Counting in German

Language overview

West Germanic language of the Indo-European family, German (Deutsch) is the official language of Germany, Austria, Switzerland (alongside with French, Italian and Romansh), Luxembourg (with Luxembourgish and French) and Liechtenstein. It counts 100 million speakers.

German numbering rules

Now that you’ve had a gist of the most useful numbers, let’s move to the writing rules for the tens, the compound numbers, and why not the hundreds, the thousands and beyond (if possible).

• Digits and numbers from zero to twelve are specific words: null [0], eins [1], zwei [2], drei [3], vier [4], fünf [5], sechs [6], sieben [7], acht [8], neun [9], zehn [10], elf [11], and zwölf [12].
• From thirteen to nineteen, the numbers are formed from the matching unit digits, adding the word for ten (zehn) at the end: dreizehn [13], vierzehn [14], fünfzehn [15], sechzehn [16], siebzehn (and not siebenzehn) [17], achtzehn [18], and neunzehn [19].
• The tens are formed by adding the suffix -zig at the end of the multiplier digit, with the exception of ten, twenty and seventy, still irregular, as well as thirty: zehn [10], zwanzig [20], dreißig [30] (-zig becomes -ßig), vierzig [40], fünfzig [50], sechzig [60], siebzig [70], achtzig [80], and neunzig [90].
• From twenty-one to ninety-nine, the tens and units are joined with the und (and) word, but the unit is said before the ten (e.g.: einunddreißig [31], fünfunddreißig [35]).
• Hundred (hundert) and thousand (tausend) are not separated from the other numbers by a space (e.g.: hunderteinundzwanzig [121], tausendzweihundertneunzehn [1,219]).
• When expressing a year, the numbers from 1,100 to 1,999 are said in tens of hundreds. For instance, the year 1985 is neunzehnhundertfünfundachtzig.
• The unit eins (one) loses its final -s when composed in a number, unless it is the only value after a scale name (e.g.: hunderteins [101], tausendeins [1,001]).
• The German language uses the long scale for big numbers where the naming pattern of the scale words alternates between the -illion and -illiarde suffixes: Million (10⁶, million), Milliarde (10⁹, billion), Billion (10¹², trillion), Billiarde (10¹⁵, quadrillion), Trillion (10¹⁸, quintillion), Trilliarde (10²¹, sextillion)…

Write a number in full in German

Let’s move now to the practice of the numbering rules in German. Will you guess how to write a number in full? Enter a number and try to write it down in your head, or maybe on a piece of paper, before displaying the result.

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West Germanic languages

Afrikaans, Alsatian, Bavarian, English, German, Gottscheerish, Hunsrik, Luxembourgish, North Frisian, Pennsylvania German, Plautdietsch, Saterland Frisian, Scots, Swiss German, West Frisian, Wymysorys, and Yiddish.

Other supported languages

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