Persian Numbers, Time, and the Calendar That Confuses Everyone

I once watched a tourist in Tehran try to pay for a taxi. The driver said “dah tomân.” The tourist heard a number. ten. and handed over a 10,000-rial note. The driver shook his head. “Dah tomân.” The tourist added another 10,000. The driver looked personally offended. “Dah TOMÂN.” What the tourist didn’t know: “dah tomân” means 100,000 rials. Because Iran has two currency systems running simultaneously, neither of which matches what’s printed on the bills.

This is the kind of practical confusion that makes persian numbers vocabulary essential. not as an academic exercise, but as a survival skill. This post covers numbers 1–100, telling time, the solar calendar, and the money system. The grammar post on numbers explains how Persian number grammar works (counting rules, ordinals, math). This post gives you the actual words and the practical context textbooks skip.

Numbers 1–20: The Ones You Need to Memorize

Persian numbers 1–20 follow no pattern. they’re individual words, like English. You have to memorize each one. After 20, a clean pattern kicks in and everything gets easy. So the real work is here, in the first twenty.

Notice that 11–19 all end in -dah (a form of “ten”), similar to English “-teen.” And notice the â-to-u vowel shift in spoken forms: pânzdah → punzdah, shânzdah → shunzdah. This is the same spoken Farsi shift you see across the language.

Also: نه (noh. nine) looks exactly like نه (na. no). Different pronunciation, same spelling. Context makes it clear, but it trips up beginners who see the word in script and don’t know which pronunciation to use.

Numbers 20–100: The Pattern Kicks In

After 20, Persian numbers become blissfully predictable. The tens are individual words, but composites follow one rule: tens + **و** (-o-) + ones. Thirty-five = si-o-panj. Forty-two = chehel-o-do. That’s it. No exceptions.

Big numbers:
هزار. hazâr. thousand
میلیون. milyun. million
میلیارد. milyârd. billion

Composites: bist-o-yek (21), si-o-seh (33), panjâh-o-haft (57), navad-o-noh (99). Always tens first, then -o-, then ones. Persian does this the same way as English (unlike German, which reverses them).

Numbers are one area where formal and spoken Persian barely differ. The words themselves stay the same. it’s what you do with them grammatically (counting rules, ordinals) that changes. The grammar numbers post covers that side.

Telling Time in Farsi

The phrase you need immediately:

ساعت چنده؟. sâ’at chande?. What time is it?
Formal: ساعت چند است؟. sâ’at chand ast?

The answer follows a simple pattern: ساعت + number + است/ـه.

ساعت سه‌ست. sâ’at seh-st. It’s 3 o’clock.
ساعت پنج و نیم. sâ’at panj-o-nim. It’s 5:30 (five and half).
ساعت هشت و ربع. sâ’at hasht-o-rob’. It’s 8:15 (eight and quarter).
ساعت ده کم ده دقیقه. sâ’at dah kam dah daghigheh. It’s 9:50 (ten minus ten minutes).

Key time vocabulary:

نیم. nim. half
ربع. rob’. quarter
دقیقه. daghigheh. minute
کم. kam. minus/less
صبح. sobh. morning
ظهر. zohr. noon
بعدازظهر. ba’d-az-zohr. afternoon
عصر. asr. late afternoon/evening
شب. shab. night

For the full time-telling system with all its variations, the telling time post goes deep. This section gives you the vocabulary. that post gives you the grammar and the cultural context (like why “I’ll be there at five” actually means “sometime between five and six”).

The Solar Calendar: Why It’s 1405, Not 2027

Iran uses the Solar Hijri calendar. تقویم شمسی (taghvim-e shamsi). The year starts at Nowruz (March 20/21). As of this writing, it’s 1405 in Iran, not 2027. The calendar is solar (like the Gregorian) but counts from the Prophet Muhammad’s emigration to Medina (like the Islamic lunar calendar). then converts to solar years. The result: Iranian dates don’t match either Western or Islamic dates.

The twelve months:

The first six months have 31 days. The next five have 30. The last one (Esfand) has 29. or 30 in leap years. This mirrors the solar reality better than the Gregorian calendar’s random 28/30/31 distribution.

Days of the week:

Days are numbered from Saturday: yekshanbe = “one-shanbe” (first day after shanbe). The weekend in Iran is Thursday–Friday. The work week runs Saturday–Wednesday. Jom’eh (Friday) is from Arabic and is the holy day. the exception to the number pattern.

Money: Toman vs Rial

This is the section that saves you from the taxi situation in my opening paragraph.

Iran’s official currency is the ریال. riyâl. Banknotes and prices in shops are printed in rials. But nobody. and I mean nobody. speaks in rials in daily life. Everyone uses تومان. tomân. One tomân = ten riyâl. So when someone says dah tomân (ten toman), they mean 100,000 rials.

It gets worse. Because of inflation, Iranians have adopted informal shorthand:

The trick: when someone says a number followed by tomân, multiply by 10 to get rials. When you see a price tag in a store, it’s in rials. divide by 10 to get the tomân price people actually quote. Some modern stores are starting to display prices in tomân, but the dual system persists.

Numbers in Daily Life

Beyond counting, here’s where numbers show up in everyday Farsi:

Phone numbers: Iranians read phone numbers digit by digit. A Tehran number (021-XXXX-XXXX) is read: sefr-do-yek … Each digit individually. Mobile numbers start with 09.

Ages:
Chand sâlet-e?. How old are you? (literally “how many years are you?”)
Si sâlam-e. I’m 30.

Prices:
In chand-e?. How much is this?
Cheghad mishe?. How much does it come to? (at a restaurant or shop)

Addresses:
Pelâk-e bist-o-seh. Number 23 (building number).
Tabaghe-ye sevvom. Third floor. (Ordinal: add -om to the number.)

Ordinal numbers:
First = اول (avval). the one exception (Arabic-origin)
Second = دوم (dovvom)
Third = سوم (sevvom)
Pattern: number + ـم (-om). Fourth = chahârom. Fifth = panjom. Tenth = dahom.

For the full grammar of how numbers interact with nouns, classifiers, and ordinal construction, the grammar numbers post covers everything. And for a complete vocabulary foundation, the 100 most common words includes the essential numbers in their frequency context.

FAQ

Numbers, time, money, and the calendar. four systems that trip up every learner and that no amount of grammar knowledge compensates for. The taxi driver doesn’t care if you can conjugate raftan perfectly. He cares if you understand what dah tomân means.

For the grammar side of numbers. counting rules, ordinal construction, and how numbers interact with nouns. the grammar post covers the patterns. This post gave you the vocabulary. Together, they’re the complete package.

If you want to drill numbers until they’re automatic, ZabanYar has number flashcard decks ready to go. digit recognition, listening practice, and the money conversion system that every foreigner in Iran needs. And if you want someone to quiz you on prices, times, and dates in real conversation. I teach on Preply. We’ll simulate a bazaar negotiation where you have to understand the numbers in real time. Bring your calculator. You won’t need it by week three.