Numbers in German: How to form them and use them in sentences?

The number words from 0 to 10 will mostly seem like old friends. Let’s take a look the those “basic” numbers:

Let’s say we want to form 11-19. Here, there’s just two more that you also need to memorize: the words for 11 and 12.

For the other “teens” (13-19) there’s no need for memorization: just add -zehn to the numbers from 3 to 9:

• drei

  Translation: three

  

  zehn

  Translation: teen

  =

  dreizehn

  Translation: thirteen
• neun

  Translation: nine

  

  zehn

  Translation: teen

  =

  neunzehn

  Translation: nineteen

Straightforward, right? However, make note of these tiny exceptions. When combining with -zehn:

• sechs (meaning six) loses its final -s → sechzehn (meaning sixteen)

• sieben (meaning seven) loses its -en → siebzehn (meaning seventeen).

For multiples of ten, 30-90, just add the ending to the number words from 2 to 9 to form words for multiples of ten:

• vier

  Translation: four

  

  zig

  Translation: -ty

  =

  vierzig

  Translation: forty
• acht

  Translation: eight

  

  zig

  Translation: -ty

  =

  achtzig

  Translation: eighty

For the numbers between the multiples of ten (21-99), things get a little trickier, from an English perspective, because the German number words for numbers “turned around”:

Big numbers, those from 100 to 100,000, are combinations of our basic numbers and the words hundert (meaning hundred) and tausend (meaning thousand). Remember that in German they are all spelled as one word:

All right, next one’s up to you: Try forming the number word for “thirteen thousand seven hundred seventy-nine”, then look below to see the answer. You’re right, it’s:

Once you get to one million, the number words are not one-word numerals, but nouns. This means they have a gender (feminine), they are counted using compound numbers that are a separate word (like the ones above), and they can take definite or indefinite articles.

In German, we often use the indefinite article (ein/eine/ein) instead of the number eins (meaning one). The indefinite article is most common in cases where you’re not actively doing math, such as when you’re ordering at a restaurant.

Just like in English you would usually say “I’d like a coke” instead of “I’d like one coke,” in German you don’t usually use eins (meaning one) unless you really want to emphasize the numerical value for some reason.

You’ll even do this when counting money! (see below.)

If you want to express how many times something should be done, you can combine any cardinal number with the little suffix -mal (meaning times):

Basic math operations with cardinal numbers work the same way around the world, but the symbols used are not always the same.

For example, in German:

• use the comma as a decimal point marker (e.g. 3,5 = 3.5)

• use the decimal to mark to separate out the thousands (e.g. 3.500 = 3,500)

• you’ll generally use (⋅) as the symbol or multiplication (not x)

• you’ll generally use a colon (:) instead of (÷)

These symbols, and the words to use for them are illustrated in the examples below:

• Using symbols:

  7 ⋅ 7 : 1 + 10 - 17 = 42

  Translation: 7 x 7 ÷ 1 + 10 - 17 = 42
• Using words:

  sieben mal sieben durch eins plus zehn minus siebzehn ist gleich zweiundvierzig

  Translation: seven times seven divided by one plus ten minus seventeen equals 42

Of course, cardinal number words play a big role when you are talking about money, be it asking how much something costs or discussing paychecks with your boss. Here is what you do: You can express any amount by using a cardinal number word and the word der Euro (meaning euro) and der Cent (meaning cent). Take a look:

So far so good! One of the most important skills to have is being able to convert prices printed using actual numbers into number words, for example when we want to talk about how much things are at the supermarket. Let’s look at this table:

In short, you pronounce the words Euro or Cent in the place of the decimal comma. And now you’re ready to go shopping!

To say the date in German you’ll need to use both cardinal and ordinal numbers.

Germans use this format when writing dates: DD. MM. YYYY (with a space after each period).

In German, both the days and the months are expressed as ordinal numbers. Even when speaking out loud Germans will often use the ordinal number for both the day and the month, rather than using the month’s name.

Just like in English, the names of most historical years in German aren’t read as numbers in the thousands, but in two chunks. But in German you need to add the word “hundred” in the middle of the date. For example:

Starting with the year 2000, though, we just use the normal cardinal number word for the year, e.g. zweitausend (meaning two thousand):