επτά or εφτά?

Both are correct. εφτά, οχτώ and εννιά are the everyday spoken forms; επτά, οκτώ and εννέα are more formal and common in print. The Triantafyllidis dictionary of Standard Modern Greek lists each pair side by side. This site uses the spoken set throughout, including in δεκαεφτά and εφτακόσια, and the worksheets accept the other.

Do Greek numbers change for gender?

A few do. One, three and four have masculine, feminine and neuter forms (ένας, μία, ένα; τρεις, τρεις, τρία; τέσσερις, τέσσερις, τέσσερα), and so do the hundreds from 200 and the word for a thousand. Everything else stays the same. When you simply count, Greek uses the neuter, which is why ένα, τρία and τέσσερα are the forms on the charts.

Why does every Greek number word have an accent?

Modern Greek marks the stressed syllable of every word of more than one syllable with an accent, the tonos. Leaving it off is a spelling mistake, and putting it on the wrong letter changes how the word is said. One-syllable words such as τρεις take no accent.

Is "Greek numbers" the same as "Greek numerals"?

Not on this site. Greek numbers here means the Modern Greek words for numbers, ένα, δύο, τρία. Greek numerals usually means the older system that writes numbers with letters, αʹ for 1 and ιʹ for 10, which Greece still uses for school years, chapters and monarchs. That system has its own page.

Sources: Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής (Institute of Modern Greek Studies, Triantafyllidis Foundation), online at the Centre for the Greek Language, entries ένας, εκατό, χιλιάδα, οχτώ, εννιά; Holton, Mackridge, Philippaki-Warburton and Spyropoulos, Greek: A Comprehensive Grammar, 2nd ed. (Routledge 2012), chapter on numerals. More on sources and checking.