Hungarian number converter
Type a number to get it spelled out in Hungarian as it stands alone and before a noun, plus its ordinal. The converter follows the official spelling rule: one word up to 2000, hyphens between groups of three digits above that.
On this page
Hungarian numbers are built like Lego: huszon + három = huszonhárom. The logic is simple, but the spelling rules for long numbers and the two words for "two" trip up almost everyone. This converter handles both.
The building blocks
| Digit | Ones | Tens alone | Tens + ones |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | egy | tíz | tizen- (tizenegy) |
| 2 | kettő / két | húsz | huszon- (huszonkettő) |
| 3 | három | harminc | harminc- (harmincnégy) |
| 4 | négy | negyven | negyven- |
| 5 | öt | ötven | ötven- |
| 6 | hat | hatvan | hatvan- |
| 7 | hét | hetven | hetven- |
| 8 | nyolc | nyolcvan | nyolcvan- |
| 9 | kilenc | kilencven | kilencven- |
Only 10 and 20 change shape when ones follow (tíz → tizen-, húsz → huszon-). Hundreds, thousands and millions are száz, ezer, millió and milliárd (a thousand million). A billion in the English short-scale sense is milliárd, not billió, which means a million million.
Két or kettő?
Kettő stands alone (Hány? Kettő.), két goes directly before a noun or a larger unit: két alma, kétszáz, kétezer. The same applies at the end of longer numbers: huszonkettő alone, huszonkét ember with a noun. The converter shows both.
The spelling rule for long numbers
According to the Hungarian Academy's spelling rules, numbers up to 2000 are written as one word (ezerkilencszázötvenhat), and numbers above 2000 are split with hyphens into groups of three digits counted from the right, as long as the group is not zero (kétezer-huszonhat, tizenötezer-háromszáznegyvenkettő). So 2000 itself is kétezer, but 2001 is kétezer-egy.
In digits, Hungarian groups thousands with a space (or a period in older and informal writing) and uses a comma as the decimal separator: 15 342, 3,5.
Ordinals
Ordinals add -dik with a linking vowel: harmadik, negyedik, ötödik. The first two are irregular only when they stand alone: első, második. Inside a compound they become -egyedik and -kettedik: tizenegyedik (11th), huszonkettedik (22nd). In digits, an ordinal is written with a period: 3. emelet (third floor).
For numbers in sentences (with suffixes such as hármat, háromszor, háromkor), read the full guide to Hungarian numbers. For clock times, try the time converter.
Sources and further reading
- Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, A magyar helyesírás szabályai (12th ed., Akadémiai Kiadó, 2015), rules on writing numbers
- Carol H. Rounds, Hungarian: An Essential Grammar (2nd ed., Routledge, 2009), chapter on numerals
Frequently asked questions
How do you write 2026 in Hungarian words?
Kétezer-huszonhat. Because the number is above 2000, a hyphen separates the thousands from the rest.
Why is there a hyphen in kétezer-egy but not in ezerkilencszáz?
The spelling rule writes numbers up to 2000 as one word and only splits larger numbers into hyphenated groups of three digits.
Is it két or kettő before a noun?
Always két: két kávé, tizenkét hónap. Use kettő only when the number stands on its own.
What is a billion in Hungarian?
The English billion (1 000 000 000) is milliárd. The Hungarian billió means a million million (10 to the 12th).