Latin Numbers: Counting in Latin like an Ancient Roman

Numbers are an important part of any language, and Latin is no exception. I’ll teach you how to count from 1 to 10 in Latin before moving on to more advanced topics.

We will cover Latin numbers from 1 to 10,000, both cardinal and ordinal ones. (Don’t worry, I’ll explain what that means below.)

There are even exercises so you can practice forming numbers in Latin all on your own and then check your answers afterward.

And if you are learning Latin, you will appreciate my final section on the grammar of Latin numbers. Because yes, some numbers decline – and some can be quite quirky.

Ready? Time to count!

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Latin Numbers from 1 to 10

We will start with the basics: counting to 10 in Latin. Take a look at the following table.

Number	Latin Name
1	ūnus
2	duo
3	trēs
4	quattuor
5	quīnque
6	sex
7	septem
8	octō
9	novem
10	decem

Can you read these numbers out loud to yourself? This will help them to sink into your memory.

If you’re wondering how to pronounce them, my video on the topic can help you out.

The good thing about Latin numbers is that related English words often make them easier to remember. For instance, ūnus gives us the English verbs “unify” and “unite”, both of which mean “to make one”.

Duo gives us “duet” (a group of two musicians), while words like “trio” and “triad” can remind us of trēs.

Be careful, though: oddly, the numbers 7-10 have supplied the names for months 9-12 (September, October, November, and December). You can read more about this and why it happened in my post on Roman months.

The numbers listed above are what we call cardinal numbers, that is, numbers used for counting. These numbers answer the question: How many?

But we also have ordinal numbers, or numbers that describe an order or ranking. “First”, “second”, “tenth”, and “forty-eighth” are examples of ordinal numbers in English. These numbers answer the question: Which, in order?

Chart #2 shows the Latin ordinal numbers (first through tenth). Most ordinal numbers closely resemble their cardinal equivalents, which are given for comparison.

Ordinal Number	Meaning	Cardinal
prīmus, a, um	1st	ūnus
secundus, a, um	2nd	duo
tertius, a, um	3rd	trēs
quārtus, a, um	4th	quattuor
quīntus, a, um	5th	quīnque
sextus, a, um	6th	sex
septimus, a, um	7th	septem
octāvus, a, um	8th	octō
nōnus, a, um	9th	novem
decimus, a, um	10th	decem

Notice that all ordinal numbers are 2-1-2 adjectives. This is indicated by the us, a, um endings.

As with the cardinal numbers, we can find English derivatives that help us with memorization. Prime, second, tertiary, quarter, quintuplet, sextuplet, septuplet, octave, noon (originally the “ninth” hour), decimal, etc.

See? That wasn’t so bad, was it? Now you know how to count from 1 to 10 in Latin!

As a reward, here is a cute graphic involving dogs!

Latin Numbers from 11 to 20

Now that you can count to ten in Latin, it won’t be hard to memorize 11-19. All of the teens are formed either in relation to decem (10) or vīgintī (20).

Look at the following chart and see if you spot the patterns. The second column gives us the cardinal number (11, 12, etc.), while the third gives us the ordinal number (11th, 12th, etc.).

#	Cardinal	Ordinal
11	ūndecim	ūndecimus
12	duodecim	duodecimus
13	tredecim	tertius decimus
14	quattuordecim	quārtus decimus
15	quīndecim	quīntus decimus
16	sēdecim	sextus decimus
17	septendecim	septimus decimus
18	duodēvīgintī	duodēvīcēsimus
19	ūndēvīgintī	ūndēvīcēsimus
20	vīgintī	vīcēsimus

Do you see what is happening here? Numbers 11-17 in Latin are based on 1-7 plus decem (ten). A slight sound change results in –decim.

This is similar to what we do in English. After all, we add “teen” (10) to three, four, five, six, etc. to get thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, etc.

For 18 and 19, the pattern changes: instead of counting up from 10, Romans counted backwards from 20. Duodēvīgintī literally means “two-from-twenty”, while ūndēvīgintī means “one-from-twenty”.

NOTE: The forms octōdecim and novendecim do appear occasionally, mostly in later Latin.

The ordinal numbers from 11-20, like all ordinals, are first-and-second declension adjectives. I have omitted the feminine and neuter singular endings to save space.

Latin Numbers from 20 to 100

Time to count all the way up to 100 in Latin! Luckily, this is easier to do than it might sound, since higher numbers are built logically from lower ones.

The next chart shows the tens digits (multiples of 10) from 20 to 100. The second column gives us the cardinal number (20, 30, etc.), while the third gives us the ordinal number (20th, 30th, etc.).

After you learn the Latin words for 20, 30, 40, etc. it will be easy to then add the units in between.

#	Cardinal	Ordinal
20	vīgintī	vīcēsimus
30	trīgintā	trīcēsimus
40	quādrāgintā	quādrāgēsimus
50	quīnquāgintā	quīnquāgēsimus
60	sexāgintā	sexāgēsimus
70	septuāgintā	septuāgēsimus
80	octōgintā	octōgēsimus
90	nōnāgintā	nōnāgēsimus
100	centum	centēsimus

Centum (100) has given us many common English words such as century, centennial, and percent (which is actually a Latin abbreviation!). If you bear in mind that a century consists of 100 years, this will help you to recall what centum means.

All right, this chart gives you all the tens . . . but what about if you want to fill in the units? What if you want to say 21 or 37 or 69?

There are two main ways to build numbers in Latin. The first is identical to the method we use in English.

To say “twenty-one”, simply add 20 (vīgintī) and 1 (ūnus) together. The result is vīgintī ūnus. 22 is vīgintī duo, 23 is vīgintī trēs, and so forth.

For 37, we add 30 (trīgintā) and 7 (septem) together to get trīgintā septem. 69 is sexāgintā novem.

Simple, right? In this respect Latin numbers work the same way as English numbers!

Another option in Latin is to put the unit first. Instead of saying vīgintī ūnus, you can say ūnus et vīgintī. Literally, this version means “one-and-twenty”.

We used to speak like this in English, too. For instance, have you ever heard the nursery rhyme about four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie?

“Four-and-twenty” in Latin is quattuor et vīgintī. It has the exact same meaning as vīgintī quattuor; the order is just different.

According to this organizational principle, 37 would be septem et trīgintā and 69 would be novem et sexāgintā.

Note: The et is mandatory when the smaller number is listed first. You CANNOT say septem trīgintā – it has to be septem et trīgintā.

Now it’s your turn to practice. Can you say the following numbers in Latin? Remember there are two possibilities for each number.

Write down your responses, and then check to see if you are right by clicking on the “Answers” tab.

If you want to form ordinal numbers, you follow a similar pattern: combine the tens and the ones digits. 21st would thus be vīcēsimus prīmus, formed from vīcēsimus (20th) and prīmus (1st).

The order of the two adjectives varies. You may also see prīmus et vīcēsimus or even vīcēsimus et prīmus. They all mean the same thing.

Can you write out and pronounce the following ordinal numbers in Latin words?

You may be wondering: what is the point of all these complicated ordinal numbers? Well, I won’t deny that they are tough. But they do pop up in Latin texts, above all in discussions of people’s age and of the year in which something occurred.

On a more practical note, ordinal numbers are very useful when wishing someone a happy birthday!

After all, what if you want to say “happy 64th birthday” to a relative or friend? This would be fēlīcem sexāgēsimum quārtum nātālem.

👉 Learn more about birthday wishes in Latin!

Before we move on to numbers larger than 100, I do need to mention one final oddity. Remember how 18 and 19 in Latin are literally “two-from-twenty” and “one-from-twenty”?

It turns out that we can use this same model for 28, 29, 38, 39, etc. 28 is usually vīgintī octō, but it also appears as duodētrīgintā (“two-from-thirty”).

Compare these different versions of some representative numbers:

• 29 = vīgintī novem = ūndētrīgintā (“one-from-thirty”)
• 38 = trīgintā octō = duodēquādrāgintā (“two-from-forty”)
• 49 = quādrāgintā novem = ūndēquīnquāgintā (“one-from-fifty”)
• 58 = quīnquāgintā octō = duodēsexāgintā (“two-from-sixty”)
• 69 = sexāgintā novem = ūndēseptuāgintā (“one-from-seventy”)
• 78 = septuāgintā octō = duodēoctōgintā (“two-from-eighty”)
• 89 = octōgintā novem = ūndēnōnāgintā (“one-from-ninety”)

100 and Above

Latin has words for all the hundreds (100, 200, 300, etc.) and for 1000. All higher numbers must be built from these.

#	Cardinal	Ordinal
100	centum	centēsimus
200	ducentī	ducentēsimus
300	trecentī	trecentēsimus
400	quādringentī	quādringentēsimus
500	quīngentī	quīngentēsimus
600	sescentī	sescentēsimus
700	septingentī	septingentēsimus
800	octingentī	octingentēsimus
900	nōngentī	nōngentēsimus
1000	mīlle	mīllēsimus

These numbers keep getting weirder and weirder, don’t they?

If you want to say 135, you put together centum (100), trīgintā (30), and quīnque (5) to form centum (et) trīgintā quīnque. The et is optional and, if used, comes right after the highest number (in this instance, centum).

The ordinal numbers follow the same logic. 135th is centēsimus (et) trīcēsimus quīntus.

Your turn! Say aloud, and write down, the following numbers in Latin. Then check your answers.

Now, theoretically, you can count up to 1999 in Latin. What happens next?

Mīlle (1000) has a plural form, mīlia, which means “thousands”. 2000 is duo mīlia (two thousands), 3000 is tria mīlia (three thousands), and 4000 is quattuor mīlia (four thousands).

Decem mīlia is 10,000. Centum mīlia is 100,000.

156,432 is centum quīnquāgintā sex mīlia (et) quādringentī trīgintā duo. Yes, you just keep adding those numbers together, just like we do in English.

Be careful: mīlle resembles our word “million”, but that is not what it means. A better English word to think about is “millennium”, a period of one thousand years.

In fact, there are no Latin words for 1,000,000 (million) or 1,000,000,000 (billion). This may seem strange to you, and it really is strange. Especially since the Romans did talk about large numbers, typically when discussing sums of money.

In order to express millions in Latin, we have to use special numeral adverbs to multiply centum mīlia (100,000).

Deciēns is an adverb that means “ten times”. I could say, for instance, that I have read a certain book ten times (librum deciēns lēgī).

In order to get from 100,000 to 1,000,000, we have to multiply by 10. So, one million in Latin is deciēns centum mīlia or “ten times one hundred thousand”.

One billion is centiēns centum mīlia or “one hundred times one hundred thousand”.

As you can see, this gets complicated fast. The system requires a lot of mental multiplication.

This advanced topic is beyond the scope of this post, so I will stop here. If you are interested in learning more, I would direct you to my favorite Latin grammar.

Allen and Greenough’s discusses numbers in depth in §132-139. §138 even contains a handy list of numeral adverbs.

And now, finally, it is time to see some examples of numbers in action in Latin sentences.

How To Decline and Use Numbers in Latin

Knowing the Latin names for numbers in isolation is a good start, but it is not enough. You need to understand their usage in Roman texts.

Latin is a highly inflected language featuring lots of declension. This means that numbers can have different endings based on what case they are in.

👉 Confused about cases? Read this introduction to the Latin case system!

Luckily, not all numbers decline. Many numbers are what we call indeclinable. In other words, they never change their form, no matter what is happening in the sentence around them.

But some numbers do have different endings, and it is important that you be able to recognize them. Here is a list of numbers that are declined in Latin:

• ūnus
• duo
• trēs
• all the hundreds (ducentī, trecentī, etc.) except centum
• mīlle (in the plural)
• all ordinal numbers

Let’s go through this list one by one.

Ūnus, a, um

The number 1 in Latin is declined like a 2-1-2 adjective – for the most part. The genitive and dative are irregular since it is a so-called special adjective.

Case	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.
Nom.	ūnus	ūna	ūnum
Gen.	ūnīus	ūnīus	ūnīus
Dat.	ūnī	ūnī	ūnī
Acc.	ūnum	ūnam	ūnum
Abl.	ūnō	ūnā	ūnō

I have only listed the singular because, logically, if you have one thing, it is in the singular.

Here are some examples of ūnus in action.

Ūna anas est in lacū. = One duck is in the lake. (feminine nominative singular)

Multās imāginēs ūnīus mīlitis invēnī. = I found many images of one soldier. (masculine genitive singular)

Omnēs ūnum carmen huius poētae laudant. = All praise one poem by this poet. (neuter accusative singular)

Ūnus is also declined if it forms the final unit of a larger number. Take, for instance, vīgintī ūnus (21). We say vīgintī ūnus elephantī (masculine), but vīgintī ūnum mīlia (neuter).

Generally, if the noun being modified is not in the nominative case, then the order ūnus et vīgintī is used.

Poēta ūnam et vīgintī fābulās scrīpsit. = The poet wrote one-and-twenty plays.

Ūnam is feminine singular accusative, and – together with vīgintī – it modifies fābulās, a feminine accusative plural noun.

Here is an example from Livy’s History of Rome:

ūnā et vīgintī legiōnibus eō annō dēfēnsum imperium Rōmānum est.

The Roman government was defended in that year by one-and-twenty legions.

Livy, History of Rome 27.22.11

Here ūnā is in the ablative case to agree with legiōnibus, an ablative of means.

Duo, duae, duo

The number 2 is fully declined in the plural. There is no singular, which makes sense: by definition two is plural.

Case	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.
Nom.	duo	duae	duo
Gen.	duōrum	duārum	duōrum
Dat.	duōbus	duābus	duōbus
Acc.	duōs	duās	duo
Abl.	duōbus	duābus	duōbus

Here are some example sentences.

Amīcus fābulās dē duābus sorōribus semper nārrat. = The friend always tells stories about (his) two sisters. (feminine ablative plural)

Magistra dīxit sē duōs canēs in hortō vīdisse. = The teacher said that she saw two dogs in the garden. (masculine accusative plural)

Duo flūmina per urbem meam fluunt. = Two rivers flow through my city. (neuter nominative plural)

Duo is also declined when it is in the units position of a larger number. If the number is not in the nominative case, the form of duo usually comes first.

So, for example, Pliny the Elder describes how the river Tiber is duōbus et quādrāgintā fluviīs auctus (“augmented by two-and-forty tributaries”, Natural History 2.53). Duōbus comes before quādrāgintā.

Here is another example sentence:

Avia mea duōs et octōgintā annōs vīxit. = My grandmother lived two-and-eighty years. (masculine accusative plural)

Trēs, tria

The number 3 declines like a 3rd declension adjective. As with duo, there is no singular.

Case	M. / F.	Neut.
Nom.	trēs	tria
Gen.	trium	trium
Dat.	tribus	tribus
Acc.	trēs	trēs
Abl.	tribus	tribus

As we saw above with ūnus and duo, trēs must also be declined when it is part of a larger number (43, 103, etc.).

Let’s look at some examples.

Trēs hominēs et tria animālia lūdunt. = Three people and three animals are playing. (masculine nominative plural, neuter nominative plural)

Tribus et trīgintā diēbus omnia facta sunt. = Within three and thirty days everything was accomplished. (masculine / feminine ablative plural)

Cūr rēx tribus amīcīs aurum dedit? = Why did the king give gold to his three friends? (masculine dative plural)

Ducentī, trecentī, etc.

The words for 200, 300, and the other hundreds are plural-only 2-1-2 adjectives. In a Latin dictionary, you will see them written as follows:

• ducentī, ducentae, ducenta (abbreviated to ducentī, ae, a)
• trecentī, trecentae, trecenta (abbreviated to trecentī, ae, a)
• quādringentī, quādringentae, quādringenta (abbreviated to quādringentī, ae, a)

And so forth.

Annus trecentōs sexāgintā quīnque diēs habet. = A year has 365 days. (masculine accusative plural)

Hodiē mīlle quīngentae stēllae in caelō vidērī poterant. = Today 1500 stars could be seen in the sky. (feminine nominative plural)

Mīlle and mīlia

Mīlia is the plural of mīlle, but the two forms work quite differently.

Mīlle (1000) is an indeclinable adjective. It does not change based on the case or gender of the noun it modifies. So we say mīlle canēs (1000 dogs, masculine) and mīlle sellae (1000 chairs, feminine).

Mīlia (thousands) is a declinable noun. It is always neuter plural, and it takes a partitive genitive.

In other words, the noun that comes after mīlia must be in the genitive plural. If you want to say “two thousand dogs”, you say duo mīlia canum, literally “two thousands of dogs”.

Mīlia is NOT an adjective, so it does NOT agree in case or gender with the following noun. Instead, mīlia is declined based on its own role in the sentence.

Case	Plural
Nom.	mīlia
Gen.	mīlium
Dat	mīlibus
Acc.	mīlia
Abl.	mīlibus

The Romans measured distances in mīlia passuum or “thousands of steps”, which we usually translate as “miles”. So mīlia is a quite common word in Caesar’s Gallic Wars and other ancient texts concerned with military maneuvers.

Let’s look at some examples.

Oppidum ā silvā septem mīlium (passuum) intervallō abest. = The town is at a distance of 7000 miles from the forest. (genitive case)

Ducentīs mīlibus librōrum collēctīs, amīcī bibliothēcam condidērunt. = With 200,000 books having been collected, the friends founded a library. (ablative in ablative absolute)

Literally, septem mīlium passuum means “of seven thousands of steps” and ducentīs mīlibus librōrum means “with two hundred thousands of books”.

If, on the other hand, the friends had founded the library after only collecting 1000 books, we would say: mīlle librīs collēctīs. Librīs is now put into the ablative, and mīlle acts as an adjective.

Declining Latin Ordinal Numbers

As I mentioned earlier on in this post, all ordinal numbers in Latin are 2-1-2 adjectives. This means that they have the case endings of the first and second declensions.

Ordinal numbers, like all adjectives, can be in any case, number, or gender. It all depends on the noun they modify.

In the following examples, I will use octāvus, a, um (8th) as our sample ordinal number. Watch how the endings change based on the context of the sentence!

Augustus est octāvus mēnsis. = August is the eighth month. (masculine singular nominative)

Quis vēnit octāvā hōrā? = Who arrived at the eighth hour? (feminine singular ablative)

In Italiam octāvum iter faciēbant. = They were making their eighth journey to Italy. (neuter singular accusative)

If you have a string of ordinals in a row, they must all be declined.

Annō Dominī millēsimō nōngentēsimō nōnāgēsimō quīntō nāta sum. = I was born in the one thousand nine hundred ninety-fifth year of the Lord (1995 C.E.).

Whew, that was intense. If you really want to test your Latin, practice saying the names of years out loud. How would you say “1847”, for instance?

Ordinal numbers are long, which is probably why most Latin inscriptions opt for using Roman numerals instead of writing out entire years.

FAQs about Numbers in Latin

Final Thoughts

How do you feel about Latin numbers now? Are they more complicated than you expected them to be? Counting to 10 or even to 100 is fairly straightforward, but using numbers in Latin sentences is much more challenging.

It’s all right if you don’t remember all the tiny details in this post. But you do want to have a basic understanding of how numbers work in Latin.

Numbers allow us to talk about a variety of measurements, from distance to age to time. While they can be complicated, they are worth your attention!

I know some of the numbers, especially the ordinal ones, were long and weird-looking . . . so do you know how to pronounce them? I can help! Head over to my guide to Classical Latin pronunciation, where I teach you to pronounce Latin with confidence.

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