Linguanull bis zwölf: the numbers you learn by heart
The numbers from 0 to 12 have their own names, and everything above is built from them. Two of them need care in pronunciation. zwei starts with ts, like the end of English cats. sechs sounds like zeks: the s at the start is voiced and chs is read ks. On the phone Germans often say zwo instead of zwei, so that it is not confused with drei.
| Number | German |
|---|---|
| 0 | null |
| 1 | eins |
| 2 | zwei |
| 3 | drei |
| 4 | vier |
| 5 | fünf |
| 6 | sechs |
| 7 | sieben |
| 8 | acht |
| 9 | neun |
| 10 | zehn |
| 11 | elf |
| 12 | zwölf |
From 13 to 19 you add -zehn (ten): dreizehn, vierzehn, fünfzehn. Two of them lose a piece: sechzehn (no s) and siebzehn (no en). The tens end in -zig: zwanzig, vierzig, fünfzig – with the same two short forms, sechzig and siebzig. The only ten spelt with ß is dreißig. The final -ig sounds like the German ich: zwanzich.
| Number | German |
|---|---|
| 13 | dreizehn |
| 16 | sechzehn |
| 17 | siebzehn |
| 20 | zwanzig |
| 30 | dreißig |
| 40 | vierzig |
| 50 | fünfzig |
| 60 | sechzig |
| 70 | siebzig |
| 80 | achtzig |
| 90 | neunzig |
| 100 | hundert |
einundzwanzig: one-and-twenty
From 21 to 99 German says the units first, then und, then the tens – all in one word: einundzwanzig is literally “one-and-twenty”, like the old English four-and-twenty blackbirds. eins loses its s inside a number: einundzwanzig, einunddreißig. So 45 is fünfundvierzig and 98 is achtundneunzig. When you hear a number, write the second digit first! hundert and tausend (also einhundert, eintausend) join the rest of the number without spaces: 245 is zweihundertfünfundvierzig, 1000 is tausend. Such long words are written in digits in everyday life – you mostly need to say and understand them. German writes a dot where English writes a comma in big numbers (1.000) and a comma for the decimals (2,50).
Meine Oma ist einundneunzig Jahre alt.My grandma is ninety-one years old.
Germany and Austria pay in euros, Switzerland in francs (Franken). Ask Was kostet …? or Wie viel kostet …?, and for several things Was kosten …?. A price is read with the word Euro in the middle: 4,50 € is vier Euro fünfzig. Euro and Cent stay the same after a number: zehn Euro, fünfzig Cent.
Wie viel kostet der Kaffee? – Zwei Euro zehn.How much is the coffee? – Two euros ten.
Words in this lesson
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| null | zero | Das Spiel steht null zu null. The game is nil–nil. |
| eins | one | Eins, zwei, drei – los! One, two, three – go! |
| zwölf | twelve | Wir sind zwölf Leute im Kurs. There are twelve of us in the course. |
| zwanzig | twenty | Mein Bruder ist zwanzig. My brother is twenty. |
| einundzwanzig | twenty-one | Die Tasche kostet einundzwanzig Euro. The bag costs twenty-one euros. |
| dreißig | thirty | Im Juli sind es oft dreißig Grad. In July it is often thirty degrees. |
| hundert | (a/one) hundred | Das Hotel hat hundert Zimmer. The hotel has a hundred rooms. |
| tausend | (a/one) thousand | Das Handy kostet fast tausend Euro. The phone costs almost a thousand euros. |
| der Euro | euro | Ein Kaffee kostet drei Euro. A coffee costs three euros. |
| der Cent | cent (1/100 euro) | Die Zeitung kostet neunzig Cent. The newspaper costs ninety cents. |
| kosten | to cost | Was kosten die Bücher? How much do the books cost? |
| wie viel | how much | Wie viel kostet das Heft? How much is the exercise book? |
| die Zahl | number | Sieben ist meine Zahl. Seven is my number. |
Exercises
This lesson has 10 exercises in the app:
- multiple choice: 3
- fill the gap: 2
- match the pairs: 1
- build the sentence: 1
- translate the sentence: 2
- listen and type: 1
Try the first one
Which German word means 25?
The answer, the other exercises, the audio and your progress are in the app – free at A0 and A1.