-tacha / -lab

About, By the Hundreds

Level 4

-tacha gives a rough number: oʻntacha odam (about ten people). -lab gives a large, uncounted number: yuzlab mehmonlar (hundreds of guests).

How It Works

Uzbek has several ways to give a number that is not exact. Grammar books call these chama son, "approximate numbers".

-tacha: about. Add it to a number, much like -ta: oʻntacha (about ten), yigirmatacha (about twenty), yuztacha (about a hundred). The noun after it stays singular: oʻntacha odam (about ten people).

-lab: many, by the ... Add it to a round number to mean "many tens, many hundreds": oʻnlab (dozens), yuzlab (hundreds of), minglab (thousands of), millionlab (millions of). The noun after it is often plural, though the singular is also used: minglab odamlar or minglab odam. A close variant is -larcha: minglarcha.

-lab with time words. It also goes on words for time and amount: soatlab (for hours), kunlab (for days), haftalab (for weeks), yillab (for years). These mean "for a long time, many hours".

Two numbers together. Another everyday way to say "about" is to join two neighbouring numbers with a hyphen: ikki-uch kun (two or three days), besh-oltita (five or six). See word pairs.

Clock times. For "around" a time, add -lar to the hour: soat beshlarda (around five o'clock).

Not "each". Do not mix -tacha with -tadan, which shares things out: ikkitadan means "two each".

Examples (6)

  1. Zalda oʻntacha odam bor edi.

    There were about ten people in the hall.

    Word by Word: Hall-in about-ten person there-was.

    -tacha: about ten. The noun stays singular.

  2. Toʻyga yuzlab mehmonlar keldi.

    Hundreds of guests came to the wedding.

    Word by Word: Wedding-to hundreds guests came.

    -lab: a large number, not counted.

  3. Bu kitobni minglab odamlar oʻqigan.

    Thousands of people have read this book.

    Word by Word: This book-the thousands people read-have.

    Minglab: thousands of.

  4. Men uni soatlab kutdim.

    I waited for him for hours.

    Word by Word: I him hours-by waited-I.

    -lab on a time word: for hours.

  5. Ular yigirmatacha savol berishdi.

    They asked about twenty questions.

    Word by Word: They about-twenty question gave.

    Any number can take -tacha.

  6. Ikki-uch kundan keyin qaytaman.

    I will be back in two or three days.

    Word by Word: Two-three day-from after return-I.

    Two numbers with a hyphen also give "about".

Common Mistakes

  • Making the noun plural after -tacha.

    Zalda oʻntacha odamlar bor edi.
    Zalda oʻntacha odam bor edi.

    Like other numbers, -tacha is followed by a singular noun.

  • Using -lab when you mean "about" one exact round number.

    Zalda yuzlab odam bor edi. (meaning: about a hundred people)
    Zalda yuztacha odam bor edi.

    Yuzlab means "hundreds of", many hundreds. For "about a hundred", use yuztacha.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

-tacha / -labLevel 4About, By the Hundreds

Learn This First

Builds on The Counting Suffix -ta.