Better Hungarian

I will admit that numbers and counting are one of my least favorite things to learn in a language, and if you see the way French counts from 70 on then you’ll understand why. Hungarian numbers (thankfully) are not so complicated, and the way they form is fairly logical.

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Important: Differences in Marking Numbers

In English, we write something like “100,000” or “40,000” with a comma, as seen here (at least in the United States). However in Hungary, and (I believe) most of Europe, a decimal point (.) is used instead. So those numbers would be written as 100.000 and 40.000 in Hungarian.

Alternatively, where we use decimals (ex: 1.5 to mean one and a half), Hungarian uses a comma (1,5). Nowadays the two are kind of interchangeable (as far as the internet goes), and it depends a bit on the situation. Official texts will very likely be marked in the Hungarian way, so it is a helpful tidbit to know.

For the sake of this post I’m just going to stick to the “Anglophone” way, to hopefully avoid confusion. But if you come from a country that marks numbers the same as Hungarian, feel free to use whatever you’re comfortable with.

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0-10

zero	one	two	three	four	five	six	seven	eight	nine	ten
nulla	egy	kettő/két1	három	négy	öt	hat	hét	nyolc	kilenc	tíz

¹When coming directly before a noun (serving as an adjective of sorts), “két” is used. Ex: két macska van az irodában (there are two cats in the office). Otherwise, “kettő” will be used. Ex: hány macska van az irodában? Kettő van. (how many cats are in the office? (There are) two.)

Fun fact: Kettő is used to specify between két and hét sometimes, as they can sound quite similar.
–Két macska van az irodában.
-Hét macska?!
-Nem, kettő.

Note that when using a number (or another modifier like sok, kevés, etc), to modify a noun, the noun remains singular. There is no need to make it plural, as this is already evident by the number/modifier. For example, in the above sentences, it is “két macska” and not “két macskák”. Likewise it is “hány macska” and not “hány macskák”.

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11-19

For these numbers, tíz becomes “tiz”, and “en” is affixed on the end (becoming “tizen”), before adding the respective number.

You can basically look at it as “ten + ___”.

eleven	twelve	thirteen	fourteen	fifteen
tizenegy	tizenkettő/tizenkét1	tizenhárom	tizennégy	tizenöt

sixteen	seventeen	eighteen	nineteen
tizenhat	tizenhét	tizennyolc	tizenkilenc

¹Same rules apply as with kettő/két.

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Multiples of 10 (20, 30, 40…)

twenty	thirty	forty	fifty	sixty	seventy	eighty	ninety
húsz	harminc	negyven1	ötven	hatvan	hetven2	nyolcvan	kilencven

Besides 20 and 30, the multiples of 10 are formed by adding -van/-ven to the end of the number (with respect to vowel harmony)

^1/2The accents are removed from these (négy, hét), only for this formation specifically.

Now, to form the numbers in between, you essentially just add the number to the end again (except for 20, because I guess it just wanted to be different)

20 – for this one, húsz becomes “husz”, and we add “on” (huszon). The other multiples do not do this (31 would just be harmincegy, 41 would be negyvenegy, and so on)

21	22	23	24	25
huszonegy	huszonkettő/huszonkét1	huszonhárom	huszonnégy	huszonöt

26	27	28	29
huszonhat	huszonhét	huszonnyolc	huszonkilenc

¹Same rules as kettő/két, and will be with regard to all numerals ending in 2.

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Multiples of 100

száz = 100

To make multiples of 100, you add the number before “száz”.

100	200	300	400	500
száz	kétszáz	háromszáz	négyszáz	ötszáz

600	700	800	900
hatszáz	hétszáz	nyolcszáz	kilencszáz

To form the rest of the numbers (101, 110, 115, etc), you follow the previous rules, but lead with the 100. I’ve put the numbers in parenthesis to show exactly what order they go in, in case that helps.

101 – százegy (100 + 1)
201 – kétszázegy (2 + 100 + 1)
110 – száztíz (100 + 10)
210 – kétszáztíz (2 + 100 + 10)
115 – száztizenöt (100 + 15)
215 – kétszáztizenöt (2 + 100 + 15)
250 – kétszázötven (2 + 100 + 50)
251 – kétszázötvenegy (2 + 100 + 50 + 1)

Get the idea?

I should warn you now, the numbers can get quite long. Ever learnt counting in German? Yeah, about the same.

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1000 – ezer

ezer = 1000

The multiples of 1000 form just as they do for 100

1000	2000	3000	4000	5000
ezer	kétezer	háromezer	négyezer	ötezer

and so on….

To attach multiples of 100, “ezer” comes first, and you simply tack on the other number.

1100 – ezeregyszáz¹

¹While normally 100 is just “száz”, in this case “egy” is added. For the other multiples of 100, you don’t have to add anything as the number is already present.

1200 – ezerkétszáz
1300 – ezerháromszáz
1400 – ezernégyszáz
1500 – ezerötszáz

If adding other numbers into the mix, you just add the appropriate formation(s) as learnt above.

1210 – ezerkétszáztíz (1000 + 200 + 10)
1250 – ezerkétszázötven (1000 + 200 + 50)
1251 – ezerkétszázötvenegy (1000 + 200 + 51)

and so on…

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10,000 – tízezer

I’ll (try to) make this one simple. Remember the formations above? Those stay the same, and you’ll just add the appropriate number at the beginning. You can look at it as “(multiple of 10) + 1000”.

10,000 = tízezer (10 + 1000)
20,000 = húszezer (20 + 1000)
30,000 = harmincezer (30 + 1000)
40,000 = negyvenezer (40 + 1000)

and so on…

10,200 – tízezerkétszáz (10 + 1000 + 200)
21,000 – huszonegyezer (21 + 1000)
25,200 – huszonötezerkétszáz (25 + 1000 + 200)
25,255 – huszonötezerkétszázötvenöt (25 + 1000 + 200 + 55)

If you need to separate the numbers to make sense of it, no shame. It kind of looks like a keyboard smash.

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100,000 – százezer

For this one, you just smush together “100” and “1000”, so it is százezer. Simple, yeah? If you wanted, say, 200,000 instead, you would just use “200” instead: kétszázezer. Think of it as “(multiple of 100) + 1000”.

To add on any other multiples, you will just attach the appropriate number formations to the end, as with all the previous ones.

120,000 – százhúszezer (120 + 1000)
125,000 – százhuszonötezer (125 + 1000)
225,600 – kétszázhuszonötezerhatszáz (225 + 1000 + 600)
225,625 – kétszázhuszonötezerhatszázhuszonöt (225 + 1000 + 625)

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1,000,000 – millió

millió = million

1 million – egymillió
2 million – kétmillió
3 million – hárommillió

You hopefully get the gist. You will tack on the other numbers as needed, same order as before. Luckily, we can start breaking the numbers up a bit now.

1,500,000 – egymillió-ötszázezer (1 million + 500 + 1000)
1,550,000 – egymillió-ötszázötvenezer (1 million + 550 + 1000)
2,500,300 – kétmillió-ötszázezerháromszáz (2 million + 500 + 1000 + 300)
2,500,325 – kétmillió-ötszázezerháromszázhuszonöt (2 million + 500 + 1000 + 325)

I’m not getting into billions. That’s too many numbers.