Numbers from 0 to 100
Count from 0 to 100, say your age, a room number or a house number, and understand a number when a German speaker says it fast.
Numbers and time · Start from zero · 20 min · 20 exercises · Start from zero, High school, Goethe A1
Numbers are everywhere: your age, a house number, a bus line, a room at school, a price at the bakery. The good news is that German numbers are very regular. Learn the numbers from 0 to 12 by heart, then two small patterns give you everything up to 100. The one surprise for English speakers: from 21 on, Germans say the ones before the tens, like the old English rhyme „four-and-twenty blackbirds“.
Zero to twelve: learn these by heart
- nullzeroalso used in phone numbers
- einsonethe number on its own
- zweitwoon the phone people often say zwo
- dreithree
- vierfourthe v sounds like an English f
- fünffive
- sechssixchs sounds like x
- siebenseven
- achteightch is the rough sound after a
- neunnineeu sounds like oy in boy
- zehntenz is pronounced ts
- elfeleven
- zwölftwelve
Inside the platform every word is read aloud by a German voice.
Thirteen to nineteen: number + zehn
| Number | German | How it is built |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | dreizehn | drei + zehn |
| 14 | vierzehn | vier + zehn |
| 15 | fünfzehn | fünf + zehn |
| 16 | sechzehn | sech + zehn: the s of sechs disappears |
| 17 | siebzehn | sieb + zehn: the en of sieben disappears |
| 18 | achtzehn | acht + zehn |
| 19 | neunzehn | neun + zehn |
The tens and one hundred
- zwanzigtwentynot zweizig
- dreißigthirtythe only ten written with ß
- vierzigforty
- fünfzigfifty
- sechzigsixtyno s in the middle, like sechzehn
- siebzigseventyno en, like siebzehn
- achtzigeighty
- neunzigninety
- hundertone hundredeinhundert is also correct
- die Zahldie Zahlennumber (as a quantity)
- die Nummerdie Nummernnumber (of a house, a bus, a room)
Inside the platform every word is read aloud by a German voice.
From 21 to 99: ones first, then und, then the tens
Say the ones, add und, then say the tens, all in one word: 21 = einundzwanzig (one-and-twenty), 34 = vierunddreißig, 58 = achtundfünfzig, 99 = neunundneunzig. Notice that 1 becomes ein inside a number: einundzwanzig, never einsundzwanzig. Full tens stand alone: 40 = vierzig.
Reading a two-digit number
| Number | Ones + und + tens | German |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | ein + und + zwanzig | einundzwanzig |
| 32 | zwei + und + dreißig | zweiunddreißig |
| 45 | fünf + und + vierzig | fünfundvierzig |
| 67 | sieben + und + sechzig | siebenundsechzig |
| 76 | sechs + und + siebzig | sechsundsiebzig |
| 88 | acht + und + achtzig | achtundachtzig |
| 100 | hundert | hundert |
How old are you?
Two students, Lotta and Samir, talk during the break of their German course in Graz.
Eins, ein or eine?
Use eins when the number stands alone: Zimmer eins, Nummer eins, eins, zwei, drei. Before a noun, the number one behaves like the article a: ein before a der or das word (ein Euro, ein Jahr) and eine before a die word (eine Frage, eine Minute). To say your age, copy the pattern Ich bin + number + Jahre alt, or simply Ich bin + number.
Numbers in everyday sentences
- Wie alt bist du?How old are you?to a friend or classmate
- Wie alt sind Sie?How old are you?formal, with Sie
- Ich bin fünfzehn Jahre alt.I am fifteen years old.
- Das ist Zimmer zwölf.That is room twelve.
- Der Bus Nummer acht kommt.Bus number eight is coming.
- Die Hausnummer ist dreiundvierzig.The house number is forty-three.
Handwritten numbers and counting on your fingers
A handwritten German 1 has a long upstroke on the left, so Americans often read it as a 7. To avoid confusion, Germans cross their 7 with a small bar. When counting on their fingers, Germans start with the thumb: one is the thumb, two is thumb and index finger. If you hold up only your index finger at a counter, you may get two of something.
Train your ear with the und rule: when you hear vierundzwanzig, write the digits in reverse order of hearing. You hear vier first, but it is the ones, so you write 4 second: 24. Practice by saying the house numbers in your street or the pages of a book out loud in German.
Four spellings trip up almost every beginner: sechzehn and sechzig lose the s of sechs, siebzehn and siebzig lose the en of sieben, and dreißig is written with ß, not z. Never say zwanzig und eins for 21: it is einundzwanzig, ones first, in one word.
The exercises of this lesson
20 corrected exercises in two sessions (discovery, practice), including listening items read aloud by a German voice: multiple choice (4), fill in the gap (5), matching (3), sorting (2), word order (1), translation (3), find the mistake (1), gap text (1). Every answer is corrected immediately, with the rule that applies.