Arabic number to words (tafqeet): cheque wording that follows the real rules

Tafqeet (تفقيط) is spelling an amount in Arabic words, the way cheques and invoices require it. 1250.50 riyals becomes ألف ومائتان وخمسون ريالاً وخمسون هللة. The job looks simple and breaks every naive converter, because Arabic number words change with gender, with the last two digits, and with the scale of the number. A converter that translates digits one at a time produces عشرون وخمسة for 25, which a bank clerk reads as wrong at a glance, and hard-codes ثلاثة for 3, which is right for pounds and wrong for lira.

The free Cubbbix Arabic Number to Words tool follows the standard rules for eight currencies plus plain masculine or feminine counting: units before tens, 3 to 10 taking the opposite gender of the counted noun, 11 to 99 taking the singular accusative, and round hundreds and thousands taking the plain singular. Type the amount, pick the currency, and copy the wording onto the cheque, then read it back against the digits before signing, because the words are what a bank reads when digits and words disagree.

Figure 1: Words are harder to alter than digits, which is why banks require them.

The four rules

First, units come before tens. English says twenty-five. Arabic says خمسة وعشرون, five and twenty. Second, 3 to 10 take the opposite gender of the counted noun: ثلاثة جنيهات for a masculine noun like جنيه, ثلاث ليرات for a feminine noun like ليرة. One and two agree with the noun instead: جنيه واحد, ليرة واحدة, and two uses the dual: ريالان, هللتان. Third, the counted noun changes form with the last two digits: 3 to 10 take the plural (ثلاثة آلاف), 11 to 99 take the singular accusative (أحد عشر ألفاً), and round hundreds and thousands take the plain singular (مائة جنيه, ألف جنيه). Fourth, the dual drops its nun before a noun: ألفان becomes ألفا ريال, and مائتان becomes مائتا ريال.

The scale words follow the same rules, because they are counted nouns too. ألف is masculine, so 3 thousands is ثلاثة آلاف and 11 thousands is أحد عشر ألفاً on its own, but أحد عشر ألف ريال when the currency follows directly, because the common cheque style drops the accusative ending before the currency noun. مليون and مليار work the same way: ثلاثة ملايين, أحد عشر مليوناً, مليون ريال, مليونا ريال. The tool applies these rules to every group of the amount, so a large figure reads the way a cheque writer would write it, not the way a digit table would spell it.

Figure 2: Units before tens, opposite gender for 3 to 10, the noun by last digits, dual drops its nun.

Fractions and limits

A fraction is spelled with the subunit: هللة for the riyal, قرش for the pound, فلس for the dinar and dirham, سنت for the dollar. The subunit follows its own gender: هللة is feminine, so one halalah is هللة واحدة and three are ثلاث هللات, while قرش is masculine, so one qirsh is قرش واحد. The tool handles amounts up to 999,999,999,999.99, just under one trillion, and it rejects more than two decimal digits instead of rounding your money silently. Cheque wording varies between banks and countries, and the tool follows the common Saudi style: if your bank prints a different variant, follow the bank's form for that cheque.

Words are harder to alter than digits: changing 1000 to 9000 takes one stroke, while changing ألف to تسعة آلاف takes a rewrite. That is the whole reason banks require the amount in words, and the reason the words win when digits and words disagree. Copy the wording, read it back against the digits, and sign only when the two agree.

Figure 3: 1250.50 riyals is ألف ومائتان وخمسون ريالاً وخمسون هللة, with the subunit spelled out.

Questions people ask