English did this too, once: “four-and-twenty blackbirds” in the old nursery rhyme is 24 said the German way.
German · Vocabulary · A1
German numbers: units before tens, all in one word
From 21 onward, German says the unit first and the ten second, joined by und (and): 21 is einundzwanzig, “one-and-twenty”. Numbers below a million are written as a single word, however long. Once you hear the order, every number follows the same rule.
Short answer
learn 0–12; 13–19 add -zehn; tens end in -zig (except 30, dreißig); say units before tens
Many look like their English relatives: drei (three), acht (eight), elf (eleven). From 13 to 19, add -zehn (ten). Watch the spellings of 16 and 17, which drop letters. Press any number to hear it.
Yellow edges mark the irregular spellings: sechzehn drops the s of sechs, siebzehn drops the -en of sieben.
21 to 999: build any number
Tens end in -zig, except dreißig (30) with ß. To build a number, say the hundreds, then the unit, then und, then the ten. Change the digits to see the word assemble.
Hundreds
Tens
Units
365Units (5) come before tens (60), joined by und.
Eins, ein, eine, and zwo
The number one changesCounting alone, it is eins. Inside a bigger number it loses the s: einundzwanzig, hunderteins keeps it at the very end. Before a noun it works like the word for “a” and takes the noun’s gender: ein Kaffee, eine Stunde (one hour). Genders are explained in der, die, das.
Zwo instead of zweiZwei (two) and drei (three) sound alike over a bad phone line or a station speaker, so Germans often say zwo (tsvoh) for 2 when clarity matters: phone numbers, platforms, flight numbers. Both are correct.
Prices and big numbers
German puts a full stop where English puts a comma, and a comma where English puts a decimal point. Prices are read as euros, then cents, often without the word Cent.
Telling the time: halb means “half to”
Timetables use the 24-hour clock read as plain numbers: 14:30 is vierzehn Uhr dreißig. In conversation, people use a 12-hour clock with Viertel (quarter) and halb (half). The trap: halb drei means half to three, 2:30, not half past three.
Ordinals and dates
An ordinal number gives a position: first, second, third. German adds -te up to 19 and -ste from 20, and writes the number with a full stop: 3. means “third”. Three are irregular: erste, dritte, siebte. Dates always use ordinals: der 3. Oktober is der dritte Oktober. After am (on the), the ending becomes -en: am dritten Oktober, on 3 October.
ikh HAH-buh am DRIT-un ok-TOH-ber guh-BOORTS-tahk“My birthday is on 3 October.”
Why:German “has” a birthday. Am plus the ordinal with -en gives the date. 3 October is also German Unity Day, a national holiday.
Der erste, der zweite: ordinal numbers
Add -te up to 19 and -ste from 20, then the usual adjective ending. Written, a full stop after the figure means “ordinal”: der 3. Mai is “the third of May”.
1st · irregular
dertheerstefirstTagday
dair AIR-ste TAAK · “the first day”Why:eins → erste, not einste.
3rd · irregular
derthedrittethirdPlatzplace
dair DRI-te PLATS · “third place”Why:drei → dritte.
7th · regular -te
imin-thesiebtenseventhStockfloor
im ZEEP-ten SHTOK · “on the seventh floor”Why:sieben drops its -en: siebte. Dative after im: -en.
20th · -ste
amon-thezwanzigstentwentiethJuniJune
am TSVAN-tsikh-sten YOO-nee · “on the 20th of June”Why:From 20 the ending is -ste. Dates take am + -en.
Phone numbers and years
Germans read phone numbers in pairs or single digits, and years before 2000 in hundreds.