Amharic Numbers Made Easy: From Everyday Counting to Large Amounts

Numbers come up constantly in Ethiopia. A taxi driver quotes a fare, a market seller names a price, a colleague mentions a phone number, a form asks for a date written out in words. Amharic numbers follow a consistent pattern built from a small set of base words, and once you have those, you can construct any number you need.

Units: 1 to 10

These are the building blocks for everything else. Pronunciation varies slightly between regions but these forms are widely understood across Ethiopia:

• 1 — and (አንድ)
• 2 — hulet (ሁለት)
• 3 — sost (ሦስት)
• 4 — arat (አራት)
• 5 — amist (አምስት)
• 6 — sidist (ስድስት)
• 7 — sebat (ሰባት)
• 8 — simint (ስምንት)
• 9 — zetegn (ዘጠኝ)
• 10 — aser (አስር)

11 to 19

Numbers from 11 to 19 combine "aser" with the unit. The pattern is consistent across all of them:

• 11 — aser and (አስራ አንድ)
• 12 — aser hulet (አስራ ሁለት)
• 13 — aser sost (አስራ ሦስት)
• 15 — aser amist (አስራ አምስት)
• 19 — aser zetegn (አስራ ዘጠኝ)

Tens: 20 to 90

Each multiple of ten has its own word. These need to be memorised separately since they do not follow from the units in an obvious way:

• 20 — haya (ሃያ)
• 30 — selasa (ሰላሳ)
• 40 — arba (አርባ)
• 50 — hamsa (ሃምሳ)
• 60 — sixta (ስልሳ)
• 70 — seba (ሰባ)
• 80 — siminta (ሰማንያ)
• 90 — zetegna (ዘጠና)

To form numbers like 21 or 47, combine the tens word directly with the unit. There is no word for "and" between them in casual speech:

• 21 — haya and (ሃያ አንድ)
• 34 — selasa arat (ሰላሳ አራት)
• 58 — hamsa simint (ሃምሳ ስምንት)
• 73 — seba sost (ሰባ ሦስት)

Hundreds and thousands

For hundreds, the word is me'to (መቶ). Multiples follow the same pattern as other numbers:

• 100 — me'to (መቶ)
• 200 — hulet me'to (ሁለት መቶ)
• 350 — sost me'to hamsa (ሦስት መቶ ሃምሳ)
• 145 — me'to arba amist (መቶ አርባ አምስት)

For thousands, the word is shi (ሺ):

• 1,000 — and shi (አንድ ሺ)
• 2,000 — hulet shi (ሁለት ሺ)
• 10,000 — aser shi (አስር ሺ)
• 2,345 — hulet shi sost me'to arba amist (ሁለት ሺ ሦስት መቶ አርባ አምስት)

Numbers in real conversations

Prices and money

In markets and shops, prices are usually spoken as the number followed by "birr." A seller saying "sost me'to birr" means 300 ETB. "Aser shi birr" is 10,000 ETB. In fast speech, especially for round numbers, the word for hundred or thousand is sometimes dropped and implied by context, so listening for the surrounding numbers helps.

Phone numbers

Phone numbers in Ethiopia are typically read out in pairs or individually rather than as a full number. The number 0911 23 45 67 would likely be spoken as "zero, nine, one, one... haya sost... arba amist... sidist sebat." Practicing with your own phone number is one of the fastest ways to fix the digits in memory.

Dates spoken out loud

When saying a date in Amharic, the day comes first as a number, then the month name, then the year as a full number. "12 Ginbot 2017" spoken in Amharic is "asera hulet Ginbot, hulet shi asera sebat." For everyday date conversations, people often shorten it and rely on context for the year.

The fastest way to get comfortable

Count out loud in Amharic from 1 to 30 each day for one week. That covers the units, teens, and the first two tens, which are enough for most date, price, and address situations. After that, add the hundreds and thousands as you encounter them in real conversations rather than trying to learn all of them at once from a list.