Counting in German: Your Number 1 Resource

Whenever you’re learning a new language, you would want to make sure that you know how to count in that language and you would like to do that rather sooner than later.

The reason for this is very simple: Knowing how to count is an essential part of the mastery of any language. Even the most basic conversations will make use of numbers, therefore it makes a lot of sense to learn the counting system of a language at a very early stage.

The good news when having to study the German counting system is that it is actually a piece of cake. At least for English speakers, counting in German should be a walk in the park. At least what concerns the logical aspects of the counting system.

However, German numbers can get very long in written form, so that could potentially be a problem. Then again, not all of us have the privilege to deal with these BIG NUMBERS on a regular basis.

In written correspondence, however, just writing the number itself rather than the full written form of the number will do (at least in most cases), or would you prefer to write “achthundertvierundzwanzigtausenddreihundertvierundneunzig” instead of 824.394?

Probably not.

Counting in German: Breakdown & Manual

Before I show you a list of all the numbers you ever wanted to know in German, we will have a look at how the German counting system works, in comparison with the counting mechanism of the English language.

Luckily, there are only minor differences between the two systems which will make it really easy for you if you are a native speaker of English.

Let’s start with the logic behind 1 to 10. Those are really the building blocks of the German counting system. You will need to memorize them by heart because you will need them again and again to form the rest of the numbers. Same as in English, right? Yes.

Then you need to pay special attention to eleven and twelve as these are irregular in German. Eleven is “elf” and twelve is “zwölf.” You will need to learn these by heart as well.

Numbers 13 up to 19 are easy to remember as they all follow the rule:

3 + 10 = 13

4 + 10 = 14

5 + 10 = 15

6 + 10 = 16

7 + 10 = 17

8 + 10 = 18

9 + 10 = 19

Then we have number 20. This is the first time you will see the suffix “-zig.” Twenty is irregular as well because it is zwanzig and not zweizig.

The rest of the group up to 90, namely 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, & 90 are all regular and all use the -zig suffix. So you can simply take the numbers from 1 to 9 and slap a “zig” on there and you have your numbers 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 & 90.

Then we have 100. You will have to learn this one by heart, just as in English.

There are no more surprises up to a thousand and you can simply combine the numbers that you have already learned to get to one thousand:

303 = drei hundert und drei —> dreihundert(und)drei (the “und” is not mandatory, you can also say “dreihundertdrei”)

609 = sechs hundert und neun —> sechshundert(und)neun (“und” = voluntary)

937 = neun hundert und sieben und dreißig —> neunhundert(und)siebenunddreißig (“und” = voluntary)

Then stop at one thousand and learn this one by heart as well. Pretty close to one thousand in English, right? Cognates are pretty cool, after all.

All the way up to one million there are no more surprises for you if you are a native English speaker.

Just as in English, ten thousand is crafted by saying 10 x 1000, hence “zehntausend.” So the basic unit here is one thousand.

Fifty thousand is nothing other than 50 x 1000, hence “fünfzigtausend”. Sounds familiar? Yes, indeed!

And we are already approaching the finish line….one million! At least as far as this article goes! I rarely deal will numbers over 1 million, unfortunately.

So all that is left for you to do is to learn one million in German, which couldn’t be easier, as “eine Million” is another lovely cognate and is practically a gift to you.

So, there you have it! Counting in German in a nutshell!

Now enjoy the tables with all the numbers and the pronunciation for the numbers where appropriate.

Counting from 1 to 10

1	eins	one
2	zwei	two
3	drei	three
4	vier	four
5	fünf	five
6	sechs	six
7	sieben	seven
8	acht	eight
9	neun	nine
10	zehn	ten

Counting from 10 to 100

Number	German	English
10	zehn	ten
11	elf	eleven
12	zwölf	twelfe
13	dreizehn	thirtheen
14	vierzehn	fourteen
15	fünfzehn	fifteen
16	sechzehn	sixteen
17	siebzehn	seventeen
18	achtzehn	eighteen
19	neunzehn	nineteen
20	zwanzig	twenty
21	einundzwanzig	twenty-one
22	zweiundzwanzig	twenty-two
23	dreiundzwanzig	twenty-three
24	vierundzwanzig	twenty-four
25	fünfundzwanzig	twenty-five
26	sechsundzwanzig	twenty-six
27	siebenundzwanzig	twenty-seven
28	achtundzwanzig	twenty-eight
29	neunundzwanzig	twenty-nine
30	dreißig	thirty
31	einunddreißig	thirty-one
32	zweiunddreißig	thirty-two
33	dreiunddreißig	thirty-three
34	vierunddreißig	thirty-four
35	fünfunddreißig	thirty-five
36	sechunddreißig	thirty-six
37	siebenunddreißig	thirty-seven
38	achtunddreißig	thirty-eight
39	neununddreißig	thirty-nine
40	vierzig	fourty
41	einundvierzig	fourty-one
42	zweiundvierzig	fourty-two
43	dreiundvierzig	fourty-three
44	vierundvierzig	fourty-four
45	fünfundvierzig	fourty-five
46	sechsundvierzig	fourty-six
47	siebenundvierzig	fourty-seven
48	achtundvierzig	fourty-eight
49	neunundvierzig	fourty-nine
50	fünfzig	fifty
51	einundfünfzig	fifty-one
52	zweiundfünzig	fifty-two
53	dreiundfünzig	fifty-three
54	vierundfünfzig	fifty-four
55	fünfundfünfzig	fifty-five
56	sechsundfünfzig	fifty-six
57	siebenundfünfzig	fifty-seven
58	achtundfünfzig	fifty-eight
59	neunundfünfzig	fifty-nine
60	sechzig	sixty
61	einundsechzig	sixty-one
62	zweiundsechzig	sixty-two
63	dreiundsechzig	sixty-three
64	vierundsechzig	sixty-four
65	fünfundsechzig	sixty-five
66	sechsundsechzig	sixty-six
67	siebenundsechzig	sixty-seven
68	achtundsechzig	sixty-eight
69	neunundsechszig	sixty-nine
70	siebzig	seventy
71	einundsiebzig	seventy-one
72	zweiundsiebzig	seventy-two
73	dreiundsiebzig	seventy-three
74	vierundsiebzig	seventy-four
75	fünfundsiebzig	seventy-five
76	sechsundsiebzig	seventy-six
77	siebenundsiebzig	seventy-seven
78	achtundsiebzig	seventy-eight
79	neunundsiebzig	seventy-nine
80	achtzig	eighty
81	einundachtzig	eighty-one
82	zweiundachtzig	eighty-two
83	dreiundachtzig	eighty-three
84	vierundachtzig	eighty-four
85	fünfundachtzig	eighty-five
86	sechsundachtzig	eighty-six
87	siebenundachtzig	eighty-seven
88	achtundachtzig	eighty-eight
89	neunundachtzig	eighty-nine
90	neunzig	ninety
91	einundneunzig	ninety-one
92	zweiundneunzig	ninety-two
93	dreiundneunzig	ninety-three
94	vierundundneunzig	ninety-four
95	fünfundneunzig	ninety-five
96	sechsundneunzig	ninety-six
97	siebenundneunzig	ninety-seven
98	achtundneunzig	ninety-eight
99	neunundneunzig	ninety-nine
100	einhundert (hundert)	one hundred

Counting from 100 to 1 million

Number	German	English
100	einhundert (hundert)	one hundred
101	einhunderteins (einhundertundeins)	one hundred and one
1000	eintausend (tausend)	one thousand
1005	eintausendfünf (eintausendundfünf)	one thousand and five
1425	eintausendvierhundertfünfundzwanzig	one thousand four hundred twenty five
10.000	zehntausend	ten thousand
10.007	zehntausendundsieben	ten thousand and seven
14.477	vierzehntausendvierhundertsiebenundsiebzig	fourteen thousand four hundred seventy-seven
100.000	einhunderttausend (hundertausend)	one hundred thousand
100.024	einhunderttausendundvierundzwanzig	a hundred thousand and twenty-four
172.737	hundertzweiundsiebzigtausendsiebenhundertsiebenunddreißig	one hundred seventy-two seven hundred and thirty-seven
1.000.000	eine Million	one million

Dot, comma or apostrophe

There is a lot of confusion with regards to the right punctuation of German numbers. For instance, how would you go about writing one hundred thousand in German?!?

[Option 1] 100000
[Option 2] 100000,00
[Option 3] 100.000
[Option 4] 100’000

I guess you see the problem. The correct way to go about it in German is actually Option 3. So, the correct way of writing one hundred thousand in German would be 100.000.

You might ask yourself why I even had the audacity to include Option 4. 100’000 sounds ridiculous to you?

Well, not to Swiss people (Swiss-Germans). In Switzerland, Option 4 is how numbers are written, even in newspapers. So, one hundred thousand would be 100’000 and ten thousand would be written as 10’000.

Should I write out the number?

Let’s say you are writing a letter in German. How would you go about telling the company that you only received seven pairs of socks instead of eight? Would you use 7 and 8 or “sieben” und “acht”?

It depends. In a formal letter, you would most likely use seven and eight rather than 7 and 8. However, when concerning numbers bigger than 10, you could also use the numerical equivalent. Especially if we are talking big numbers.

So if you ordered 527 T-Shirts on Amazon, you wouldn’t say “Die fünfhundertsiebenundzwanzig T-Shirts, die ich neulich bei Ihnen bestellt habe, sind…”

So the rule of thumb here is that up to 10, you are more likely to write the numbers out in full. Numbers over 10, you would just use the numbers.

Consistency is key here. In case of doubt, make your decision and then stick with it throughout the text.

Counting in German: Sample Sentences

Ich habe im Suprmarkt drei Äpfel gekauft. (I bought three apples at the supermarket.)

Am Elternabend waren insgesamt 312 Kinder anwesend. (A total of 312 children were present at the parents’ evening.

Zum Dritten und letzten Mal: Ich will dich nicht heiraten! (For the third and last time: I don’t want to marry you!)

Er schaut sich gerade die fünfte Folge von Breaking Bad an. (He’s watching the fifth episode of Breaking Bad.)

Ich habe drei Paar Socken, vier Hemden, sieben Tischtennisschläger und drei Paar Jeans mit in die Ferien genommen. (I took three pairs of socks, four shirts, seven table tennis rackets and 3 pairs of jeans with me on holiday.)

1425 Euro wollte der Verkäufer von mir! Der hat wohl ne Meise! (The seller wanted 1425 Euros from me! He must be crazy!)

Sie möchten also 500 Gramm Pouletfleisch, 25o Gramm Lamm und 4 Stück Brot, richtig? (So you want 500 grams of chicken, 250 grams of lamb, and 4 pieces of bread, right?)

Ich habe null Bock heute. (I have zero motivation today.)

Counting in German: Exercise

Here’s a short video that will help you practice counting in German. Watch the numbers on the screen (maybe pause the video for some time after the number appears on the screen), then try to verbalize them. You’ll hear the correct way to say the number a few seconds after each number appears on the screen.

How to count in German from Marcel Iseli on Vimeo.

Bonus: How to count to 10 in Swiss-German

Number	Swiss-German	English
1	eis	one
2	zwöi	two
3	drü	three
4	vier	four
5	füüf	five
6	sächs	six
7	sibä	seven
8	acht	eight
9	nüün	nine
10	zää	ten

Download: German numbers (PDF)

If you would like to learn German numbers on the go, you can simply download the following PDF with all the numbers in German:

German numbers (PDF)

Counting in German: FAQ

How do you say zero in German?

Zero is “null” in German.

Is it “hundert” or “einhundert”?

Both of them are correct. The same goes for thousand. You can either translate it as “tausend” or “eintausend.”

Is counting in German difficult?

This depends on what your mother tongue is. If your mother tongue is English, counting in German should be fairly easy, as it is very similar to counting in English.

If your mother tongue is Chinese, then learning the numbers in German is a bit more difficult because the basic units are not all identical. For instance, the logic behind 50’000 in German and English is based on 50 x 1’000, whereas in Chinese, the logic behind 50’000 is actually 5 x 10’000.

How to say phone numbers in German?

In some languages, the way you say telephone numbers differs from the way you use numbers in general. One thing to keep in mind with telephone numbers in German is the fact that you would not say each number individually as in English.

So a telephone number such as 052 365 19 22 would be broken down as [052] [365] [19] [22], namely “Null zweiundfünfzig dreihundertfünfundsechzig neunzehn zweiundzwanzig.”

One more thing to note is that in German, the number 0 will also be pronounced as “null.” So in contrast with English, there is no alternative way of saying zero in telephone numbers ( in English, the letter 0 is used for this purpose).

Marcel Iseli

Hey fellow Linguaholics! It’s me, Marcel. I am the proud owner of linguaholic.com. Languages have always been my passion and I have studied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics and Sinology at the University of Zurich. It is my utmost pleasure to share with all of you guys what I know about languages and linguistics in general.