Understanding Numbers 0–100 in Everyday Information

Hello again. In the previous lesson, you learned to choose du with fellow students and Sie in formal university interactions. Numbers now make those conversations practical: a staff member may ask for a telephone number, an address includes a house number and postal code, and enrolment documents may contain a student ID.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to say any number from 0 to 100, recognize the common number patterns, and choose the clearest way to give numbers that function as identifiers rather than quantities. Plan for about 30 minutes for the core lesson, plus a short optional listening drill.

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The essential numbers: 0 to 20

Begin by learning the first twenty as sound patterns, not merely as a written list. Numbers from 1 to 10 are the building blocks for almost everything else.

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
6	sechs	17	siebzehn
7	sieben	18	achtzehn
8	acht	19	neunzehn
9	neun	20	zwanzig
10	zehn

A few pronunciation reminders connect directly to the sounds you learned earlier:

• German z begins with a ts sound: zwei, zehn, zwanzig.
• German v sounds like English f: vier.
• The spelling ei sounds like the vowel in eye: eins, zwei, drei.
• The spelling eu sounds like oy: neun.
• In fünf, keep the rounded ü sound.
• In acht, use the back-of-the-throat ch sound. But in sechs, the ending chs is pronounced like ks, not like the sound in acht.
• In dreißig later in the lesson, ß represents an ss sound.

The numbers 11 and 12 are special:

• elf = 11
• zwölf = 12

From 13 to 19, you can usually recognize the smaller number plus -zehn (“ten”):

• drei-zehn = thirteen
• vier-zehn = fourteen
• fünf-zehn = fifteen

Two forms shorten slightly:

• 16 is sechzehn, not sechszehn.
• 17 is siebzehn, not siebenzehn.

Read the sequence aloud in three small groups rather than trying to memorize a long list at once:

null, eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf
sechs, sieben, acht, neun, zehn
elf, zwölf, dreizehn, vierzehn, fünfzehn

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Hear the rhythm of German counting

The video Counting in German from 1–100 from Easy German is useful mainly as a pronunciation and listening model. It is largely in German, so listen for the repeated number words, pause when needed, and repeat them aloud.

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Tens, then the German “reversal”

First, learn the full tens:

Number	German
20	zwanzig
30	dreißig
40	vierzig
50	fünfzig
60	sechzig
70	siebzig
80	achtzig
90	neunzig
100	einhundert or hundert

Notice three shortened forms again:

• 60: sechzig, not sechszig
• 70: siebzig, not siebenzig
• 30: dreißig, with ß

Now comes the pattern that can initially feel unfamiliar. For numbers from 21 to 99 that are not exact tens, German says:

$$\text{ones}+\text{und}+\text{tens}$$

The smaller number comes first in speech and writing.

Number	Literal structure	German
21	one-and-twenty	einundzwanzig
24	four-and-twenty	vierundzwanzig
32	two-and-thirty	zweiunddreißig
46	six-and-forty	sechsundvierzig
58	eight-and-fifty	achtundfünfzig
73	three-and-seventy	dreiundsiebzig
89	nine-and-eighty	neunundachtzig
99	nine-and-ninety	neunundneunzig

Two details matter:

1. These numbers are written as one word: vierundzwanzig, not vier und zwanzig.
2. In a compound number, 21 uses ein rather than eins: einundzwanzig. When you say the single digit 1 by itself, especially in a phone number, use eins.

The number chart below is a quick reference for all numbers through 100. Use it to locate a number, say it aloud, then cover the German word and try to reconstruct it from the pattern.

A useful mental check is to look at the last digit first. For 68, identify acht and sechzig, then combine them as achtundsechzig. For 41, combine ein and vierzig: einundvierzig.

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Quantities versus identifiers

The same written digits can be spoken in different ways depending on what they represent.

If the number is a quantity, price, room number, or house number, it is usually natural to say it as a whole number:

Hausnummer vierundzwanzig.
House number 24.

Raum siebenunddreißig.
Room 37.

But a phone number, postal code, or student ID is not really a quantity. It is an identifier: a sequence of digits. For maximum clarity, say each digit separately.

Written information	Clear spoken German
0176 482 09 31	null eins sieben sechs, vier acht zwei, null neun drei eins
04109	null vier eins null neun
093152	null neun drei eins fünf zwei

People sometimes group telephone digits differently, and you may occasionally hear a pair said as a whole number. However, for a beginner giving important information, individual digits are the safest choice. The listener can write each digit immediately, without needing to reverse the German word order in a number such as vierunddreißig.

This distinction is especially important for university administration. If a form or staff member asks for your Matrikelnummer (student ID number), give it digit by digit unless they clearly ask for another format.

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Phone numbers and addresses in Germany

The German telephone-number format in the visual below helps you recognize the parts of a number. It uses a sample number, not a number you need to memorize.

When calling a German number from outside Germany, the country code is +49 or 0049. The initial domestic 0 is omitted after the country code:

+49 30 1234 5678

Within Germany, the same example begins with the domestic 0:

030 1234 5678

For this course, the main goal is not to memorize German area codes. It is to hear and state the digits accurately. Practise the sample international format as:

plus vier neun, drei null, eins zwei drei vier, fünf sechs sieben acht

For an address, you may need two different number styles in the same sentence:

Meine Adresse ist Bahnhofstraße vierundzwanzig.
My address is Bahnhofstraße 24.

Die Postleitzahl ist null vier eins null neun.
The postal code is 04109.

Here, 24 is a house number and can be said as vierundzwanzig. The five-digit postal code is best given as five separate digits.

Useful formal phrases, using Sie as in the previous lesson, are:

Wie lautet Ihre Telefonnummer?
What is your telephone number?

Meine Telefonnummer ist null eins sieben sechs, vier acht zwei, null neun drei eins.
My telephone number is 0176 482 0931.

Meine Matrikelnummer ist null neun drei eins fünf zwei.
My student ID number is 093152.

If the other person speaks too quickly, a simple survival phrase is:

Entschuldigung, bitte langsam.
Excuse me, slowly please.

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Train your ear with digit dictation

Listening is the part that turns memorized number words into a useful skill. Before playing the next resource, take a sheet of paper and write five blank rows. Your job is to write digits, not German words. Pause after each dictated number if necessary; accuracy matters more than speed.

For a short daily routine, choose three numbers from your real life without saying private information aloud in public:

1. A two-digit room or house number, said as one full number.
2. A five-digit imaginary postal code, said digit by digit.
3. A six- to eight-digit imaginary student ID, said digit by digit.

This trains the key decision: whole number for a quantity or location; individual digits for an identifier.

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Key takeaways

• Learn null through zwanzig securely; they form the foundation for all numbers up to 100.
• Numbers from 21 to 99 use the pattern ones + und + tens: vierundzwanzig is 24.
• Remember the shortened forms sechzehn, siebzehn, sechzig, and siebzig.
• Say eins when 1 stands alone, but ein in compounds such as einundzwanzig.
• Say house and room numbers naturally as whole numbers, such as vierundzwanzig.
• Give phone numbers, postal codes, and student IDs digit by digit: null vier eins null neun.
• In formal university interactions, you can ask: Wie lautet Ihre Telefonnummer?

Next, you will begin building basic German sentences by learning that nouns have grammatical gender and are normally learned with a dictionary form such as der, die, or das.