German Numbers 20–100
After this lesson you can say any number up to a hundred — including the backwards ones like einundzwanzig.
Do this first: Numbers 0–20
Übungen
Eight exercises on what you just watched. Get 80% and the lesson is marked done and added to your A1 progress.
1 / 8 · Word order
Put the words in the right order.
I am twenty-one years old.
2 / 8 · Word order
Put the words in the right order.
That costs thirty-five euros.
3 / 8 · Choose
What is 21 in German?
4 / 8 · Choose
What number is vierundzwanzig?
5 / 8 · Choose
What number is zweiundvierzig?
6 / 8 · Choose
What is 30 in German?
7 / 8 · Choose
What is 60 in German?
8 / 8 · Choose
What is 70 in German?
In short
German says two-digit numbers backwards: 21 is einundzwanzig — literally "one-and-twenty". Take the unit, add und, then the ten, and write the whole thing as one word. The tens are zwanzig, dreißig, vierzig, fünfzig, sechzig, siebzig, achtzig, neunzig.
How it works
The tens are straightforward: add -zig to the digit. vier → vierzig, fünf → fünfzig, sechs → sechzig (dropping the s), sieben → siebzig (dropping the -en), acht → achtzig, neun → neunzig. Two are irregular and must be memorised: zwanzig for 20 and dreißig for 30 — note dreißig ends in -ßig, not -zig.
Then comes the part that genuinely rewires your brain. Any number between the tens is said unit first: 21 is einundzwanzig, "one and twenty". 47 is siebenundvierzig, "seven and forty". 99 is neunundneunzig. And it is written as a single word, however long it gets.
This is not a quirk to be endured — it is a live source of error. German bank tellers, waiters and phone operators routinely repeat numbers digit by digit because native speakers also transpose them. If someone says vierundzwanzig and you write 42, you have made the mistake that this lesson exists to prevent. When it matters, read it back.
| Number | German | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | zwanzig | irregular |
| 30 | dreißig | irregular — ßig, not zig |
| 40 | vierzig | |
| 50 | fünfzig | |
| 60 | sechzig | the s of sechs drops |
| 70 | siebzig | the -en of sieben drops |
| 80 | achtzig | |
| 90 | neunzig | |
| 100 | hundert |
| Number | German | Literally |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | einundzwanzig | one-and-twenty |
| 32 | zweiunddreißig | two-and-thirty |
| 45 | fünfundvierzig | five-and-forty |
| 58 | achtundfünfzig | eight-and-fifty |
| 67 | siebenundsechzig | seven-and-sixty |
| 76 | sechsundsiebzig | six-and-seventy |
| 99 | neunundneunzig | nine-and-ninety |
Examples
- Ich bin einundzwanzig Jahre alt.I am twenty-one years old.
- Das kostet fünfunddreißig Euro.That costs thirty-five euros.
- Sie wohnt in der Hausnummer siebenundvierzig.She lives at number forty-seven.
- Der Bus fährt in zweiundzwanzig Minuten.The bus leaves in twenty-two minutes.
- Mein Opa ist neunundachtzig.My grandpa is eighty-nine.
- Das macht hundert Euro.That comes to a hundred euros.
- Es sind vierzig Grad!It's forty degrees!
- Wie viel kostet das? — Sechsundfünfzig Euro.How much is that? — Fifty-six euros.
- Können Sie das wiederholen?Could you repeat that?
- Also vier-zwei, zweiundvierzig?So four-two, forty-two?
Mistakes to avoid
✗ Hearing vierundzwanzig as 42
✓ vierundzwanzig = 24
The unit comes first. vier-und-zwanzig is four-and-twenty. This is the mistake with real consequences — at a till, a platform or a phone number.
✗ zwanzig eins
✓ einundzwanzig
You cannot build German numbers the English way. It is always unit + und + ten, as one word.
✗ dreizig
✓ dreißig
Thirty is the one ten spelled with ß rather than z. Every other ten uses -zig.
✗ einsundzwanzig
✓ einundzwanzig
The counting form eins loses its s inside a compound number.
Wortschatz
The words from this lesson.
| zwanzig | twenty | |
| dreißig | thirty | |
| vierzig | forty | |
| fünfzig | fifty | |
| sechzig | sixty | |
| siebzig | seventy | |
| achtzig | eighty | |
| neunzig | ninety | |
| hundert | hundred | |
| die Hausnummer | house number |
Kulturnotiz
There is a long-running German campaign, Zwanzig-Eins, arguing that the reversal should be abolished because it causes real errors in medicine and finance — a doctor mishearing 74 as 47 is not a hypothetical. It has gone nowhere, but its existence tells you something: even native speakers find this hard, so read numbers back when they matter. Nobody will think less of you for it.
Common questions
+Why are German numbers backwards?
They preserve an old Germanic order that English also used — "four and twenty blackbirds" is the same construction. English modernised; German did not.
+How do I stop mishearing them?
Listen for the und. Whatever comes before it is the unit and whatever comes after is the ten. And when it matters, read the number back — Germans do this too.
+Why is thirty dreißig and not dreizig?
A historical spelling that stuck. It is the only ten written with ß, and it is worth noting explicitly because everything else in the set uses -zig.
+Are these written as one word?
Yes — einundzwanzig, siebenundvierzig, all one word however long. German compounds numbers the way it compounds nouns.