German Numbers, Time, and Prices You Can Actually Use

Published 2026-08-07 · Language: en

🔢 One to Twenty, and the Trap at Thirteen AI-sketched illustration German numbers start out familiar, then do something English abandoned centuries ago. 🧮 The first twelve are simply memorised. From thirteen upward a p

🔢 One to Twenty, and the Trap at Thirteen

German numbers start out familiar, then do something English abandoned centuries ago. 🧮

The first twelve are simply memorised. From thirteen upward a pattern takes over, and once you have it, everything to ninety-nine follows without further learning.

One to ten — eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben, acht, neun, zehn.

The two irregulars — elf and zwölf must be learned outright.

From thirteen , German builds unit + zehn .

dreizehn is literally "three-ten".

Two shorten their stem: sechzehn (not "sechszehn") and siebzehn (not "siebenzehn").

One small complication is worth clearing up early. When counting aloud or reading out a phone number, "one" is eins . But in front of a noun it behaves like an article and drops the -s: ein Buch , never "eins Buch".

Example: A baker asking Wie viele? expects the bare number — "drei", with no article attached. 🥨

⚠️ Note: The shortened stems in 16 and 17 are easy to miss in writing and very audible in speech.

💡 Pro-Tip: Learn one to twelve as raw vocabulary, then treat everything above as arithmetic. Only two of the teens need special attention.

Concept/Term Explanation

elf / zwölf 11 and 12 — irregular, memorise as-is.

dreizehn → neunzehn Built as unit + zehn, from 13 upward.

sechzehn / siebzehn Both shorten the stem.

eins vs ein Bare count is eins; before a noun it becomes ein/eine.

Study Questions

Which two numbers between 10 and 20 are fully irregular?

What is the pattern for building 13 through 19?

Why is "eins Buch" wrong?

🔄 Twenty-One Backwards: The Number Reversal

Here is the feature that trips up every English speaker — and it never quite goes away. ↩️

German says the units before the tens, so a two-digit number arrives in reverse order. Reading them becomes easy quickly; hearing them stays hard for a long time, because you must hold the first half in memory until the second half tells you what it meant.

The pattern — unit, then und , then the ten.

einundzwanzig is literally "one-and-twenty".

zweiundvierzig is "two-and-forty".

The tens themselves — zwanzig, dreißig, vierzig, fünfzig.

Thirty is the odd one out, spelled with ß rather than z.

The big round numbers — hundert and tausend, usually without "ein" in front.

This is why German phone numbers, prices, and addresses are disproportionately difficult long after reading is comfortable. The fix is ear training rather than study: read house numbers and receipts aloud until the reversal stops requiring conscious effort.

Example: Someone says siebenundsechzig . Do not write 7 — the "sieben" is the unit, so the number is 67. 🎧

⚠️ Note: The number is not fixed until the speaker finishes. Writing digits as you hear them will produce errors.

💡 Pro-Tip: Practise with numbers you can verify — prices on a receipt, the time on a departure board. Feedback makes this stick far faster than drills.

Concept/Term Explanation

einundzwanzig "One-and-twenty"; units always precede tens.

dreißig 30 — spelled with ß, the irregular member of the tens.

hundert / tausend 100 and 1000; normally used without a preceding "ein".

Listening trap The unit is spoken first, so the number is not fixed until the end.

Diagram: how a German two-digit number is assembled: unit word, then und, then the tens word, using 67 as the example. Step 1: Unit word. Step 2: und. Step 3: Tens word.

Study Questions

Write out 42 in German and explain the word order.

Which of the tens is spelled irregularly, and how?

Why are spoken numbers harder than written ones in German?

🕰️ Telling the Time — the Official Way and the Real Way

What time is halb drei ? If you answered half past three, you have just missed a train. ⏱️

German runs two time systems side by side. The formal 24-hour clock appears in timetables and calendar invitations; the conversational system is what people actually say, and it contains one genuine trap.

Asking — Wie spät ist es, literally "how late is it?".

The formal answer — Es ist plus the 24-hour clock, as in Es ist vierzehn Uhr dreißig .

Uhr covers both "clock" and "o'clock".

The conversational system — quarters are straightforward.

Viertel nach and Viertel vor.

The half-hour trap — halb drei means 2:30 .

German counts toward the coming hour, so 7:30 is halb acht.

The mental fix is to read "halb X" as "halfway to X" rather than "half past X". Once that reframing lands, the whole system stops being confusing — it is internally consistent, just anchored to the future hour instead of the past one.

Example: A colleague says Treffen wir uns um halb sechs . Be there at 5:30, not 6:30. 🚨

⚠️ Note: Calendar invitations almost always use the 24-hour form, so the trap only bites in speech.

💡 Pro-Tip: When arranging anything important, confirm with digits. Native speakers do this too.

Concept/Term Explanation

Wie spät ist es "What time is it?" — literally "how late is it?".

Uhr Both "clock" and "o'clock"; used in every formal time statement.

halb drei 2:30 — halfway TO three, not half past three.

Viertel nach / Viertel vor Quarter past / quarter to.

Study Questions

What time is halb acht , and why?

How do you ask someone the time in German?

Give the formal 24-hour way to say 14:30.

💶 Prices, Euros, and the Comma

Money is where numbers get real — and where the punctuation flips. 🧾

German uses a comma as the decimal separator and a dot for thousands, which is exactly the reverse of English convention. Misreading it turns three euros fifty into three hundred and fifty.

Asking the price — Was kostet das for one item.

For several: Wie viel kostet es, or the plural Was kosten sie?

The currency — der Euro and der Cent.

The punctuation — €3,50 is written with a comma and spoken drei Euro fünfzig.

The dot does the opposite job: 1.000 means one thousand.

Paying — Ich zahle bar or simply mit Karte.

One phrase does more work than any other in a German café. Stimmt so tells the server to keep the difference, and saying it as you hand over the money is the normal, expected way to tip.

Example: The total is €12,80. You hand over €15 and say Stimmt so . ☕

⚠️ Note: Tipping happens at the moment of payment in Germany, not by leaving coins on the table afterwards.

💡 Pro-Tip: Say the rounded-up total rather than the tip amount. Germans state what they want to pay, not what they want to add.

Concept/Term Explanation

Was kostet das The standard price question.

Decimal comma €3,50 — comma separates euros from cents; the dot marks thousands.

bar / mit Karte Paying in cash versus by card.

Stimmt so "Keep the change" — said as you hand over the money.

Study Questions

How is €3,50 written and spoken in German?

What does the dot mean in the number 1.000?

Which phrase tells a server to keep the change?

📅 Dates, Days, and Ordinal Numbers

Dates use a different set of numbers entirely — the ordinals. 🗓️

They are regular apart from two irregular forms, and they carry an ending that shifts with the sentence. The written date format also differs from the American one in a way that can genuinely mislead.

Asking — Welches Datum ist heute.

The endings — -te up to 19, -ste from 20 onward.

der erste and der dritte are irregular — not "einte" or "dreite".

der zwanzigste shows the higher pattern.

Written format — 3.10.2026 is day-first, never the 10th of March.

Saying it — introduced by am: am dritten Oktober .

Three anchor words are worth banking now: heute, morgen, and gestern. The middle one is a small trap, because morgen also means "morning" — context alone separates them.

Example: Bis morgen means "see you tomorrow", not "see you in the morning". 👋

⚠️ Note: Day-first dates mean 3.10 and 10.3 are different days. Never assume the American order.

💡 Pro-Tip: Capitalised Morgen is the noun "morning"; lowercase morgen is the adverb "tomorrow". In writing, the capital resolves it.

Concept/Term Explanation

der erste / der dritte 1st and 3rd — the two irregular ordinals.

-te / -ste Ordinal endings: -te up to 19, -ste from 20 onward.

3.10.2026 Day-first format — the 3rd of October.

heute / morgen / gestern Today, tomorrow, yesterday; morgen doubles as "morning".

Study Questions

Which two ordinals are irregular, and what are they?

What date is 3.10.2026 in German convention?

What are the two meanings of morgen ?

⚖️ Numbers at a Glance

Four systems, one table — counting, the clock, money, and dates. 👀

Most of this is regular once learned. Only two features cause the bulk of real-world errors, and both are listening problems rather than knowledge problems.

The two traps worth over-learning

The unit-before-ten reversal, which delays comprehension to the end of the word.

halb , which points forward to the next hour rather than back.

Everything else — regular, and safe to learn once and move on.

Read down whichever row matches what you are trying to say, and confirm anything consequential with digits rather than words.

Example: Booking a table for halb acht at a restaurant means 19:30 on the confirmation. 🍽️

💡 Pro-Tip: Drill the two traps deliberately and let the rest come from exposure. Effort spent evenly across all four systems is effort wasted.

Concept/Term Explanation

Counting Units before tens: einundzwanzig = 21.

Clock (formal) Es ist + 24-hour time + Uhr.

Clock (casual) halb drei = 2:30; Viertel nach / Viertel vor for quarters.

Money Comma decimal: €3,50 = drei Euro fünfzig. Pay bar or mit Karte.

Dates Day-first, ordinals with -te/-ste, introduced by am.

Study Questions

Which two features of German numbers cause the most listening errors?

How do the formal and casual clock systems differ?

Which preposition introduces a spoken date?

Core Takeaways

🔄 German says units before tens — einundzwanzig is 21 — so spoken numbers are harder than written ones.

🕰️ halb drei means 2:30: German counts halfway toward the coming hour.

💶 The decimal separator is a comma; €3,50 is drei Euro fünfzig, and the dot marks thousands.

📅 Dates are day-first and use ordinals: am dritten Oktober .

⚠️ morgen means both "tomorrow" and "morning" — context decides which.