A2 · Numbers, time and dates
Hundreds, thousands, lakhs and crores
large numbers and Indian counting
Above a thousand, Indian counting goes on in lakhs of a hundred thousand and crores of ten million.
At a glance
- Remember
- After a thousand, count in lakhs of a hundred thousand and crores of ten million — and put the commas where they fall.
- Form
- सौ, दो सौ100, 200
- Signal words
- सौ
- हज़ार
- लाख
- करोड़
- हज़ारों
- Trap
- Wrong:इस शहर में सौ हज़ार लोग रहते हैं।Right:इस शहर में एक लाख लोग रहते हैं।
Your turn
10 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
The form
The patterns at a glance
Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in Hindi.
| 100, 200 | सौ, दो सौ |
| 1,000 | हज़ार |
| 1,00,000 (one hundred thousand) | लाख |
| 1,00,00,000 (ten million) | करोड़ |
| a million | दस लाख |
| 1980, 2025 | उन्नीस सौ अस्सी, दो हज़ार पच्चीस |
| hundreds of, thousands of | सैकड़ों, हज़ारों |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
Big numbers are built like English ones: count, unit, then the rest.
टिकट तीन सौ पचास रुपए का है।The ticket costs three hundred and fifty rupees.
Above a thousand, counting goes on in lakhs and crores, not millions.
इस शहर में बीस लाख लोग रहते हैं।Two million people live in this city.
The digits are grouped to match: 1,00,000 is one lakh.
उसकी तनख़्वाह एक लाख रुपए महीना है।His salary is one lakh rupees a month.
Years before 2000 are said in hundreds, later ones in thousands.
मेरी माँ का जन्म उन्नीस सौ सत्तर में हुआ।My mother was born in 1970.
With -ओं a unit means “hundreds of”, “thousands of”.
स्टेडियम में हज़ारों लोग थे।There were thousands of people in the stadium.
Example sentences
यह फ़ोन पंद्रह हज़ार रुपए का है।This phone costs fifteen thousand rupees.
गाँव में पाँच सौ लोग रहते हैं।Five hundred people live in the village.
इस घर की क़ीमत पचास लाख है।This house costs fifty lakh (five million).
इस फ़िल्म ने सौ करोड़ रुपए कमाए।This film earned a hundred crore (a billion) rupees.
भारत उन्नीस सौ सैंतालीस में आज़ाद हुआ।India became independent in 1947.
मेले में सैकड़ों दुकानें थीं।There were hundreds of stalls at the fair.
6 more example sentences
इस किताब में चार सौ पन्ने हैं।This book has four hundred pages.
मुझे दो हज़ार रुपए चाहिए।I need two thousand rupees.
इस राज्य में सात करोड़ लोग रहते हैं।Seventy million people live in this state.
मेरे दादाजी उन्नीस सौ पचास में दिल्ली आए।My grandfather came to Delhi in 1950.
हम दो हज़ार बीस में यहाँ आए।We came here in 2020.
यह गाड़ी ढाई लाख की है।This car costs two and a half lakh.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
English says “a hundred thousand”, and learners build सौ हज़ार. Hindi has a word for it: लाख. Anything from a hundred thousand up is counted in lakhs, and from ten million up in crores.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Large numbers are built the way English builds them: the count, then the unit, then the rest. दो सौ पचास is 250, तीन हज़ार चार सौ 3,400. सौ is a hundred and हज़ार a thousand.
After that the units differ from English. Indian counting has लाख, a hundred thousand, and करोड़, ten million. A million is दस लाख, “ten lakh”; a billion is सौ करोड़. Prices, salaries, populations and news figures are all given this way, and the English words lakh and crore are used in Indian English too.
The commas in the digits move to match. After the first three digits from the right, Indian figures are grouped in twos: 1,00,000 is one lakh, 12,34,567 is बारह लाख चौंतीस हज़ार पाँच सौ सड़सठ. Read the figure group by group from the left and the words fall out.
Years up to 1999 are said in hundreds — 1947 is उन्नीस सौ सैंतालीस, “nineteen hundred forty-seven” — and from 2000 in thousands: दो हज़ार पच्चीस. With -ओं the units mean “hundreds of”, “thousands of”: सैकड़ों, हज़ारों, लाखों, करोड़ों.
A closer look
Reading a long figure
Take 3,45,62,000. From the left: 3 crore, 45 lakh, 62 thousand: तीन करोड़ पैंतालीस लाख बासठ हज़ार. Every group of two digits is one of the hundred number words, so knowing the list to 99 is all you need.
Million and billion in the news
International figures are sometimes given with the English words मिलियन and बिलियन, especially in business news, and अरब (a hundred crore, a billion) appears in older and formal texts. Everyday Hindi keeps to lakhs and crores.
Worth knowing (2)
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सौ or एक सौ
A hundred can be सौ or एक सौ. In a longer number एक सौ is clearer.
कुल एक सौ बीस रुपए हुए।That comes to a hundred and twenty rupees in total.
-
Rupees and paise
A rupee has a hundred paise. रुपया is masculine; after a number it is रुपए.
इसकी क़ीमत दस रुपए पचास पैसे है।It costs ten rupees fifty paise.
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