Persian numbers use their own digits, from ۰ (zero) to ۹ (nine), and are written left to right even inside right-to-left text. These 25 questions cover the digits, the words for 1 to 20, tens and hundreds, joining numbers with و (o, and), thousands and millions, ordinals, years and prices in tomans and rials.
The Persian digits are ۱ one, ۲ two, ۳ three, ۴ four, ۵ five, ۶ six, ۷ seven, ۸ eight, ۹ nine and ۰ zero. Two catch beginners out: zero is a small dot, and five is a small circle that looks like an English 0. Persian ۴ (four), ۵ (five) and ۶ (six) also differ from the Arabic ٤ (four), ٥ (five) and ٦ (six). Numbers run left to right, so ۱۴۰۵ is 1405. To check any number, try the Persian number converter.
Number words follow clear patterns. After 10, the teens end in -dah: سیزده (sizdah, 13), چهارده (chahârdah, 14). Hundreds end in -sad: سیصد (sisad, 300), پانصد (pânsad, 500), with دویست (devist, 200) as the odd one. Bigger numbers are joined with و, pronounced o: بیست و پنج (bist-o panj, 25). The Persian numbers 1 to 1000 guide lists every form.
Read each Persian number aloud in Persian before you choose. Saying bist-o panj is better practice than translating to 25 in your head.
Persian digits
1. What number is ۵?
2. What number is ۸?
3. How do you read the number ۲۰۳?
4. Persian and Arabic use mostly the same digit shapes. Which digits are written differently in Persian?
5. Persian text is written right to left. How are numbers of several digits written?
Number words 1 to 20
6. When counting, which word comes between دو (do, 2) and چهار (chahâr, 4)?
7. Which word means 8?
8. The word نه can mean “no” (na). As a number, pronounced noh, what does it mean?
9. How do you say 13 in Persian?
10. What number is هجده (hejdah)?
Tens, hundreds and compound numbers
11. Which word means 40?
12. What number is شصت (shast)?
13. What number is دویست (devist)?
14. How do you say 300 in Persian?
15. What number is پانصد (pânsad)?
16. To say 25, Persian joins بیست (bist, 20) and پنج (panj, 5) with which word?
17. What number is سیصد و شصت و پنج?
Thousands, millions, years and prices
18. How do you say 3,000 in Persian?
19. Which is 2,500,000 in Persian?
20. The Iranian year ۱۴۰۵ began in March 2026. How is it read in Persian?
21. 1 toman = 10 rials. A taxi ride costs 50,000 tomans. How much is that in rials?
22. A banknote says 100,000 rials. How many tomans is it worth?
Ordinal numbers
23. Which word means “fourth”?
24. “The third day” can be روز سوم (ruz-e sevvom). Which word goes before روز (ruz, day) to give the other common form?
25. Which of these does NOT mean “first”?
Answer key with explanations
- B. 5: The small circle ۵ is five, even though it looks like an English zero. Persian zero is a dot, ۰, so ۵۰ is 50.
- C. 8: ۸ is eight and looks like an upside-down V. Seven, ۷, is the V the right way up: think of ۷ opening upward and ۸ opening downward.
- B. 203: Persian numbers are read left to right like English ones: ۲ is 2, ۰ is 0 and ۳ is 3, giving 203. The dot in the middle is a zero, so this is not 23.
- D. 4, 5 and 6: Persian writes four as ۴, five as ۵ and six as ۶, while Arabic uses ٤ for four, ٥ for five and ٦ for six. The other digits, such as ۱ (one), ۲ (two) and ۳ (three), look the same in both.
- C. Left to right, like English numbers: Numbers keep the left-to-right order even in a right-to-left sentence. The year ۱۴۰۵ starts with ۱ on the left and is read 1405, not 5041.
- A. سه: سه (se) is 3: یک (yek), دو (do), سه (se), چهار (chahâr). سی (si) is 30, شش (shesh) is 6 and سیزده (sizdah) is 13.
- D. هشت: هشت (hasht) is 8. It is easy to mix up with هفت (haft, 7): the two differ only in ش (sh) versus ف (f). هشتاد (hashtâd) is 80.
- A. 9: نه (noh) is 9, and the same spelling read na means “no”; context tells them apart. 19 is نوزده (nuzdah), 90 is نود (navad) and 900 is نهصد (nohsad).
- C. سیزده: سیزده (sizdah) is 13; the teens end in -dah. You hear it in سیزده‌بدر (Sizdah Bedar), the outdoor holiday on the 13th day of the new year. سی (si) is 30, سیصد (sisad) is 300 and سه هزار (se hezâr) is 3,000.
- B. 18: هجده (hejdah) is 18; it is also spelled هیجده. Note that it does not start with هشت (hasht, 8), the way English “eighteen” starts with “eight”. 80 is هشتاد (hashtâd) and 800 is هشتصد (hashtsad).
- D. چهل: چهل (chehel) is 40, an irregular form. چهار (chahâr) is 4, چهارده (chahârdah) is 14 and چهارصد (chahârsad) is 400.
- C. 60: شصت (shast) is 60, spelled with ص even though شش (shesh, 6) is not. 16 is شانزده (shânzdah) and 600 is ششصد (sheshsad).
- D. 200: دویست (devist) is 200, the one hundred that does not end in -sad. 12 is دوازده (davâzdah), 20 is بیست (bist) and 2,000 is دو هزار (do hezâr).
- C. سیصد: سیصد (sisad) is 300, from سه (se, 3) and صد (sad, 100). Do not confuse it with سی (si, 30) or سیزده (sizdah, 13).
- C. 500: پانصد (pânsad) is 500. Its first part, pân-, is the same as in پانزده (pânzdah, 15), while 50 is پنجاه (panjâh) and 5,000 is پنج هزار (panj hezâr).
- D. و: Parts of a number are joined with و (and), pronounced o: بیست و پنج (bist-o panj). با means “with”, یا means “or” and از means “from”.
- C. 365: سیصد (sisad, 300) + شصت (shast, 60) + پنج (panj, 5) = 365, read sisad-o shast-o panj. Persian says the largest part first, just like English.
- D. سه هزار: سه هزار (se hezâr) is 3,000: هزار (hezâr) means thousand. سیصد (sisad) is 300, سی هزار (si hezâr) is 30,000 and سه میلیون (se milyun) is 3,000,000.
- B. دو میلیون و پانصد هزار: دو میلیون و پانصد هزار (do milyun-o pânsad hezâr) is 2 million and 500 thousand. With پنجاه (panjâh, 50) instead it would be 2,050,000, and دو هزار و پانصد (do hezâr-o pânsad) is only 2,500.
- B. هزار و چهارصد و پنج: Years are read as whole numbers: هزار و چهارصد و پنج (hezâr-o chahârsad-o panj), literally “a thousand and four hundred and five”. Persian does not split years into pairs the way English says “fourteen oh five”.
- A. 500,000 rials: Multiply tomans by 10 to get rials: 50,000 × 10 = 500,000. The rial is the official unit printed on banknotes, but Iranians usually state prices in tomans, تومان (tomân).
- B. 10,000 tomans: Divide rials by 10 to get tomans: 100,000 rials (ریال) = 10,000 tomans. A shop would give that price as ده هزار تومان (dah hezâr tomân).
- C. چهارم: Ordinals add -om to the number: چهار (chahâr, 4) becomes چهارم (chahârom, fourth), and پنج (panj, 5) becomes پنجم (panjom, fifth). چهل (chehel) is 40 and چهارده (chahârdah) is 14.
- B. سومین: Ordinals ending in -omin come before the noun: سومین روز (sevvomin ruz). Ordinals in -om come after it with ezâfe: روز سوم (ruz-e sevvom). سه روز (se ruz) means “three days”, and سی‌ام (si-yom) is “thirtieth”.
- B. یکی: یکی (yeki) means “one” or “someone”, not “first”. اول (avval) and یکم (yekom) both mean first, for example in dates: یکم فروردین (yekom-e farvardin), the first of Farvardin. اولین (avvalin) is “the first” before a noun.
How to get fluent with Persian numbers
Learn the irregular forms as a short list, because everything else follows patterns: چهل (chehel, 40), شصت (shast, 60), نود (navad, 90), دویست (devist, 200) and پانصد (pânsad, 500). Then practice with real material: prices, phone numbers and dates.
Dates are the best daily drill. The Iranian calendar has its own month names and its new year, Nowruz, begins in March, so reading today’s date in Persian practices ordinals and numbers together.