Numbers and Ages in Russian Language Documents

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While Arabic numerals have been used in the former Russian Empire since the 1600s, Russian language documents often spell numbers out, especially when referring to dates. With different names and endings for the various numbers depending on context and grammar, important numbers like ages or dates can be tricky to decipher. This page—as well as the pages about Dates and Times and Calendars—is designed to guide you through the various forms of numbers you will encounter, providing the vocabulary that will help you to accurately interpret the key genealogical information held in the documents you read.

Numbers

Similar to how English uses the word “one” in some contexts and “first” in others, different words are used for the cardinal and ordinal numbers of the Russian language.

Cardinal numbers—the basic number set used for counting items (such as one, two, three, etc.) --are used in Russian language documents to describe the ages of individuals. These numbers act like nouns and take on noun endings when they are declined.

Just two cardinal numbers have different endings depending on the gender of the noun they go with: один (one) and два (two). Один appears as один with masculine nouns, одно with neuter nouns, or одна with feminine nouns. Два has two forms, два and две. Две is used with feminine nouns, while два is used with masculine and neuter nouns.

Ordinal numbers—the number set used for putting items in a specific order (such as first, second, third, etc.) --are used in Russian language documents to describe dates. These numbers act like adjectives and take on adjectival endings when they are declined.

Review the table below to compare these two forms:

Cardinal Numbers		Ordinal Numbers
1	один	1st	первый
2	два	2nd	второй
3	три	3rd	третий
4	четыре	4th	четвёртый
5	пять	5th	пятый
6	шесть	6th	шестой
7	семь	7th	седьмой
8	восемь	8th	восьмой
9	девять	9th	девятый
10	десять	10th	десятый
11	одиннадцать	11th	одиннадцатый
12	двенадцать	12th	двенадцатый
13	тринадцать	13th	тринадцатый
14	четырнадцать	14th	четырнадцатый
15	пятнадцать	15th	пятнадцатый
16	шестнадцать	16th	шестнадцатый
17	семнадцать	17th	семнадцатый
18	восемнадцать	18th	восемнадцатый
19	девятнадцать	19th	девятнадцатый
20	двадцать	20th	двадцатый
21	двадцать один	21st	двадцать первый
30	тридцать	30th	тридцатый
40	сорок	40th	сороковой
50	пятьдесят	50th	пятидесятый
60	шестьдесят	60th	шестдесятый
70	семьдесят	70th	семидесятый
80	восемьдесят	80th	восьмидесятый
90	девяносто	90th	девяностый
100	сто	100th	сотый
700	семьсот	700th	семисотый
800	восемьсот	800th	восьмисотый
900	девятьсот	900th	девятисотый
1,000	тысяча	1,000th	тысячный

Note that in numbers expressed in more than one word (such as 22nd), only the last word is an ordinal number. Rather than being written as двадцатый второй, the ordinal version of 22 would be двадцать второй.

Ages

Three different words are used to express the idea of “years” in Russian language documents when referring to ages:

• Год is used for ages that end in the number 1 (not including 11) 
• Года is used with an age ending in the numbers 2-4 (not including the teens ending in those numbers) 
• Лет is used for ages that end in numbers larger than 4, ages that end in 0, and ages in the teens. 

Use the rules above to determine why each of the words for "year" are used in the following examples:

1. Тридцать один год (31 years) 
2. Двадцать два года (22 years) 
3. Сорок шесть лет (46 years) 
4. Девятносто лет (90 years) 
5. Четырнадцать лет (14 years) 

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