Language

After covering the basic numbers or cardinal numbers, here’s the second part: ordinal numbers, like first and second. In English, they’re called ordinal numbers, and in Russian, they are порядковые числительные (stress on the second syllable both times). Ordinal numbers are usually easy to derive from the cardinal number – although words like “first” and “second” are exceptions right from the start.

When Russians tell time, they look ahead. In the first half-hour, they are already on their way to the next, and in the second, they tell you how far it is to the next hour. To understand this and be able to do it yourself, there are a few things you need to know. Here are the most important ones.

Numbers in Russian can already be a puzzle when you’re counting from 1 to 10. The words for 4 (четыре) and 5 (пять) don’t resemble anything you’re familiar with, восемь (8) is also strange, and 9 (девять) and 10 (десять) sound alike.