Every number from 1 to 100 spelled out in Telugu script with romanization — plus the hundreds, the lakh–crore system that trips up most learners, ordinals, fractions and the traditional Telugu digits.
Telugu counting is more regular than English once you get past the first twenty. There is no equivalent of the "eleven, twelve, thirteen" irregularity stretching on — after 20, every number is simply the tens word followed by the units word, with no joining word and no changes to either part.
So if you know ఇరవై (20) and ఏడు (7), then 27 is ఇరవై ఏడు. That pattern holds without exception all the way to 99. The real work is memorising 1–20 and the nine tens words; everything else assembles itself.
Grouped by decade so the pattern is visible. Type in the box to jump to any number.
1 to 10 are unique words you simply learn. 11 to 19 are built on పది (ten), but the joins are worn down by centuries of use and are not fully predictable — పదకొండు (11) and పన్నెండు (12) both contain పది in eroded form, and పంతొమ్మిది (19) contracts further still. Treat these nine as vocabulary.
20 onward is where it becomes mechanical:
Note that eight of the nine tens words end in -ై (-ai): iravai, muppai, nalabhai, yābhai, aravai, ḍebbai, enabhai, tombhai. Only పది (10) sits outside the pattern. Hearing that shared ending is often enough to identify which decade a spoken number is in, even if you miss the rest.
Multiples are formed by putting the multiplier in front and pluralising the unit: వంద (100) becomes వందలు, వెయ్యి (1,000) becomes వేలు.
In that last example the components take the linking form వేల and వందల rather than the plural వేలు / వందలు, because something follows them. A standalone "three thousand" is మూడు వేలు; "three thousand and something" is మూడు వేల….
The South Asian numbering system diverges from the Western one above 100,000. If you have only ever counted in millions, this table is the one worth bookmarking.
| Value | Written in India | Telugu | Roman | In Western terms |
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Digit grouping. Indian convention groups the last three digits, then every two digits after that. Fifteen million is written 1,50,00,000 and read as "one crore fifty lakh" — ఒక కోటి యాభై లక్షలు. You will see this everywhere in Telugu newspapers, property listings and government figures, so it is worth being able to read at a glance.
Telugu forms ordinals by adding the suffix -వ (-ava) to the cardinal number. There is exactly one irregular form: "first".
| # | English | Telugu | Roman |
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మొదటి (first) does not follow the pattern — it comes from a different root meaning "beginning". Everything from second onward is simply the cardinal plus -వ, so once you can count you can already form every ordinal you will ever need. You may also hear తొలి (toli) for "first" in more literary or poetic registers.
These come up constantly at the vegetable market and the tea stall, far more often than large numbers do.
| Amount | Telugu | Roman | Where you'll hear it |
|---|
The -న్నర (-nnara) ending means "and a half" and attaches directly to the number: ఒకటిన్నర (1½), రెండున్నర (2½), మూడున్నర (3½). It is also how you tell the time — మూడున్నర means half past three.
Telugu has its own numeral glyphs, descended from the same Brahmi source as the Arabic numerals used worldwide. Modern Telugu print uses 0–9; these forms survive in traditional calendars (పంచాంగం), temple inscriptions and older books.
A lakh (లక్ష) is 100,000 — one hundred thousand. A crore (కోటి) is 10,000,000 — ten million, or one hundred lakh. So ten lakh makes a million, and a hundred crore makes a billion. These are not informal terms; they are the standard units in Indian English, Telugu media and official statistics.
Both are correct. వంద (vanda) is the everyday spoken word and what you should default to. నూరు (nūru) is the older native Telugu form, now mostly literary — you will meet it in poetry, proverbs and set phrases rather than at a shop counter.
They are contractions worn smooth by use. పదకొండు is పది + ఒకటి (ten + one) compressed, and పన్నెండు is పది + రెండు compressed further. The same erosion happens in English "eleven" and "twelve", which descend from Old English forms meaning "one left over" and "two left over".
Digit by digit, exactly as in English — you read out the individual numerals rather than grouping them into larger values. Zero is సున్నా (sunnā). In fast speech many Telugu speakers simply switch to English digits for phone numbers and prices, which is entirely normal and not considered incorrect.
Slightly. ఒకటి (one) becomes ఒక before a noun — ఒక పుస్తకం, "one book", not ఒకటి పుస్తకం. Similarly రెండు stays unchanged but వంద becomes వందల when something follows it. Most other numbers are stable.
Ten lessons that teach you to build sentences.
All 56 letters, with pronunciation and examples.
Everyday words by category, with example sentences.
Bargaining, ordering, asking directions.
Try a number you're unsure about, in Telugu or English.