A lookup chart for every number you will need, arranged so you can find things fast. Kannada numbers are highly regular after twenty, so the tens and units patterns below let you build any number up to a crore without memorising each one individually.
One to Twenty
The teens take the prefix ಹನ್ನ- for eleven and twelve and ಹದಿ- for thirteen to eighteen. Nineteen is built differently as ten-plus-nine.
The Tens and Building Numbers
Every ten from thirty to ninety ends in -ವತ್ತು. Once you spot that, they stop being separate words: ಮೂ-ವತ್ತು, ನಲ-ವತ್ತು, ಐ-ವತ್ತು.
To build a compound, fuse the tens word with the units word into one word with no connector. ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತೊಂದು is 21, ಮೂವತ್ತೈದು is 35, ಅರವತ್ತೆಂಟು is 68, ತೊಂಬತ್ತೊಂಬತ್ತು is 99.
Hundreds, Thousands, Lakh and Crore
India counts in lakhs and crores rather than millions, and Kannada follows that system entirely. A salary of ಎಂಟು ಲಕ್ಷ is eight lakh rupees per year; a project costing ಎರಡು ಕೋಟಿ is twenty million.
Ordinals, Fractions and Digits
Ordinals simply add -ನೇ to the number, with ಮೊದಲ the only irregular form. ಎರಡನೇ ಮಹಡಿ is the second floor.
The Kannada numeral glyphs ೦೧೨೩೪೫೬೭೮೯ still appear on milestones, temple inscriptions, government forms and Kannada-medium textbooks, even though Arabic numerals dominate everyday printing.
Two practical notes on using numbers in Karnataka. First, prices and quantities are frequently quoted with the unit left implicit — a vendor saying ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತು may mean twenty rupees per piece, per bundle or per kilo. Asking ಒಂದಕ್ಕೆ ಎಷ್ಟು? resolves it before any confusion.
Second, phone numbers and long digit strings are read digit by digit rather than in pairs, so a number is spoken as a sequence of single numerals. This is genuinely useful practice, because it forces rapid recall of one to nine without the support of context.
The counting system also shows up in Kannada’s own measure words in older and rural usage — grain, land and cloth all had traditional units before metric standardisation. You will still hear ಸೇರು and ಖಂಡುಗ in village markets, though kilos and litres have replaced them almost everywhere else.
Two practical notes on using numbers in Karnataka. First, prices and quantities are frequently quoted with the unit left implicit — a vendor saying ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತು may mean twenty rupees per piece, per bundle or per kilo. Asking ಒಂದಕ್ಕೆ ಎಷ್ಟು? resolves it before any confusion.
Second, phone numbers and long digit strings are read digit by digit rather than in pairs, so a number is spoken as a sequence of single numerals. This is genuinely useful practice, because it forces rapid recall of one to nine without the support of context.
The counting system also shows up in Kannada’s own measure words in older and rural usage — grain, land and cloth all had traditional units before metric standardisation. You will still hear ಸೇರು and ಖಂಡುಗ in village markets, though kilos and litres have replaced them almost everywhere else.
Pronunciation Tips
- Doubled t in ಹತ್ತು, ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತು and ಒಂಬತ್ತು must be held.
- ಏಳು uses retroflex ಳ, not plain ಲ.
- ನಾಲ್ಕು is two beats — ‘naal-ku’, not ‘naa-la-ku’.
- ಲಕ್ಷ ends in the ಕ್ಷ cluster. Say ‘lak-sha’.
- Final u vowels stay light throughout. ಎರಡು lands closer to ‘erad’.
Common Mistakes
- Inserting a connector between tens and units. Kannada fuses them into one word.
- Using million instead of lakh. All prices, salaries and populations in Karnataka use lakh and crore.
- Confusing ಕಾಲು meaning quarter with ಕಾಲು meaning leg. Identical words; context separates them.
- Saying ಅರು for six. It is ಆರು with a long aa.
- Assuming ordinals need new words. Just add -ನೇ to any number.
Practice
- Count from one to twenty without looking.
- Build these: 24, 47, 66, 89, 99.
- Say your phone number digit by digit.
- Read the Kannada digits ೧೯೫೬ and say what year it is.
- Convert a property price in lakhs into Kannada aloud.