Kardinalzahlen — Cardinal Numbers

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🎯 Kardinalzahlen are the plain counting numbers: one, two, three… We use them every day for age, prices, phone numbers, years and quantities. Their formation is fully regular once you know the basics, but there are a few spelling traps we will cover here.

🎯 Lesson Objectives

Form cardinal numbers correctly from 0 up to the millions.
Spell numbers correctly (dreißig, sechzehn, siebzehn…).
Know when to use eins and when ein inside a compound number.
Use Million and Milliarde as nouns that are capitalised and take a plural.
Read numbers used as nouns (school grades, lines, phone numbers, years).

📚 Core Rule — From 0 to 20

Number	German	Number	German
0	null	11	elf
1	eins	12	zwölf
2	zwei	13	dreizehn
3	drei	14	vierzehn
4	vier	15	fünfzehn
5	fünf	16	sechzehn (not sechszehn)
6	sechs	17	siebzehn (not siebenzehn)
7	sieben	18	achtzehn
8	acht	19	neunzehn
9	neun	20	zwanzig
10	zehn

Tens and Compound Tens

From 13 to 99 a number is written as one word. From 21 to 99 we put the units first, then und, then the ten (the reverse order compared to English):

Number	German	Note
30	dreißig	with ß, not dreizig
40	vierzig
50	fünfzig
60	sechzig	sechs drops -s
70	siebzig	sieben drops -en
21	einundzwanzig	ein + und + zwanzig
34	vierunddreißig
68	achtundsechzig
99	neunundneunzig

📌 Golden rule: units come first! 42 = zweiundvierzig ("two-and-forty"), not vierzigzwei.

Hundreds and Thousands

Number	German
100	hundert or einhundert
101	hunderteins
152	hundertzweiundfünfzig
200	zweihundert
365	dreihundertfünfundsechzig
1.000	tausend or eintausend
1.234	tausendzweihundertvierunddreißig
2.000	zweitausend

📌 In German thousands are separated with a full stop, not a comma: 1.000 = one thousand, 5.400 = five thousand four hundred.

The Millions — Nouns Written with a Capital Letter!

die Million and die Milliarde are real nouns: they are capitalised and take the plural ending -n when the number is more than one:

Number	German	Translation
1.000.000	eine Million	one million
2.000.000	zwei Millionen	two million
3.500.000	drei Millionen fünfhunderttausend	three and a half million
1.000.000.000	eine Milliarde	one billion

⚠️ eins or ein?

Situation	Form	Example
Counting on its own (counting, phone)	eins	null, eins, zwei, drei…
Inside a compound number	ein	einundzwanzig, einhundert
Before a singular noun	declines like an article	ein Buch, eine Idee

🗣️ Numbers as Nouns in Everyday Use

Usage	Example	Translation
School grades (feminine)	Er hat eine Eins in Mathematik geschrieben.	He got a top grade in maths.
Bus or line number	Sie fährt mit der Linie 34 (vierunddreißig).	She takes line 34.
Phone number digit by digit	Meine Nummer ist null – eins – sieben – vier…	My number is 0 – 1 – 7 – 4…
Years	Ich bin neunzehnhundertfünfundneunzig geboren.	I was born in 1995.
Age	Mein Sohn ist achtzehn Jahre alt.	My son is eighteen years old.
Prices	Das Ticket kostet neunzehn Euro neunzig.	The ticket costs 19.90 euros.

💡 Notice that years before 2000 are read in hundreds: 1985 = neunzehnhundertfünfundachtzig, while from 2000 onwards we say: 2010 = zweitausendzehn.

✅ Example Sentences with Translation

Sentence	Translation
Ich bin fünfundzwanzig Jahre alt und studiere in München.	I am twenty-five years old and study in Munich.
Unsere Wohnung liegt im dritten Stock, aber die Miete beträgt nur 850 €.	Our flat is on the third floor, but the rent is only €850.
Über zwei Millionen Menschen besuchen dieses Museum pro Jahr.	More than two million people visit this museum every year.
Bitte rufen Sie mich unter null – eins – sieben – sechs an.	Please call me on 0176.
Das Konzert beginnt um zwanzig Uhr dreißig.	The concert starts at 20:30.

📝 Interactive Exercises

✏️ Choose the correct spelling or form:

#	Question	A	B
1	How do you write the number 30 in German?	dreizig	dreißig
2	What is the name of number 17?	siebzehn	siebenzehn
3	What is the name of number 60?	sechszig	sechzig
4	The company needs 2,000,000 euros, i.e. zwei ___ Euro.	Million	Millionen
5	The bus is line 45 — how do you read it?	fünfundvierzig	fünfundfünfzig

✏️ Write each number out in German words (one word for tens and hundreds):

#	Number in digits	Answer
1	21
2	45
3	100
4	101
5	1.000
6	365

✏️ Match each digit number with its reading:

#	Number	Reading
1	30
2	18
3	41
4	200

🔢 Ordinalzahlen — Ordinal Numbers Zählbar und unzählbar — Countable and Uncountable Nouns