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Bari Ginti · Big Numbers

11 to 100, landmarks through the beautiful chaos

Level 3 warned you: Urdu numbers 1–100 are all irregular. Nobody memorizes all hundred at once, you learn the landmarks and the halves system, and bazaar math takes care of the rest.

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The phrases

گیارہgyārah: eleven
بارہbārah: twelve
پندرہpandrah: fifteen
بیسbīs: twenty
پچیسpachchīs: twenty-fiveThe quarter-century landmark, and a common price.
تیسtīs: thirty
چالیسchālīs: forty
پچاسpachās: fifty
سوsau: one hundredYour chai bill from Level 10.
ڈیڑھḍeṛh: one and a halfYes: 1.5 has its own dedicated word. See the fun fact.
ساڑھےsāṛhe: …and a halfSāṛhe tīn = 3.5. Also how clocks work: sāṛhe pāṉch = 5:30.
ساڑھے تین بجےsāṛhe tīn baje: at half past threeSāṛhe + the hour. Except for 1:30 and 2:30, which get their own words.
تین سو روپےtīn sau rupaye: three hundred rupeesNumber + sau. Hundreds are the easy part.
ہزارhazār: thousandPersian. Hazār dāstān, a thousand tales.
لاکھlākh: a hundred thousandSouth Asia counts in lākhs, not hundred-thousands. English borrowed it as 'lakh'.
کروڑkaroṛ: ten millionA hundred lākh. Karoṛpati is the word for a millionaire.

Good to know

✨ All hundred numbers are genuinely irregular: 87 is satāsī, 88 is aṭṭhāsī, and even native speakers pause at 79. Learn the tens, point at the rest.
✨ Urdu runs a halves system English lacks: ḍeṛh (1.5) and ḍhāī (2.5) are their own words, and sāṛhe makes any number half-more. 'Ḍeṛh sau' (150) beats saying 'one hundred fifty' every time.
Sāṛhe is how time works: sāṛhe chhe = 6:30. Master it and you can schedule chai, which is the true purpose of clocks.

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