Numbers 11–100
సంఖ్యలు 11–100
Past twenty, German numbers do something Telugu (and English) never do: they say the units digit before the tens digit — 'one-and-twenty' instead of 'twenty-one'.
Grammar Comparison
వ్యాకరణ పోలిక
Units before tens — the order flips
einundzwanzig (21 = 'one-and-twenty': ein + und + zwanzig)
ఇరవై ఒకటి (21 = 'twenty-one': ఇరవై + ఒకటి, tens first)
Telugu, like English, always states the tens before the units: ఇరవై ఒకటి literally means 'twenty-one'. German reverses this for every two-digit number from 21 onward — einundzwanzig literally means 'one-and-twenty'. This trips up nearly every learner at first, because you have to hold the first-heard digit in mind until the tens word arrives: when someone says 'dreiundvierzig', keep 'drei' (3) in mind until 'vierzig' (40) confirms it's 43, not some other number starting with 3.
Tens words are less predictable in Telugu than in German
zwanzig (20), dreißig (30), vierzig (40)... digit + -zig, with dreißig as the one exception
ఇరవై (20), ముప్పై (30), నలభై (40)... each tens word has its own shape
German's tens words are fairly regular: take the digit and attach a fixed suffix -zig (dreißig is the sole exception, using -ßig). Telugu's tens words — ఇరవై, ముప్పై, నలభై, యాభై, అరవై, డెబ్బై, ఎనభై, తొంభై — don't share one clean, transparent suffix the way, say, Telugu's teen numbers do; each one has to be learned more or less on its own, closer to how English learners just memorize 'twenty, thirty, forty' individually. So this is one spot where German's regularity actually outpaces Telugu's.
Vocabulary
పదజాలం
- Telugu
- ఇరవైiravai
- English
- twenty (20)
- Telugu
- ముప్పైmuppai
- English
- thirty (30)
- Telugu
- నలభైnalabhai
- English
- forty (40)
- Telugu
- యాభైyaabhai
- English
- fifty (50)
- Telugu
- అరవైaravai
- English
- sixty (60)
- Telugu
- డెబ్బైdebbai
- English
- seventy (70)
- Telugu
- ఎనభైenabhai
- English
- eighty (80)
- Telugu
- తొంభైtombhai
- English
- ninety (90)
- Telugu
- వందvanda
- English
- one hundred (100)
- Telugu
- ఇరవై ఒకటిiravai okati
- English
- twenty-one (21)
- Telugu
- నలభై మూడుnalabhai moodu
- English
- forty-three (43)