Russian Ordinal Numbers

Russian ordinal numbers are used to describe the position of something in a sequence.

Table of Contents

They answer the question:

“Which one?”

Examples include:

Ordinal numbers are commonly used when talking about:

Russian Ordinal Numbers 1–20

Here are the most common Russian ordinal numbers.

Russian ordinal numbers behave like adjectives and change depending on gender.

Example with первый (first):

Example sentence:

Это мой первый день.

Meaning:

This is my first day.

Many Russian ordinal numbers are formed from cardinal numbers by adding an ending.

Examples:

десять → десятый
двадцать → двадцатый
тридцать → тридцатый

These endings change depending on the gender and grammatical case in the sentence.

Ordinal numbers appear in many everyday expressions.

Examples:

второй этаж
(the second floor)

третья страница
(the third page)

десятая глава
(the tenth chapter)

Ordinal numbers are often used when speaking about dates in Russian.

Example:

четвёртое марта

Meaning:

the fourth of March

Example sentence:

Сегодня четвёртое марта.

Most written dates still appear as numbers.

Example:

4 марта 2026

For more information about Russian dates, check out our Russian Dates page.

You can practice Russian numbers using the tools below.

Example: 1234

Further reference: Gramota.ru on numerals.