Counting one to ten
Arabic · Early Years · The School
One to ten
واحِد (wāḥid) 1, اِثْنان (ithnān) 2, ثَلاثة (thalātha) 3, أَرْبَعة (arbaʿa) 4, خَمْسة (khamsa) 5, سِتّة (sitta) 6, سَبْعة (sabʿa) 7, ثَمانِية (thamāniya) 8, تِسْعة (tisʿa) 9, عَشَرة (ʿashara) 10. Clap as you count — rhythm makes lists stick.
The digits look different
Arabic writes digits as ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥ ٦ ٧ ٨ ٩ ١٠. Notice ٥ looks like our 0 and ٦ looks like our 7 — those two catch everyone out. You will see these numbers on the pages of a mushaf marking each ayah, so learning them has an immediate use.
Count real things
Count your fingers in Arabic. Count the plates on the table. Counting real objects is better practice than reciting the list, because the number attaches to a quantity instead of to the next word in a chant. Try counting five things a day for a week.
The digits are ٠ ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥ ٦ ٧ ٨ ٩. Write 2026: ٢٠٢٦ — and note it runs LEFT TO RIGHT like ours, largest place value first, even though the words around it run the other way. Now write your age, then your house number, then count objects aloud in Arabic: wāḥid, ithnān, thalātha, arbaʿa, khamsa.