Marathi Numbers 1 to 100: How to Count in Marathi

Ask someone the price of a vada pav in Pune and the vendor will say "दहा रुपये" (daha rupaye — ten rupees). Catch a rickshaw to Dadar and the driver will quote "एकशे वीस" (ekashe vees — 120 rupees). Marathi numbers appear every minute of every transaction in Maharashtra, and unlike English numbers — which become predictable after twelve — Marathi numbers stay surprising well past fifty. Every single number from 1 to 100 has its own unique spoken form. There are no shortcuts. There is, however, a system once you know where to look.

Numbers 1 to 10: The Foundation

Marathi uses Devanagari script for both letters and numerals. The numeral symbols (१, २, ३...) look different from the Western Arabic digits we use in English, so it's worth learning both the word forms and the symbols together.

Devanagari numeral	Word	Romanization	IPA
१	एक	ek	/eːk/
२	दोन	don	/d̪oːn/
३	तीन	teen	/t̪iːn/
४	चार	chaar	/tʃaːr/
५	पाच	paach	/paːtʃ/
६	सहा	sahaa	/səhaː/
७	सात	saat	/saːt̪/
८	आठ	aath	/aːʈʰ/
९	नऊ	nau	/nəuː/
१०	दहा	daha	/d̪əhaː/

A few phonetic details to notice early. सहा (sahaa, 6) has a voiced h between two vowels that English speakers tend to drop — say it fully. आठ (aath, 8) has the retroflex aspirated ṭh sound, tongue curled back and released with a puff of air. If you need grounding in Devanagari before going further, the Marathi alphabet guide covering all 48 Devanagari letters explains each consonant row in detail.

The Tens: Marathi's Own Words

English tens follow a pattern: twenty, thirty, forty — they're built on the ones. Marathi tens have their own names entirely, most of them ancient Prakritic forms that have no obvious connection to the ones digit.

Numeral	Word	Romanization
२०	वीस	vees
३०	तीस	tees
४०	चाळीस	chaaḷees
५०	पन्नास	pannaas
६०	साठ	saath
७०	सत्तर	sattar
८०	ऐंशी	aenshee
९०	नव्वद	navvad
१००	शंभर	shambhar

चाळीस (chaaḷees, 40) contains the retroflex lateral ḷ — the sound unique to Marathi among major Indian languages, made by touching the retroflex position to the roof of the mouth and releasing laterally. It's one of the markers that immediately distinguishes a native Marathi speaker from someone who learned Hindi and is approximating Marathi.

साठ (saath, 60) can confuse new learners because it sounds close to सात (saat, 7). Context and the following word — usually रुपये (rupaye, rupees) in a price — sort out the ambiguity in practice.

The Subtraction Pattern: एकोण- and One Step Short

Here is where Marathi does something genuinely different from English. Numbers ending in 9 — nineteen, twenty-nine, thirty-nine, and so on — are formed not by adding nine to a ten, but by subtracting one from the next ten. The prefix एकोण- (ekoṇ-) means "one short of."

Number	Marathi word	Literal meaning	Romanization
19	एकोणीस	one short of 20	ekoṇees
29	एकोणतीस	one short of 30	ekoṇtees
39	एकोणचाळीस	one short of 40	ekoṇchaaḷees
49	एकोणपन्नास	one short of 50	ekoṇpannaas
59	एकोणसाठ	one short of 60	ekoṇsaath
69	एकोणसत्तर	one short of 70	ekoṇsattar
79	एकोणऐंशी	one short of 80	ekoṇaenshee
89	एकोणनव्वद	one short of 90	ekoṇnavvad
99	नव्याण्णव	—	navyaaṇṇav

नव्याण्णव (99) is irregular — the pattern breaks at the last step. The same subtraction logic also appears in 28 (अठ्ठावीस, aṭhṭhaavees) and other forms, though the rule isn't strictly mechanical across every number. The safest approach is to memorize the -9 endings as a set.

If you've already studied Hindi, this subtraction structure looks familiar: Hindi uses unnees (19), untees (29). Marathi goes the same route with एकोण- (ekoṇ-). A post on the key differences between Marathi and Hindi grammar covers more places where the two languages run parallel and where they sharply diverge.

Numbers 11 to 19 and the Compound Middle Range

The teens in Marathi are compounds where the ones digit fuses with the ten.

Number	Word	Romanization
11	अकरा	akaraa
12	बारा	baaraa
13	तेरा	teraa
14	चौदा	chaudaa
15	पंधरा	pandhara
16	सोळा	soḷaa
17	सतरा	sataraa
18	अठरा	aṭharaa

Note that सोळा (soḷaa, 16) again uses the retroflex ḷ. Marathi number vocabulary is, in this sense, a workout in Marathi phonology. You can't say these numbers correctly without getting the retroflexes right.

The numbers 21 to 98 — minus the -9 endings discussed above — are compounds formed by stating the ones digit first, then the ten. So 21 is एकवीस (ekavees: ek + vees), 22 is बावीस (baavees), 31 is एकतीस (ekatees), 32 is बत्तीस (battees). Each combination is slightly different. बावीस (22) is not "don + vees" with any obvious link to दोन (2) — the ones digit shifts form when it compounds.

Number	Word	Breakdown
21	एकवीस	ek + vees
22	बावीस	baa + vees
23	तेवीस	te + vees
24	चोवीस	cho + vees
25	पंचवीस	panch + vees
26	सव्वीस	sav + vees
27	सत्तावीस	sattaa + vees
28	अठ्ठावीस	aṭhṭhaa + vees

The pattern shifts at each new ten — the compound forms for 31–38 use tees, for 41–48 use chaaḷees, and so on. The raw memorization load is real. Most learners recommend drilling the tens first, then the -9 forms, then filling in the rest column by column.

Marathi Numerals vs Western Arabic Digits

In formal written Marathi — newspapers, government forms, school textbooks, shop signs outside urban centers — Devanagari numerals are standard. In urban everyday use (menus, receipts, SMS, WhatsApp), Western Arabic digits (1, 2, 3...) are completely normal. You'll encounter both.

The Devanagari numeral set:

१ २ ३ ४ ५ ६ ७ ८ ९ ०

The zero is ० — identical in shape to Western Arabic 0. The shapes that trip up English speakers most: ४ (4, looks like an upside-down triangle), ५ (5, often confused with ८), and ८ (8, looser oval). A few minutes spent writing them by hand fixes most confusion.

Practical Use: Prices, Time, Phone Numbers

Prices in rupees. The word for rupee is रुपये (rupaye) in the plural, रुपया (rupayaa) in the singular. Prices almost always use the plural:

पाच रुपये (paach rupaye) — five rupees
शंभर रुपये (shambhar rupaye) — 100 rupees
पन्नास पैसे (pannaas paise) — fifty paise

For amounts above 100, Marathi says the hundreds first: एकशे वीस (ekashe vees, 120), दोनशे (donaashe, 200), तीनशे (teenshe, 300).

Telling time. The question is किती वाजले? (kitee vaajale? — what time is it? literally "how many struck?"). Answers use the ordinal form of hours:

दोन वाजले (don vaajale) — two o'clock
साडेतीन (saaḍetteen) — half past three (lit. three-and-a-half)
पाऊण पाच (paaooṇ paach) — quarter to five

Phone numbers. Marathi speakers read phone numbers in groups of two or three, using standard number forms. A 10-digit mobile number like 98765 43210 would typically be read as नव्याण्णव (99) सात पाच (75) चार तीन (43) दोन एक शून्य (210) — though the exact grouping varies by speaker.

For more everyday phrases that put these numbers to use in real conversations, 20 Marathi phrases for daily life in Mumbai includes buying chai, taking the local train, and asking for change.

The Honest Truth About Memorizing Marathi Numbers

Every number from 1 to 100 in Marathi is effectively its own vocabulary item. The system isn't random — the एकोण- subtraction pattern helps, the tens give anchors, and the compound middle forms have logic — but there's no shortcut past the drilling. This is harder than Hindi for the same range, harder than English, harder than most European languages. It takes roughly three to four weeks of daily practice to have 1–100 solid under conversational pressure.

The Learn Marathi app by Brightwood Apps works through numbers in Units 2 and 3, with native-speaker audio for every form so you can hear the retroflex ḷ in चाळीस and the compound vowel shifts in the twenties before you try to reproduce them yourself.