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Numbers
Cardinal numbers
The use of cardinal numbers is exactly the same in Persian and English.
سیزده منهای هشت مساوی است با پنج.
کامپیوتر شماره‌ی ده خراب است.
آنها دو پسر و یک دختر دارند.
سه روز گذشت.*
دو بار صدایت کردم اما نشنیدی.
Thirteen minus eight equals five.
Computer number 10 is out of order.
They have one son and two daughters.
Three days passed.
I called you two times but you didn’t hear.
Classifiers
Classifiers are optionally used after quantifying numbers. The most common classifier with the most general application is “تا”. It can go before any noun and it is used very frequently in spoken language.
این مدرسه دوازده تا کلاس دارد.
دو تا بستنی لطفاً!
This school has twelve classrooms.
Two ice-creams please!
Some nouns have specific classifiers. These classifiers are only used in formal language.
صد جلد کتاب
سه فروند هواپیما
One hundred books
Three airplanes
Ordinal numbers- first type
Ordinal numbers of the first type go after the noun and have exactly the same meaning as the English ordinal numbers; first, second, third, etc. They are formed by adding the suffix “م” to the end of the main numbers, except for the first three.
اول
دوّم
سوّم
چهارم
پنجم
...
First
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth
...
دانش‌آموزان کلاس چهارم
قرن بیست و یکم
بیست و سوم ژانویه
نیمه‌ی اوّل مسابقه
Year four students
Twenty first century
Twenty third of January
The first half of the match
Ordinal numbers- second type
Ordinal numbers of the second type precede their noun. They are formed by adding the “ین” suffix to the end of the first type ordinal numbers. Only experience can help in telling which type of ordinal numbers to use.
در ایران، شنبه اوّلین روز هفته است.
دوّمین بار، در مزار شریف دیدمش.
هشتمین شهر بزرگ دنیا
In Iran, Saturday is the first day of the week.
The second time, I met him/her in Mazar Sharif.
The eighth biggest city of the world


* The verb of a sentence with plural subject sometimes comes in singular form when the subject is non-living.