Numbers 11–100
Numbers 11–100
German compound numbers above twenty are built back-to-front compared to English — "one-and-twenty" instead of "twenty-one" — an order English itself used centuries ago (as in the nursery rhyme "four-and-twenty blackbirds").
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Units before tens: einundzwanzig, not zwanzigeins
einundzwanzig (21) = ein + und + zwanzig ("one and twenty")
twenty-one
From 21 onward, German states the units digit first, then "und" ("and"), then the tens digit — the reverse of modern English order, though it matches the archaic English pattern preserved in phrases like "four-and-twenty." So 47 is siebenundvierzig ("seven-and-forty"), not "vierzigsieben." This trips up English speakers doing quick math or writing numbers by dictation, since you must listen for the units digit first. Numbers are also written as one long unbroken word, however long the number is.
The teens and the tens have their own bases
elf, zwölf, dreizehn... zwanzig, dreißig, vierzig...
eleven, twelve, thirteen... twenty, thirty, forty...
Just like English "eleven" and "twelve" don't follow the "-teen" pattern of thirteen through nineteen, German elf and zwölf are their own irregular words before dreizehn (13) onward regularly attaches -zehn to the units digit. Similarly, zwanzig (20) is irregular, but dreißig (30) through neunzig (90) regularly attach -zig (thirty is the odd one out, using -ßig instead of -zig).
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| German | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| elf | elf | eleven |
| zwölf | tsverlf | twelve |
| dreizehn | DRY-tsayn | thirteen |
| zwanzig | TSVAHN-tsikh | twenty |
| einundzwanzig | eyn-oont-TSVAHN-tsikh | twenty-one |
| dreißig | DRY-sikh | thirty |
| vierzig | FEER-tsikh | forty |
| fünfzig | FEWNF-tsikh | fifty |
| sechzig | ZEKH-tsikh | sixty |
| siebzig | ZEEP-tsikh | seventy |
| achtzig | AHKH-tsikh | eighty |
| neunzig | NOYN-tsikh | ninety |
| hundert | HOON-dert | one hundred |