Numbers, time, dates and money in Hindi

Twenty-nine is one word

English builds twenty-nine out of twenty and nine, and the habit tries to do the same in Hindi. There is no such combination: every number below a hundred is a word of its own. Twenty-nine is उनतीस, literally “one short of thirty”.

The nines look ahead to the next ten

A number ending in nine is named after the ten that comes next, with उन-, “one less”: उनतीस is 29, one less than thirty; उनतालीस is 39, one less than चालीस. Whoever thinks of the ten that has passed picks the number ten too low.

Eighty-nine and ninety-nine break the pattern

The pattern with उन- runs from 19 to 79 and stops. Eighty-nine is नवासी, “nine and eighty”, and ninety-nine निन्यानवे. A word built by the pattern is understood with a smile, and that is all.

Ninety-nine is not “one short of a hundred”

Like 89, 99 has a word of its own: निन्यानवे. It turns up in a saying, too: निन्यानवे का फेर, “the trap of ninety-nine”, the urge to make a fortune round.

Sixth is a word of its own

Five ordinals are words of their own: पहला, दूसरा, तीसरा, चौथा and छठा. The others add -वाँ to the number — पाँचवाँ, सातवाँ — and six is the one in the middle that looks as if it should too.

Fourth is a word of its own too

Like English first, second and third, the first four ordinals do not come from the number by a rule: पहला, दूसरा, तीसरा, चौथा. -वाँ starts at five.

Half past one has its own word

साढ़े means “plus a half” and is used from three upwards: साढ़े तीन बजे, साढ़े दस बजे. One and a half and two and a half have words of their own, डेढ़ and ढाई, on the clock and everywhere else.

So has half past two

Two and a half is ढाई: ढाई बजे, ढाई किलो, ढाई सौ. साढ़े दो is understood, but nobody says it.

“Quarter to” counts to the coming hour

पौने means “less a quarter”, and what it takes the quarter from is the hour that is coming: पौने तीन is three less a quarter, 2.45. Whoever reads it like सवा — the hour that has passed — arrives an hour early.

“Quarter past” goes in front of the hour

सवा, साढ़े and पौने stand before the number they change, never after it: सवा तीन, “three and a quarter”.

“At seven” has no postposition

बजे already means “at … o’clock”: मैं सात बजे उठता हूँ, “I get up at seven”. English “at” makes learners add पर or को, and neither belongs there.

The hour comes first

English says the minutes first, Hindi the hour: तीन बजकर दस मिनट is “three having struck, ten minutes”. Keeping the English order turns 3.10 into 10.03.

It is one o’clock: singular

“It is … o’clock” is the verb बजना, to strike, agreeing with the number: दो बजे हैं, तीन बजे हैं, but एक बजा है, in the singular. “At one” is still एक बजे.

One rupee is singular

रुपया is a masculine noun in -ा, and its plural is रुपए: दो रुपए, सौ रुपए. Exactly one rupee is singular, एक रुपया — and so is एक पैसा.

After a number the noun is plural

Above one, a masculine noun in -ा takes its plural ending: दो रुपए, तीन कमरे, चार लड़के. The number does not make the plural unnecessary, as it does in some languages.

A million is ten lakh

Hindi has no word for a million. It counts in लाख, a hundred thousand, and करोड़, ten million: a million is दस लाख, “ten lakh”. The commas follow the words: 10,00,000.

A hundred thousand is a lakh

As soon as the thousands reach a hundred, the unit changes: 1,00,000 is एक लाख, and the thousands only count to ninety-nine (निन्यानवे हज़ार). सौ हज़ार is the English number translated, not a Hindi one.

Ten million is a crore

Lakhs count to ninety-nine as well; a hundred lakh is एक करोड़, 1,00,00,000. The units are a hundred apart from each other, and the commas mark them.

A hundred and fifty is one and a half hundred

The halves work on any unit, not only on the clock: डेढ़ सौ is 150, ढाई सौ 250, साढ़े तीन सौ 350, डेढ़ लाख 1,50,000. एक सौ पचास is also right; साढ़े एक is not Hindi.

A year keeps its hundred

English drops the hundred and says “nineteen eighty-four”. Hindi counts the year in hundreds and says them: उन्नीस सौ चौरासी, nineteen hundred and eighty-four. From 2000 on the year is the plain number: दो हज़ार पच्चीस.

The first of the month is feminine

A date is a तारीख़, and तारीख़ is feminine, so an ordinal before a date takes -ी: पहली जनवरी. More often the cardinal is used, which has no gender: एक जनवरी, पंद्रह अगस्त.

The day comes before the month

A date is said day first, then the month, as in British English: पाँच मई, छब्बीस जनवरी. The American order gives a phrase nobody uses.

A half is not added with “and”

At the market a half is never added with और: डेढ़ किलो, ढाई किलो, साढ़े तीन किलो. Half a kilo on its own is आधा किलो.