Greek Numbers: Modern Pronunciation, Ancient Numerals & Prefixes Explained

Need Greek numbers for a trip, for Greek class or for chemistry homework? This guide gives you all three: the modern numbers with pronunciation, the ancient numeral symbols and the Greek prefixes hidden in English words.

Greek numbers turn up in more places than most people expect: at the till in a Greek bakery, in chemistry (mono, di, tri, tetra are all Greek), in mythology and in the numbering of kings and school classes. This guide covers all of it in one place, so you know which system you are actually looking at.

I have published four books on language learning, and numbers are one of the areas where I have seen learners overestimate themselves most often, myself included. You read a list, you think you know it, and then the cashier says a price at full speed and your brain goes blank. That is why this guide focuses on pronunciation and on real situations, not just on lists.

Greek Numbers 1 to 10: The Foundation

Everything else in the Greek number system builds on these ten words, so they are worth learning properly and out loud. Two details trip up almost every beginner:

• δ is never “d”: δύο is “THEE-oh”, δέκα is “THEH-ka”. I have heard people who studied Greek for months still say “DEE-oh”.
• Two forms for 7, 8 and 9: the textbook says επτά, οκτώ, εννέα. In the street you mostly hear εφτά, οχτώ, εννιά. Learn to recognise both.

If the Greek letters themselves still slow you down, my guide to the Greek alphabet takes you through all 24 letters in about a week. Numbers are much easier to remember once you can read them.

Why Some Greek Numbers Change Their Form

In Modern Greek, the numbers 1, 3 and 4 change depending on the gender of the noun they count. Two does not change. The forms you saw above (ένα, τρία, τέσσερα) are the neuter forms used for counting.

Number	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
1	ένας (EH-nas)	μία / μια (MEE-a / mya)	ένα (EH-na)
3	τρεις (trees)	τρεις (trees)	τρία (TREE-a)
4	τέσσερις (TEH-seh-rees)	τέσσερις (TEH-seh-rees)	τέσσερα (TEH-seh-ra)

In practice: ένας καφές (one coffee), μία μπύρα (one beer), ένα νερό (one water). The same applies to numbers ending in 1, 3 or 4, such as 13, 21 or 24, and to the hundreds from 200 upwards. Get the gender wrong and people will still understand you, so do not let this stop you from speaking.

Greek Numbers 11 to 20

Eleven and twelve are irregular and need to be learned separately. From 13 onwards the pattern is simple: δεκα (ten) plus the unit, so 13 is “ten-three”. Twenty is a new word again.

Number	Greek	Pronunciation
11	έντεκα	EN-deh-ka
12	δώδεκα	THOH-theh-ka
13	δεκατρία	theh-ka-TREE-a
14	δεκατέσσερα	theh-ka-TEH-seh-ra
15	δεκαπέντε	theh-ka-PEN-deh
16	δεκαέξι / δεκάξι	theh-ka-EHK-see / theh-KAHK-see
17	δεκαεπτά / δεκαεφτά	theh-ka-ep-TAH / theh-ka-ef-TAH
18	δεκαοκτώ / δεκαοχτώ	theh-ka-ok-TOH / theh-ka-och-TOH
19	δεκαεννέα / δεκαεννιά	theh-ka-eh-NEH-a / theh-ka-eh-NYA
20	είκοσι	EE-koh-see

Twenty, είκοσι, comes up constantly in prices and ages, so it is worth drilling until it comes out without thinking.

Greek Numbers 1 to 100: The Tens

After 20 the system works like English: tens plus units, written as two words without “and”. 21 is είκοσι ένα, 45 is σαράντα πέντε, 78 is εβδομήντα οκτώ. You only need to learn the tens:

Number	Greek	Pronunciation
20	είκοσι	EE-koh-see
30	τριάντα	tree-AN-da
40	σαράντα	sa-RAN-da
50	πενήντα	peh-NIN-da
60	εξήντα	ehk-SIN-da
70	εβδομήντα	ev-thoh-MIN-da
80	ογδόντα	og-THON-da
90	ενενήντα	eh-neh-NIN-da
100	εκατό	eh-ka-TOH

Hundreds, Thousands and Real-Life Numbers

For rent, hotel bills and ferry tickets you will need a few bigger numbers. Note that 100 on its own is εκατό, but as soon as another number follows it becomes εκατόν: 101 is εκατόν ένα.

Number	Greek	Pronunciation
101	εκατόν ένα	eh-ka-TON EH-na
200	διακόσια	thee-a-KOH-see-a
300	τριακόσια	tree-a-KOH-see-a
400	τετρακόσια	teh-tra-KOH-see-a
500	πεντακόσια	pen-da-KOH-see-a
1,000	χίλια	HEE-lya
2,000	δύο χιλιάδες	THEE-oh hee-LYA-thes
1,000,000	ένα εκατομμύριο	EH-na eh-ka-toh-MEE-ree-oh

Three situations where you will use them straight away:

• Prices: 12.50 € is simply δώδεκα και πενήντα, “twelve and fifty”. Nobody says “cents”.
• Time: “at three o’clock” is στις τρεις, with the feminine τρεις because ώρα (hour) is feminine. At one o’clock is στη μία.
• Phone numbers: Greeks usually read them in groups of two or three digits, so 69 45 is εξήντα εννιά, σαράντα πέντε.

For the phrases around the numbers, such as “how much is it?” (Πόσο κάνει;) or “the bill, please”, see my list of the most common Greek phrases.

Ancient Greek Numerals: The Classical Number Symbols

Many searches for “Greek numerals” are not about the spoken numbers at all, but about the symbols used in antiquity. Ancient Greece used two systems over time: the older Attic (acrophonic) system and the later Milesian (alphabetic) system, which became the standard.

The Attic or Acrophonic System

The Attic system was used in Athens, especially in inscriptions and accounts. It works a bit like Roman numerals: each value has a symbol, taken from the first letter of the Greek word for that number, and you add the symbols up.

Value	Symbol	Origin
1	Ι	A single stroke
5	Π	Πέντε (pente)
10	Δ	Δέκα (deka)
100	Η	Ἑκατόν (hekaton); at the time H stood for the h sound
1,000	Χ	Χίλιοι (chilioi)
10,000	Μ	Μύριοι (myrioi)

The English word myriad comes straight from μύριοι, ten thousand.

The Milesian or Alphabetic System

The Milesian system gives every letter a value. Because 27 symbols were needed (nine units, nine tens, nine hundreds), three old letters were kept for 6, 90 and 900: stigma (ϛ), koppa (ϟ) and sampi (ϡ).

	1 to 9	10 to 90	100 to 900
1	α	ι (10)	ρ (100)
2	β	κ (20)	σ (200)
3	γ	λ (30)	τ (300)
4	δ	μ (40)	υ (400)
5	ε	ν (50)	φ (500)
6	ϛ	ξ (60)	χ (600)
7	ζ	ο (70)	ψ (700)
8	η	π (80)	ω (800)
9	θ	ϟ (90)	ϡ (900)

To show that letters are a number and not a word, a small stroke called keraia is written after them: ιβʹ is 12 (10 + 2), ρκεʹ is 125. For thousands the stroke goes before the letter, so ͵α is 1,000.

This system is not just history. Greeks still use it for ordinal numbering today: school years (Γʹ Γυμνασίου is the third year of lower secondary school), kings and popes (Παύλος Αʹ, Paul I), chapters and official documents. If you see a Greek letter with a small tick next to it, it is a number. For more background, see the entry on Greek numerals at Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Greek Number Prefixes: Mono, Di, Tri, Tetra and Beyond

Greek number prefixes are everywhere in English, science and medicine. Monoxide, dilemma, trilogy, pentagon and octopus are all Greek numbers in disguise. Knowing them helps you decode thousands of words you already use.

Number	Greek prefix	Latin prefix	English examples
½	hemi-	semi-	hemisphere
1	mono-	uni-	monoxide, monologue, monarch
2	di-	bi-	dioxide, dilemma, dichotomy
3	tri-	tri-	triangle, trilogy, trigonometry
4	tetra-	quadri-	tetrahedron, tetrapod, Tetris
5	penta-	quinque-	pentagon, pentathlon
6	hexa-	sexa-	hexagon, hexameter
7	hepta-	septi-	heptagon, heptathlon
8	octa-	octo-	octopus, octagon, octahedron
9	ennea-	nona-	enneagram, enneagon
10	deca-	deci-	decade, decathlon
11	hendeca-	undeca-	hendecagon, hendecasyllable
12	dodeca-	duodeci-	dodecahedron, Dodecanese
20	icosa-	viginti-	icosahedron
100	hecto-	centi-	hectare, hectolitre
1,000	kilo-	milli-	kilogram, kilometre

A common point of confusion: nona- is Latin, not Greek. The Greek prefix for 9 is ennea-, from εννέα. Chemistry mixes both: the IUPAC naming rules use Greek prefixes up to octa-, but nona- for 9 and undeca- for 11. That is why “nonane” sits right next to “octane” in every chemistry book. English also mixes freely: “nonagon” and “enneagon” both describe the same nine-sided shape.

Greek Numbers vs. Roman Numerals

Searches like “Greek numbers i ii iii iv” are usually about Roman numerals. The two systems come from different cultures and work differently:

	Roman numerals	Greek numerals (Milesian)
Symbols	I, V, X, L, C, D, M	α, β, γ … with keraia (ʹ)
System	Partly subtractive (IV = 4)	Purely additive (ιδʹ = 14)
Used today	Clocks, chapters, dates	Greek school years, kings, official lists

Numbers in Greek Mythology and Culture

For ancient Greeks, numbers carried meaning far beyond counting. The Pythagoreans believed numbers were the structure of reality itself, an idea that shaped mathematics, music theory and philosophy for centuries.

• 3: The world was split into three realms: sky (Zeus), sea (Poseidon) and underworld (Hades). There were three Fates, three Graces, three Gorgons and three Furies.
• 7: Sacred to Apollo, whose birthday was celebrated on the seventh day of the month. The Pleiades were seven sisters.
• 12: The twelve Olympian gods and the twelve labours of Heracles.
• 10,000: μύριοι meant not only ten thousand but “countless”, the sense that survives in myriad.

666 is searched often in connection with Greek, because the Book of Revelation was written in Greek. The “number of the beast” appears there as χξϛʹ in numerals, or ἑξακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα ἕξ in words. Most scholars read it as a coded name, using gematria, the practice of adding up the number values of letters, which relies directly on the Milesian system above.

How to Learn Greek Numbers So They Stick

With numbers, recognising them on a page is not enough. You need to produce and understand them at speaking speed, and that only comes from active use. What worked for me in every language I learned:

• Count real things: steps, cars, coins in your pocket, in Greek and out loud.
• Say your own numbers: your phone number, your age, your house number, your birth year.
• Convert prices in your head: every time you see a price, say it in Greek before you read on.
• Listen more than you read: numbers are hard because of speed, so audio with native speakers matters more than any list.

A course with audio makes the last point much easier, because you hear every number in context. My complete guide to learning Greek compares the options, and my Mondly review shows how its speech recognition helps with pronunciation. To put your numbers to work straight away, combine them with Greek greetings and everyday Greek phrases.

Frequently Asked Questions: Greek Numbers

How do you say 1 to 10 in Greek?

ένα (1), δύο (2), τρία (3), τέσσερα (4), πέντε (5), έξι (6), επτά (7), οκτώ (8), εννέα (9), δέκα (10). In everyday speech 7, 8 and 9 are often εφτά, οχτώ and εννιά.

What is 100 in Greek?

100 is εκατό (eh-ka-TOH). When another number follows, it becomes εκατόν, for example εκατόν ένα for 101. 1,000 is χίλια (HEE-lya).

What is the Greek prefix for 5?

The Greek prefix for 5 is penta-, as in pentagon or pentathlon. It comes from πέντε, the Greek word for five. The Latin equivalent is quinque-.

Is nona- a Greek prefix?

No. Nona- (9) is Latin. The Greek prefix for 9 is ennea-, from εννέα. Chemistry naming uses nona- anyway, which is why the two are often confused.

How did ancient Greeks write numbers?

They used letters of the alphabet. In the Milesian system each letter has a value, α = 1, β = 2, ι = 10, ρ = 100, and a small stroke called keraia marks a letter as a number. The older Attic system used symbols like Π for 5 and Δ for 10.

Related links

• Learn the Greek alphabet in 7 days
• Greek greetings: kalimera, yia sou and how to answer
• Greek phrases for beginners: everyday expressions and sayings
• Learn Greek: the complete guide to courses and methods
• Learning vocabulary successfully
• Train your listening comprehension

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