Like many

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east ...

, Hindustani (

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

) has a

decimal The decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers (''decimal fractions'') of th ...

numeral system that is contracted to the extent that nearly every number 1–99 is irregular, and needs to be memorized as a separate numeral. Numbers from 100 up are more regular. There are numerals for 100, ''sau''; 1,000, ''hazār''; and successive multiples by 100 of 1000: '' lākh (lakh)'' 100,000 (10⁵), '' karoṛ'' (crore) 1,00,00,000 (10⁷), ''arab'' 1,00,00,00,000 (10⁹, billion), ''kharab'' 1,00,00,00,00,000 (10¹¹), ''nīl'' 1,00,00,00,00,00,000 (10¹³), ''padma'' 1,00,00,00,00,00,00,000 (10¹⁵, quadrillion). (See

Indian numbering system The Indian numbering system is used in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh to express large numbers, which differs from the International System of Units. Commonly used quantities include ''lakh'' (one hundred thousand) and ''crore' ...

.) ''

Lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2, 2, 3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. F ...

'' and ''

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

'' are common enough to have entered

Indian English Indian English (IndE, IE) or English (India) is a group of English dialects spoken in the Republic of India and among the Indian diaspora and native to India. English is used by the Government of India for communication, and is enshrined ...

. For number 0,

Modern Standard Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of the Government of India, alongside English, and is the ' ...

is more inclined towards ''śūnya'' (a Sanskrit

tatsama Tatsama ( , lit. 'same as that') are Sanskrit loanwords in modern Indo-Aryan languages like Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Hindi, Gujarati, and Sinhala and in Dravidian languages like Tamil, Kannada and Telugu. They generally ...

) and Standard Urdu is more inclined towards ''sifr'' (borrowed from Arabic), while the native

tadbhava (Sanskrit: तद्भव, , lit. "arising from that") is the Sanskrit word for one of three etymological classes defined by native grammarians of Middle Indo-Aryan languages, alongside tatsama and deśi words. at pp. 67-69. A "tadbhava" is ...

-form is ''sunnā'' in Hindustani. Sometimes the ardha-tatsama form ''śūn'' is also used (semi-learned borrowing). Colloquially in

Hinglish Hinglish is the macaronic hybrid use of English and Hindi.Salwathura, A. N.Evolutionary development of ‘hinglish’language within the indian sub-continent. ''International Journal of Research-GRANTHAALAYAH''. Vol. 8. No. 11. Granthaalayah ...

Urdish Urdish, Urglish or Urdunglish, a portmanteau of the words ''Urdu'' and '' English'', is the macaronic hybrid use of South Asian English and Standard Urdu. In the context of spoken language, it involves code-switching between these languages wher ...

, it is simply referred as ''jīro''/''zīro'' (from English ''zero''). In writing Hindi, numbers are usually represented using Devanagari numeral signs, while in

the signs employed are those of a modified Eastern Arabic numeral system.

References

{{Hindi topics Hindustani language Numerals Numeral systems