194 Cardinal Numerals 215

два (Rasputin) ‘There were only two glasses’. Compare usage with 1:
Больнц в г роде две, а школ т лько одн
‘There are two hospitals
in the town, and only one school’.
(iv) Compound numerals ending in два/две, три, четре also take the
genitive singular of the noun when the numerals themselves are in the
nominative or inanimate accusative case:
с рок два дня forty-two days
пятьдест две минты fifty-two minutes
сто три окн
one hundred and three windows
девян сто четре человка ninety-four people
(v) Два/две, три, четре take the genitive plural of an adjective
qualifying a masculine or neuter noun and the nominative plural of an
adjective qualifying a feminine noun:
два большх стакна/окн two large glasses/windows
три бдные двушки three poor girls

Note
(a) A genitive plural adjective is preferred with a feminine noun after
2–4 when there is a stress difference between the genitive singular
and nominative plural of the noun (три выских гор ‘three
high mountains’ (cf. nom. pl. гры)), when a distributive phrase is
governed by the preposition по (по три сплых гр6ши ‘three ripe
pears each’) and in fractions and decimals (see 205 (1)).
(b) Pre-positive adjectives appear in the nominative plural: к
ждые
три мин6ты ‘every three minutes’, послдние два дня ‘the last
two days’. See, however, 157 (3).
(c) Adjectival nouns behave like adjectives after 2– 4: два учёных ‘two
scientists’, три гостные ‘three living-rooms’, четре живтных
‘four animals’. See 158.

(3) 6ба (m. and n.)/бе (f.) ‘both’:

(i) ба/бе behave like два/две ‘two’, taking a genitive singular noun
and a plural adjective:
ба крглых стол
/окн
both round tables/windows
бе крглые тарлки both round plates
(ii) ба may also denote a male-female pair: И стли ои оба смотрть
дрiг на др6га . . . He вдержала он ег взглда (Shcherbakov) ‘And
216 The Numeral 194–196

they both began looking at each other, . . . she could not withstand his
gaze’.

Note
(a) Accusative plural ст роны is possible as an alternative to
genitive singular сторон in the phrase в бе сторон/ст роны:
переводть в бе сторон/ст роны ‘to translate both ways’.
(b) Два ряд
‘two rows’ but ба рда ‘both rows’.

195 Numerals five and above

The nominative and accusative of the numerals 5–999 take the genitive
plural of the adjective and noun:

пять мсяцев five months

в семь часв eight o’clock, eight hours
пятндцать минт fifteen minutes
двдцать в
жных псем twenty important letters
с рок пять дней forty-five days
смьдесят школ seventy schools
сто семь грамм/гр
ммов one hundred and seven grams
трста прострных кмнат three hundred spacious rooms

Note
(a) See 193 (2) (i) and 194 (2) (iv) for usage after compound numerals
ending in 1– 4.
(b) 5–999 take the genitive plural человк, not людй: семь человк
‘seven people’ (if the noun is qualified by an adjective, however,
людй is preferred: пять пезнак мых людй (or лиц or человк)
‘five unknown people’). Cf. also dat. пят человкам ‘to five people’,
instr. с пятьc человками ‘with five people’, etc.

196 Agreement of oblique cases of numerals

gjknjhá/gjknjhß to 999 with oblique plural forms
of nouns

(1) Declined numerals from 11/2 to 999 combine with nouns and adjectives
in the same case of the plural:
 196 Cardinal Numerals 217

(i) Genitive
bколо полтора часв about an hour and a half
б льше трёх дней more than three days
В течние двух–трёх мсяцев пbсле того Л6жина звли Ант -
шей (Nabokov)
For two or three months after this they called Luzhin Antosha

(ii) Dative
Он 6чит трём язык
м
She teaches three languages
Он обратлся к четырёмст
м нвым избир
телям
He addressed four hundred new voters

(iii) Instrumental
Куд он могл дться с четырьм детьм? (Rybakov)
Where could she have got to with four children?
Он обещл огранчиться десятьC сигартами в день (Avdeenko)
He promised to limit himself to ten cigarettes a day

(iv) Prepositional
В двух шаг
х от кмня стол человк (Gagarin)
At two paces from the stone stood a man
в пятдесяти Cжных город
х
in fifty southern towns
(2) The animate accusative/genitive rule (see 47) applies to the numerals
2–4 and to ‘both’, the numeral appearing in the genitive (двух, трёх,
четырёх; обих/обих), adjectives and nouns in the genitive plural:
Он принял на к6рсы трёх молодх студнтов
She accepted three young students on to the course
Он пригласла четырёх медсестёр
She invited four nurses
Он л$бит обих бр
тьев и обих сестёр
She loves both her brothers and both her sisters

Note
(a) The animate accusative/genitive rule does not apply to compound
numerals ending in два/две, три or четре: Он принял на
218 The Numeral 196–197

к6рсы дв
дцать три студнта ‘She accepted twenty-three students
on to the course’.
(b) Application of the animate accusative/genitive rule varies where
animals, birds, quasi-animates etc. are concerned: Он поймл двух
птчек (or две птчки) ‘He caught two small birds’, Он принёс
двух ккол (or две кклы) ‘He brought two dolls’ (cf. alternative
accusative forms of существ ‘being’: двух сущств or два
существ
).
(c) The animate accusative/genitive rule does not apply to the numerals
5–999: я встртил пять/срок/сто моряк в ‘I met five/forty/a
hundred sailors’.

197 Nßczxf ‘thousand’, vbkkbóy ‘million’, vbkkbáhl

‘a thousand million’, ,bkkbóy ‘billion’, nhbkkbóy ‘trillion’

Тсяча (pronounced тща in colloquial speech), миллин and милли

рд
etc. take the genitive plural of the noun, regardless of their own case (see,
however, note (a) below):
тсяча рублй
a thousand roubles
с трем тсячами рублй
with three thousand roubles
заб титься о миллинах детй
to care for millions of children
Ассигновния равнются сем милли
рдам длларов
Subsidies amount to seven thousand million dollars

Note
(a) In its capacity as a noun of quantity, тсяча has instrumental
тсячей + genitive plural (с тсячей друзй ‘with a thousand
friends’), while in its capacity as a numeral it has instrumental
тсячью + instrumental plural: с тсячью рабчими ‘with a
thousand workers’. Тсячей is regarded as the more literary form,
тсячью as the more colloquial. While тсячей is the preferred
instrumental in its function as a noun of quantity, тсячью is
making inroads in this area also. In combination with одн й,
however, тсячей is always used: с одн й тсячей солдт ‘with
one thousand soldiers’.
(b) Тсяча, милли н, миллирд take genitive plural человк:
тсяча человк ‘a thousand people’. However, людй is
 197–198 Cardinal Numerals 219

preferred when qualified by an adjective (тсяча чстных людй

‘a thousand honest people’) and with тсячи ‘thousands’ (тсячи
людй ‘thousands of people’) (emphasizing mass rather than precise
quantity).
(c) Тсяча may be written in figures as ‘1.000’, ‘1000’, or ‘1 000’
(commas are reserved for decimals, see 205 (1)).
(d) Тсяча observes feminine singular agreement: Пятьдест одн
тсяча из них больн
наркомнией (Izvestiya) ‘Fifty-one
thousand of them are addicted to drugs’.

198 Declension of compound numerals

(1) In written Russian, all parts of a compound numeral are declined,

the noun agreeing with the final element of the compound:
К трёмст
м тридцат шест час
м прибвить ещё сто шестьдест
четре (Koluntsev)
Add another one hundred and sixty-four hours to three hundred and
thirty-six
(2) In colloquial speech, however, it is common to decline either:
(i) the final elements of the numeral only:
представтели пятьдест однй стран
representatives of fifty-one countries (cf. written norm пятдесяти
одн й стран)
с четреста пятьCдесятью двум рублми
with four hundred and fifty-two roubles (cf. written norm с
четырьмrстми . . . )
с шестьс т смьдесят семьC иллюстр
циями
with six hundred and seventy-seven illustrations (cf. written norm с
шестьюстми семь$десятью . . . )
or:
(ii) the first and final elements only:
с пятьC тсячами пятьс т смьдесят четырьм рублми with
five thousand five hundred and seventy-four roubles (cf. written
norm с пять$ тсячами пятьюстми семьcдесятью четырьм
рублми)
220 The Numeral 199

199 Cardinals as numerical ‘labels’

(1) Cardinal numerals are widely used as indeclinable numerical ‘labels’

in addresses, both with н мер ‘number’:

в квартре н мер дв
дцать семь
in flat number 27

and without н мер

Мич6рина, дв
дцать семь, квартра восемн
дцать (Shukshin)
Flat 18, 27 Michurin Street

Он занимется у подр6ги в д ме четрнадцать (Trifonov)

She is studying at her friend’s house at number 14

(2) Cardinal numerals are also used with series of air/spacecraft

(Салcт-4 (четре) ‘Salyut-4’, ТУ-104 (сто четре) ‘TU-104’, ИЛ-62
(шестьдест два) ‘IL-62’), with the names of major international
events, where the cardinal numeral denotes the year of occurrence
(Олимпида-88 (всемьдесят всемь) ‘the 1988 Olympics’), with
the names of airports (Шеремтьево-оди ‘Sheremetevo-1’), flight
numbers (рейс сто трдцать семь ‘flight number 137’), ticket
numbers (дв
дцать четре тсячи сто смьдесят (ticket number)
‘24170’) and receipt numbers (семн
дцать дв
дцать пять ‘1725’).
Telephone numbers are read in one group of three digits and two
groups of two: сто пятьдест всемь двен
дцать ноль четре
(158-12-04).

Note
In other contexts (e.g. the numbers of trains, carriages, seats) the more
colloquial ordinal is the norm: восьмй ваг н ‘carriage number 8’,
трдцать птое мсто ‘seat number 35’, смьдесят вторй п езд
‘train number 72’. Compare двадц
тый ряд, середна ‘row 20, centre’,
в птой палте ‘in ward 5’ (rooms are numbered with cardinals or
ordinals: к мната птая/пять ‘room 5’).

(3) Numerals may be left undeclined in measuring speed: хать со

ск ростью трдцать км/ч (киломтров в час) ‘to travel at a speed
of thirty kilometres per hour’ (or тридцат киломтров в час or в
трдцать киломтров в час).
 200 Collective Numerals 221

200 Collective numerals

(1) The collective numerals:

(i) Constitute a series from 2 to 10: две ‘two’, тре ‘three’, чтверо
‘four’, птеро ‘five’, шстеро ‘six’, смеро ‘seven’, всьмеро ‘eight’,
двятеро ‘nine’, дсятеро ‘ten’. Collectives above смеро ‘seven’ are
little used now. The collectives decline as follows (смеро, всьмеро,
двятеро, дсятеро decline like шстеро):
Nom. дв -е тр -е чтвер-о
Acc. дв -е/-х тр -е/-х чтвер-о/-х
Gen. дво-х тро-х четвер-х
Dat. дво-м тро-м четвер-м
Instr. дво-ми тро-ми четвер-ми
Prep. о дво-х о тро-х о четвер-х
Nom. птер-о шстер-о
Acc. птер-о/-х шстер-о/-х
Gen. пятер-х шестер-х
Dat. пятер-м шестер-м
Instr. пятер-ми шестер-ми
Prep. о пятер-х о шестер-х
(ii) They take the genitive plural of adjectives and nouns when they
themselves are in the nominative/inanimate accusative.
(2) Collective numerals are used in four main constructions:
(i) With nouns used only in the plural (see 49). This applies especially
to две ‘two’, тре ‘three’ and чтверо ‘four’, which, unlike the cardinal
numerals два, три, четре, govern genitive plural forms:
дв е часв two clocks
тр е нослок three stretchers
тр е похорн three funerals
Через чтверо сток п езд б6дет в Москв (Trifonov)
In four days’ time the train will be in Moscow
Above four, collective numerals are the norm with plural-only nouns:
птеро санй five sledges
шстеро вор т six gates
and cardinals a colloquial variant (пять санй etc.)
222 The Numeral 200

Note
(a) The collectives can be used with ‘paired’ objects (e.g. дв е лыж
‘two pairs of skis’, тр е нжниц ‘three pairs of scissors’), but
constructions with пра ‘pair’ are preferred: три п
ры н жниц
etc.
(b) Compare also the colloquial две слвок ‘two creams’ (= portions,
packets of cream), heard in shops and buffets, две щей ‘two
cabbage soups’, тре духв ‘three types or bottles of perfume’ etc.
(c) Collectives cannot appear in compound numerals. Thus, день,
not стки, is used in rendering ‘22 days’ (дв
дцать два дня).
Paraphrases with штка ‘item’, колчество ‘quantity’ and п
ра
‘pair’ are also found: Пр дано пятьс т с рок три штки снок
or Пр даны снки в колчестве пятис т сорок трёх ‘Five
hundred and forty-three sledges have been sold’, с рок три п
ры
санй/час в ‘43 sledges/clocks’.
(d) Cardinal numerals, not collectives, are used with the oblique cases
of plural-only nouns: на четырёх (not *четверх) снках ‘on
four sledges’.

(ii) The collectives can be used with animate masculine nouns: дв е

друзй (= два др6га) ‘two friends’, тр е мльчиков (= три мльчика)
‘three boys’. As with animate forms in general (see below), the use of the
collective numeral emphasizes the cohesiveness of the group, by contrast
with the individualizing nature of the cardinals. Usage is particularly
common:

(a) With nouns in -а/-я (e.g. мужчна, судь, $ноша) (птеро мужчн
‘five men’, тре судй ‘three judges’, две Cношей ‘two youths’),
including nouns of common gender (две сирт ‘two orphans’ (две
сирот is preferred, however, if both orphans are female)).

(b) With лCди ‘people’ and лиц ‘person’: тре людй ‘three people’,
птеро незнакмых лиц ‘five strangers’.

(c) With adjectival nouns: две прохжих ‘two passers-by’, тре

больнх ‘three patients’, чтверо знакмых ‘four acquaintances’,
смеро отдых
ющих ‘seven holiday-makers’.

Note that either cardinals or collectives may be used in oblique cases:

Он вгрузил в Берёзове шестерх (or шесть) пассажров

(Zalygin)
He off-loaded six passengers in Berezovo
 200 Collective Numerals 223

The use of collective numerals with feminine animate nouns (e.g.

чтверо жнщин ‘four women’) is a mark of substandard colloquial
Russian, cf. standard четре жнщины.
The collectives are not normally used with nouns denoting high rank: thus
два минстра ‘two ministers’ rather than дв е минстров; similarly, два
профссора ‘two professors’, четре генер
ла ‘four generals’.
(iii) The collectives are used with дти ‘children’: две детй ‘two
children’, тре детй ‘three children’, чтверо детй ‘four children’, птеро
детй ‘five children’ (colloquially also два ребёнка ‘two children’ etc.).
The series rarely proceeds beyond смеро ‘seven’, cf.
Супр6ги Никтины, у кот рых смеро детй (Sputnik)
The Nikitins, who have seven children
and
Он вспоминет сво$ мать, у кот рой бло двять детй
(Russia Today)
She recalls her mother, who had nine children
In oblique cases, either cardinal or collective numerals may be used, cf.
Мать четырёх детй . . . (Rybakov)
The mother of four children
and
Пятерх детй врастила (Trifonov)
She raised five children

Note
The collective numerals are also used:
(a) With ребта: птеро ребт ‘five kids’, с пятерми/пять$
ребтами ‘with five kids’, cf. У нег птеро ребятшек ‘He has
five kiddies’.
(b) With вн6ки ‘grandchildren’: За стол м — чтверо детй и
тре внков (Kovaleva) ‘At the table are four children and
three grandchildren’.
(c) With близнец: тре/чтверо близнец в ‘triplets/quadruplets’.
(d) Colloquially, with the young of animals: тре щент/три щенк

‘three puppies’.
(iv) The collective numerals are also used when an animate noun is
absent from the construction: Нас бло две ‘There were two of us’,
224 The Numeral 200–201

Тре столи на угл6 ‘Three people were standing on the corner’, Nти
птеро остлись ‘These five stayed’, Мы тре протестовли ‘We three
protested’, К мната на трох ‘A room for three’. Reference is to:
(a) Groups of males:
Их шстеро прbтив нших трох (Russia Today)
There are six of them against our three
(b) Females:
Их чтверо; все он машинстки выс кого клсса
There are four of them; they are all first-class typists
(c) Mixed company:
Нас чтверо: мой притель с двушкой, Лля и я (Kazakov)
There are four of us: my friend and his girl-friend, Lilya and I
(v) The collectives are also used in some idioms: есть, раб тать за
трох, ‘to eat, work enough for three’ etc., на свох двох (colloquial)
‘on foot’.

201 Indefinite numerals

(1) Indefinite numerals include дост

точно ‘enough’, м
ло ‘few’,
мнго ‘many, much’, нем
ло ‘not a few’, немнго ‘not many, a few’,
нсколько ‘several’, склько ‘how many’, стлько ‘so many’.
(2) All the indefinite numerals may govern the genitive singular and plural:
достточно продктов ‘sufficient provisions’, мло солд
т ‘not many
soldiers’ мн го врмени ‘much time’, ск лько с
хару? ‘how much
sugar?’, ст лько днег ‘so much money’.
(3) Стлько and склько often relate to each other, standing in adjacent
clauses:
Старйтесь давть хомяк6 стлько к рма, склько он в
состонии съесть (Yunyi naturalist )
Try to give the hamster as much food as it is able to eat
(4) Нсколько, склько, стлько take genitive plural человк
(нсколько человк ‘a few people’), while м
ло, мнго, нем
ло,
немнго take genitive plural людй (мнго людй ‘many people’ etc.).

Note
Ск лько людй is used in emotive contexts: Склько людй