Learning to count is a crucial step when starting your Kazakh language journey.

Numbers appear everywhere in our daily conversations.

You’ll need them to buy groceries at the local bazaar, schedule meetings with friends, or simply share your age.

The Kazakh counting system follows a highly logical pattern that makes it incredibly easy to memorize.

I’ll break down exactly how to build these numbers step by step so you can start using them right away.

Kazakh numbers from 0 to 10

The most important numbers to learn are from zero to ten.

These form the foundation of all other numbers in the Kazakh language.

Take a moment to memorize this primary list first.

Counting from 11 to 99 in Kazakh

Once you know the numbers up to ten, counting higher is incredibly simple.

To make numbers like 11 or 15, you just combine the word for ten (он) with a single digit.

For example, 11 is literally “ten one” (он бір).

15 is literally “ten five” (он бес).

To count up to 99, you just need to memorize the words for the tens.

You follow the exact same stacking rule to create any number between 21 and 99.

To say 23, you combine “twenty” and “three” to get жиырма үш (jıyrma üsh).

To say 47, you combine “forty” and “seven” to get қырық жеті (qırıq jeti).

Hundreds, thousands, and millions

Large numbers follow the exact same logical pattern.

You state the amount of hundreds or thousands, followed by the specific base word.

If you want to say 200, you simply say “two hundred” which is екі жүз (eki jüz).

If you want to say 5,000, you say “five thousand” which is бес мың (bes mıñ).

Let’s look at how to form the current year, 2024.

You say “two thousand twenty four”, which translates to екі мың жиырма төрт (eki mıñ jıyrma tört).

Days of the week in Kazakh

Now that you know your numbers, let’s look at how to discuss time frames.

The days of the week in Kazakh largely borrow their structure from Persian.

You’ll notice that almost all of them end with the suffix -сенбі (senbi), which originally meant “day”.

Friday is the only exception to this rule because it originates from Arabic.

Telling time in Kazakh

Telling time is one of the most practical ways to practice your numbers.

The word for “hour” or “clock” in Kazakh is сағат (sağat).

To ask “What time is it?”, you simply ask “Clock how much?”.

Another very common way to ask for the time uses the word неше (neshe), which also means “how much” or “how many”.

To answer, you state the word сағат followed by the number.

If you want to express half-past the hour, you use the word жарым (jarım), which means “half”.