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Count to 100 in Persian: numbers 11-100 for kids

To count past ten in Persian, a child needs nine teen words (yâzdah to nuzdah), eight tens (bist to navad), one joining sound, o (written و), and the word sad (صد) for 100. Every number from 21 to 99 that is not a round ten is built the same way: the ten, then o, then the unit, so 21 is bist-o yek (بیست و یک), "twenty and one". Once the 17 new words are in place, the rest follows. This page starts where Count to ten in Persian stops. Azizan (azizan.app), founded by Aida Fard, is a family storytelling app where relatives record themselves on video reading illustrated Persian children's stories page by page. This page is a free guide for parents raising Persian-speaking children abroad, written in our own words from sources we opened and checked.

Azizan (azizan.app) is a family storytelling app for immigrant and diaspora families: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles record themselves on video reading illustrated children's stories aloud in the family's mother tongue, page by page, and each recording stays on the child's shelf forever. Real family voices — never AI narration. Persian (Farsi) first.

Persian digits ۰ to ۹

Persian has its own ten digits. They are written left to right, like English digits, even though Persian words run right to left. So ۲۱ is twenty-one and ۱۰۰ is one hundred.

Zero is written as a small dot, ۰, and five, ۵, is a little loop, a bit like an upside-down heart. Because ۵ can look like an English 0, a child who knows English digits may mix them up at first. Point to both and say sefr and panj out loud.

11 to 19: the teens

The teens all end in -dah, from dah, ten. Several of them sound different at home from how they are written, most of all 15 and 16. Children hear the spoken form first, so it is worth knowing both.

Spoken forms like punzdah and shunzdah are not mistakes. They are how these numbers are said in everyday Persian, and in school books the child will see them written پانزده and شانزده. For 18, dictionaries give both هجده and هیجده; هجده is the more usual written form. Say the numbers the way your family says them.

The tens: 20 to 90, and 100

In speech, 50 usually loses its final h and becomes panjâ. Two of the tens are easy to mix up with words a child already knows: si (30) is short like se (3), and navad (90) starts like noh (9). Practise those two pairs side by side.

One hundred is just sad, one word, with no "one" in front of it. English says "one hundred"; Persian says "hundred". Dictionaries also list the longer form یکصد (yeksad), but in everyday speech children and families say sad.

The joining rule: bist-o yek

From 21 to 99, every number except the round tens is the ten, then the sound o, then the unit. The o means "and" and is written as the separate letter و between the two words.

The order is the same as English: tens first, then units. So a child who already counts in English does not have to flip the order. The o is said quickly and glued to the ten, so bist-o yek sounds almost like bisto-yek. After si, which ends in a vowel, some speakers let a light y sound slip in, so 33 can sound like si-yo se. The same rule carries on past 100: 105 is sad-o panj (صد و پنج).

Counting games for home

Short games work better than drills. A few that need nothing but the house:

• Count the stairs. Count every step on the way up, in Persian. When the child has the first ten, keep going past dah into yâzdah, davâzdah. If the stairs run out, count back down.
• Hide-and-seek to 20. In ghayem-bashak the seeker covers their eyes and counts before looking. Counting to twenty is a good length: it covers all the teens, and the child ends on bist, the first of the tens. The seeker can finish with umadam, "here I come".
• Count by tens. Hold up both hands for each ten: dah, bist, si, chehel, panjâh, shast, haftâd, hashtâd, navad, sad. Then do it with coins, crayons or ten-packs of anything. Counting to 100 by tens is only ten words.
• Find the digit. Write ۰ to ۹ on paper squares and hide them around a room. The child brings them back and puts them in order. Later, put two together and read the number: ۲ and ۱ make ۲۱, bist-o yek.
• Numbers on video. A grandparent can count the stairs or the tens on a short video, so the child hears the spoken forms in a familiar voice. On Azizan, relatives also read illustrated Persian stories page by page, and counting stories are an easy place to start.

For more play in Persian, see Traditional Iranian games for kids. For reading the letters themselves, see how to teach the Persian alphabet.

Related guides

• Count to ten in Persian for kids
• Traditional Iranian games for kids
• How to teach the Persian alphabet to children growing up abroad

Questions

How do you count to 100 in Persian?

Learn 1 to 10, the teens yâzdah to nuzdah (11 to 19), and the tens bist, si, chehel, panjâh, shast, haftâd, hashtâd, navad (20 to 90). Every other number joins a ten and a unit with o (و): 21 is bist-o yek, 99 is navad-o noh. One hundred is sad (صد).

How do you say 21 in Persian?

Bist-o yek, written بیست و یک, literally "twenty and one". The same pattern makes every number from 21 to 99.

Is it pânzdah or punzdah?

Both. پانزده (pânzdah) is the written form for 15, and punzdah is how it is said in everyday speech. The same goes for 16: written شانزده (shânzdah), spoken shunzdah.

Is 18 written هجده or هیجده?

Both spellings appear in Persian dictionaries. هجده is the more usual written form; in speech many people say hijdah.

How is 100 said in Persian?

Sad (صد), a single word with no "one" before it. 101 is sad-o yek and 150 is sad-o panjâh, using the same joining o.

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Updated: 2026-11-03 · By Aida Fard

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