Numbers

Counting in German, from zero to a million.

0–12 — learn these first

The numbers 0–12 are irregular and must be memorized. Everything above is built from them.

#	German	#	German
0	null	7	sieben
1	eins	8	acht
2	zwei	9	neun
3	drei	10	zehn
4	vier	11	elf
5	fünf	12	zwölf
6	sechs

13–19 — ones + zehn

From 13 to 19, put the ones digit in front of -zehn. Two spellings shift slightly: sechzehn (no -s) and siebzehn (no -en).

#	German	#	German
13	dreizehn	17	siebzehn
14	vierzehn	18	achtzehn
15	fünfzehn	19	neunzehn
16	sechzehn	20	zwanzig

21–99 — the reversed order

This is the famous German quirk: for two-digit numbers you say the ones first, then "und," then the tens. 21 is literally "one-and-twenty."

einundzwanzig = 1 + und + 20. Note "ein" (not "eins") inside compounds.

The tens: 20 zwanzig, 30 dreißig (spelled with ß!), 40 vierzig, 50 fünfzig, 60 sechzig, 70 siebzig, 80 achtzig, 90 neunzig.

#	German	Literally
21	einundzwanzig	one-and-twenty
34	vierunddreißig	four-and-thirty
67	siebenundsechzig	seven-and-sixty
99	neunundneunzig	nine-and-ninety

Ich bin einunddreißig Jahre alt.

I am thirty-one years old.

31 = ein + und + dreißig. All written as one word.

Hundreds, thousands, and beyond

hundert = 100, tausend = 1000. Numbers are written as one long word, reading left to right for the hundreds/thousands but keeping the ones-before-tens rule at the end.

Germans use a dot (or a space) for thousands and a comma for decimals — the opposite of English: 1.000 = one thousand, 3,5 = three point five.

#	German
100	(ein)hundert
101	hunderteins
234	zweihundertvierunddreißig
1.000	(ein)tausend
1.999	tausendneunhundertneunundneunzig
1.000.000	eine Million

Prices and phone numbers

For prices, the comma splits euros and cents: 3,50 € is read "drei Euro fünfzig" (the word "Cent" is often dropped). For phone numbers, Germans usually read the digits in pairs or one by one.

Das kostet zwei Euro fünfzig.

That costs two euros fifty. (2,50 €)

kosten = to cost. The amount is an Akkusativ of price: "Das kostet einen Euro."

Meine Nummer ist null-eins-sieben-drei…

My number is 0173…

Phone numbers are read digit by digit; "null" = 0.

Numbers in one line

Memorize 0–12; build 13–19 with -zehn. For 21–99 say ones + und + tens as one word (einundzwanzig). 30 = dreißig (ß). Thousands use a dot, decimals a comma.

Related

• Time & Dates — clock times, ordinals, and dates