Finnish numerals

Numbers in Finnish are highly systematic, but they can throw a few surprises too. For details of other aspects of the language, please see the Finnish language grammar article.

Cardinal numbers

These are the ordinary counting numbers: here are 0 to 10:

Numbers from one to six are apparently original in etymology. The words "kahdeksan" "eight" and "yhdeksän" "nine" have no confirmed etymology. One theory is that they are compounds: "*kaks-teksa" "10–2", or "eight" and "*yks-teksa" "10–1", or "nine", where the reconstructed word "*teksa" is similar to the Indo-European words for "ten".

=Ordinal numbers=

These are the 'ordering' form of the numbers - first, second, third and so on. Ordinal numbers are generally formed by adding an '-s' ending, but 'first' and 'second' are completely different, and for the others then stems are not straightforward:

100th is 'sadas', 1000th is 'tuhannes', 3721st is 'kolmas-tuhannes-seitsemäs-sadas-kahdes-kymmenes-ensimmäinen'. (Again, dashes only included here for clarity; the word is properly spelled without them.)

Like cardinals, ordinal numbers can also be inflected:

The 'toista' in the 'teens' is actually the partitive of 'toinen', which is why 'toista' gets no further inflection endings. (Literally 'yksitoista || one-of-the-second'.)

Long ordinal numbers in Finnish are typed in almost the same way than the long cardinal numbers. 32534756 would be (in numbers over one million, 'miljoona' ('million') is written separately) 'kolmas-kymmenes-kahdes miljoonas viides-sadas-kolmas-kymmenes-neljäs-tuhannes seitsemäs-sadas-viides-kymmenes-kuudes'. (Still, no dashes.)

Names of numbers

This is a feature of Finnish which doesn't have an exact counterpart in English (but in colloquial German it does, for example: "7er, 190er, 205er"). These forms are used to refer to the actual number itself, rather than the quantity or order which the number represents. This should be clearer from the examples below, but first here is the list:

Also, 'kahdeksikko' refers to the shape of the number.Some examples of how these are used:

: The 'number three tram' is the 'kolmonen' — when you are riding it, you are 'kolmosella' : A magazine has the title '7' and is called 'Seiska': My car, a '93 model, is an 'ysi kolmonen' when buying spare parts: If the car is a 190E Mercedes, it would be a 'sataysikymppi'.: If a car has tyres in size of 205, they would be called 'kaks(i)sataviitoset' resp. kaks(i)sataviitosia'.: The '106' bus is the 'sata kuutonen': A 5 € bill may be called "vitonen", a 10 € bill "kymppi" (in plural: "kympit"/"kymppejä"), a 20 € "kaksikymppinen", a 100 € bill "satanen", etc.