Numbers and gender agreement
Arabic · Key Stage 2 · The School
Counting one to ten
وَاحِد one. اِثْنان two. ثَلاثة three. أَرْبَعة four. خَمْسة five. سِتّة six. سَبْعة seven. ثَمانية eight. تِسْعة nine. عَشَرة ten. Say each one aloud before moving to the next.
A different set of digits
Arabic often writes numbers with its own digit shapes: ٠ ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥ ٦ ٧ ٨ ٩. They read left to right, unlike the letters around them, which still read right to left. So a number sits in a sentence facing the opposite way to its neighbours.
Where '1, 2, 3' actually came from
The digits English calls Arabic numerals are called that for a reason: they reached Europe through Arab mathematicians, who had adapted them from earlier Indian numerals. So English borrowed its number shapes from the Arabic-speaking world, not the other way round.
Counting a family
عِنْدي أَرْبَعة إِخْوة — I have four brothers. عِنْدي أُخْتان — I have two sisters. Notice ithnān, two, changes to ukhtān when it is attached to a feminine word like sisters; Arabic numbers agree with gender, unlike English. Try building your own sentence: عِنْدي, I have, plus a number plus a family word.