German word for number 3

The German word for three is
drei

German Definition

three
Numerale:
[1] Kardinalzahl: drei
[1] Three apples and three pears are in the basket.
Es sind drei Äpfel und drei Birnen im Korb.

Translations for three and their definitions

drei
num. three

Drei
n. three (digit/figure 3)

Pronunciation

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Today you will learn the German numbers 1 up to 999,999.

No need to learn all numbers by heart ❌ There’s a system.

Counting in German is easy if you do it right!

Numbers One to Five in German

Let’s start simple.

Listen to the numbers in German 12345 and also the 4 vocabulary words you need for the exercise further down the page.

eins (1)	one
zwei (2)	two
drei (3)	three
vier (4)	four
fünf (5)	five
Was ist…?	What is…?
plus	plus
minus	minus
gleich	equals

German numbers | How to count in German (1 to 999,999)

Now it’s getting serious.

But don’t worry, you don’t need to learn all German numbers up to 999,999 by heart. If you see the pattern you are able to continue the series of numbers by yourself.

By the way, usually we don’t write numbers in words. We write one to ten in words, then we write just numbers 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 …

Please also note that in some cases the g at the end of a word sounds rather like a ch especially when the word ends with ig.

Let’s listen to the numbers in German, starting with one in German

Counting in German 1 to 10

1 = eins

2 = zwei

3 = drei

4 = vier

5 = fünf

6 = sechs

7 = sieben

8 = acht

9 = neun

10 = zehn

The German numbers from 11 to 20 can also be a little tricky

11 = elf

12 = zwölf

13 = dreizehn

14 = vierzehn

15 = fünfzehn

16 = sechzehn

17 = siebzehn

18 = achtzehn

19 = neunzehn

20 = zwanzig

Here you can clearly see the pattern in the numbers

21 = einundzwanzig

22 = zweiundzwanzig

23 = dreiundzwanzig

24 = vierundzwanzig

25 = fünfundzwanzig

30 = dreißig

31 = einunddreißig

32 = zweiunddreißig

33 = dreiunddreißig

40 = vierzig

50 = fünfzig

60 = sechzig

70 = siebzig

80 = achtzig

90 = neunzig

100 = einhundert (hundert)

101 = einhunderteins

102 = einhundertzwei

103 = einhundertdrei

110 = einhundertzehn

111 = einhundertelf

120 = einhundertzwanzig

121 = einhunderteinundzwanzig

130 = einhundertdreißig

131 = einhunderteinunddreißig

140 = einhundertvierzig

150 = einhundertfünfzig 

200 = zweihundert

201 = zweihunderteins

210 = zweihundertzehn

300 = dreihundert

400 = vierhundert

1.000 = eintausend (tausend)

1.001 = eintausendeins

1.100 = eintausendeinhundert

2.000 = zweitausend

3.000 = dreitausend

10.000 = zehntausend

100.000 = einhunderttausend

999.999

= neunhundertneunundneunzigtausendneunhundertneunundneunzig

Calculate with the German numbers 1 to 5

Now you will learn how to calculate in German.

Don’t worry, it is not that difficult.

Have you listened to the vocabulary words from the top of the page? Now you need them. Try to answer the questions out loud.

One to five in German – Questions and Answers

Frage:
Was ist eins und eins? (1 + 1)

Kurze Antwort:
Zwei

Lange Antwort:
Eins und eins ist zwei.

Was ist eins plus zwei? (1 + 2)
Drei
Eins plus zwei ist drei.

Was ist vier minus drei? (4 – 3)
Eins
Vier minus drei ist eins.

Was ist fünf minus eins? (5 – 1)
Vier
Fünf minus eins ist vier.
Oder: Fünf minus eins ist gleich vier.

Und was ist drei plus zwei? (3 + 2)
Fünf
Drei plus zwei ist gleich fünf.

Was ist 789621598 + 45968521255?
Ich mache nur Spaß!
Just kidding.

Period or comma in numbers?

I know that the use of the comma and the period in German numbers often leads to confusion. You just have to remember the following:

In German we use the comma as the decimal separator and the period as the thousands separator.

In Germany it is in contrast to e.g. England. In England you write it the other way around.

In Germany:
one thousand = 1.000

In England:
one thousand = 1,000

Here you can learn the German punctuation.

Es spielt keine Rolle, wie langsam du gehst, solange du nicht aufhörst. 

= It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. 

~ Confucius

You can learn much more than just counting in German if you want. My subscribers get step-by-step access to many more lessons.

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Cardinal numbers, ordinals, decimals, fractions, expressing prices in English and German

Cardinal numbers. Grundzahlen:

	German/Deutsch	English/Englisch
0	null	zero
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
11	elf	eleven
12	zwölf	twelve
13	dreizehn	thirteen
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	sechsunddreißig	thirty-six
37	siebenunddreißig	thirty-seven
38	achtunddreißig	thirty-eight
39	neununddreißig	thirty-nine
40	vierzig	forty
41	einundvierzig	forty-one
42	zweiundvierzig	forty-two
43	dreiundvierzig	forty-three
44	vierundvierzig	forty-four
45	fünfundvierzig	forty-five
46	sechsundvierzig	forty-six
47	siebenundvierzig	forty-seven
48	achtundvierzig	forty-eight
49	neunundvierzig	forty-nine
50	fünfzig	fifty
51	einundfünfzig	fifty-one
52	zweiundfünfzig	fifty-two
53	dreiundfünfzig	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	neunundsechzig	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	vierundneunzig	ninety-four
95	fünfundneunzig	ninety-five
96	sechsundneunzig	ninety-six
97	siebenundneunzig	ninety-seven
98	achtundneunzig	ninety-eight
99	neunundneunzig	ninety-nine
100	hundert	one hundred
101	hunderteins	one hundred one
102	hundertzwei	one hundred two
200	zweihundert	two hundred
300	dreihundert	three hundred
400	vierhundert	four hundred
500	fünfhundert	five hundred
600	sechshundert	six hundred
700	siebenhundert	seven hundred
800	achthundert	eight hundred
900	neunhundert	nine hundred
1000	tausend	a thousand
1001	eintausendeins tausendeins eintausendundeins tausendundeins	one thousand one
1002	eintausendzwei	one thousand two
1100	eintausendeinhundert	one thousand one hundred
1101	eintausendeinhunderteins	one thousand one hundred one
2000	zweitausend	two thousand
3000	dreitausend	three thousand
100.000	hunderttausend	one hundred thousand
500.000	fünfhunderttausend	five hundred thousand

Large numbers:

	German/Deutsch	English/Englisch
1.000.000	eine Million	one million
2.000.000	zwei Millionen	two million
2.000.001	zwei Millionen eins	two million one
1.000.000.000	eine Milliarde	one billion
1.000.000.000.000	eine Billion	one trillion

• An interesting thing about German which makes it confusing is that the one’s place is said before the tens: einundzwanzig, which literally would be like “one and twenty”.
• The numbers in German are written as one word up to one million.

Ordinal numbers (Ordnungszahlen)

• Rules for making ordinal numbers.
  • The 2nd and 4th up to the 19th add the ending -te to the cardinal number.
  • From the 20th to the 100th, the 1000th, the 1,000,000th add the ending -ste to the cardinal number.

• The 1st and 3rd numbers are irregular.

	German	English
1.	erste	first
2.	zweite	second
3.	dritte	third
4.	vierte	fourth
5.	fünfte	fifth
6.	sechste	sixth
7.	siebente / siebte	seventh
8.	achte	eighth
9.	neunte	ninth
10.	zehnte	tenth
11.	elfte	eleventh
12.	zwölfte	twelfth
13.	dreizehnte	thirteenth
14.	vierzehnte	fourteenth
15.	fünfzehnte	fifteenth
16.	sechzehnte	sixteenth
17.	siebzehnte	seventeenth
18.	achtzehnte	eighteenth
19.	neunzehnte	nineteenth
20.	zwanzigste	twentieth
21.	einundzwanzigste	twenty-first
22.	zweiundzwanzigste	twenty-second
23.	dreiundzwanzigste	twenty-third
24.	vierundzwanzigste	twenty-fourth
25.	fünfundzwanzigste	twenty-fifth
26.	sechsundzwanzigste	twenty-sixth
27.	siebenundzwanzigste	twenty-seventh
28.	achtundzwanzigste	twenty-eighth
29.	neunundzwanzigste	twenty-ninth
30.	dreißigste	thirtieth
31.	einunddreißigste	thirty-first
32.	zweiunddreißigste	thirty-second
40.	vierzigste	fortieth
50.	fünfzigste	fiftieth
60.	sechzigste	sixtieth
70.	siebzigste	seventieth
80.	achtzigste	eightieth
90.	neunzigste	ninetieth
100.	hundertste	hundreth
101.	hunderterste	hundred-first
200.	zweihundertste	two-hundredth
300.	dreihundertste	three-hundredth
400.	vierhundertste	four-hundredth
500.	fünfhundertste	five-hundredth
600.	sechshundertste	six-hundredth
700.	siebenhundertste	seven-hundredth
800.	achthundertste	eight-hundredth
900.	neunhundertste	nine-hundredth
1000.	tausendste	thousandth
2000.	zweitausendste	two-thousandth
100 000.	hunderttausendste	hundred-thousandth
1 000 000.	millionste	millionth

Fractions (Bruchzahlen)

	German/Deutsch	English/Englisch
1/2	ein halb	(a) half
11/2	eineinhalb oder anderthalb	one and a half
21/2	zweieinhalb	two and a half
1/3	ein Drittel	a third
2/3	zwei Drittel	two thirds
1/4	ein Viertel	a fourth
11/4	ein ein Viertel	one and a fourth
3/4	drei Viertel	three fourths
1/5	ein Fünftel	a fifth
34/5	drei vier Fünftel	three and four fifths
1/11	ein Elftel	one eleventh
5/12	fünf Zwölftel	five twelfths
2/13	zwei Dreizehntel	two thirteenths

Practical examples:

• ¹/₂ Liter = half a liter ; ¹/₂ Liter = einhalb Liter
• 1¹/₂ liters = one and a half liters ; 1¹/₂ Liter = eineinhalb Liter

Decimal Numbers

The decimal numbers are not quite the same in German and English because a comma is used instead of a point.

	German/Deutsch	English/Englisch
0,1	null Komma eins	zero comma one
0,2	null Komma zwei	zero comma two
1,1	eins Komma eins	one comma one
1,11	eins Komma elf eins Komma eins eins	one comma eleven

In some countries like the USA and Mexico, the decimal sign is written as a point and, although decimal sign in Germany is officially a comma, sometimes you hear the literal translation in German:

	German/Deutsch	English/Englisch
0.1	null Punkt eins	zero point one
0.2	null Punkt zwei	zero point two
1.1	eins Punkt eins	one point one
1.11	eins Punkt elf	one point eleven

Prices

Prices are expressed with letters in the following way in German:

	German/Deutsch	English/Englisch
0,05 €	fünf Cent	five cents
2 €	zwei Euro	two Euros
2,10 €	zwei Euro zehn (Cent)	two Euro ten

Positive and Negative Numbers

To show that a number is positive/negative, the words plus/minus are put in front of it.

(+1) plus eins
plus one

(-1) minus eins
minus one

Declension of cardinal numbers

The cardinal numbers are not declined with the exception of 1, 2 and 3.

Declension of 1 (eins)

• If the 1 is not followed by a noun, it is not declined and eins is always used:

Formel eins
Formula one

• If the «1» is followed by a noun, usually the weak declension is used, being equivalent to the indefinite article:

Ich habe eine Lampe
I have a lamp

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	ein	eine	ein	—
Accusative	einen	eine	ein	—
Dative	einem	einer	einem	—
Genitive	eines	einer	eines	—

Declension of 2 and 3

• If the 2 or 3 are not followed by a noun, they are not declined and simply zwei and drei are used:
• If the 2 or 3 are followed by a noun, they are declined only in the genitive in the case of them not being preceded by an article:

Abstand zweier Punkte
Distance of two points

	Plural
Nominative Accusative Dative	zwei / drei
Genitive	zweier / dreier

Declension of ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers follow the adjective declension rules.

An example of weak declension (given that the article «der» comes before the ordinal number in the genitive):

Die Kosten der zweiten Wohnung
The expenses of the second home

To supplement this glossary, we recommend you watch a video:

It’s the language of Einstein, of Euler, of some of the most brilliant minds in history.

And with the reputation German has of being a difficult language, you’d think that the numbering system would be formidable.

Not so! It’s really just as approachable as most other languages—more complex than a few, but not nearly as complicated as others. And numbers in German language-learning really are too essential to skip over.

Since you’re able to read this article in English, you’ve got a great advantage already. It’s easy to map German numbers onto English ones, which you’ll soon find out with our handy German number guide here on GermanPod101.com! With our German numbers lists and useful information on how to use them, your numbers in German vocabulary will be strong indeed.

Table of Contents

1. Cardinal Numbers
2. Writing Numbers Down
3. Special Numbers with Special Sounds
4. Ordinal Numbers
5. Once, Twice, Thrice
6. Fractions and More (Easy) Math
7. Lemme Get Your Number
8. German Numbers and Dates
9. Checking the Time
10. Numbers When Shopping
11. Conclusion: How GermanPod101 Can Help You Master German!

1. Cardinal Numbers

All right, let’s get right to it. Here are the numbers from zero to twelve in German (you can also look at our Numbers vocabulary list to hear each of the German numbers written down here pronounced). Note that, for the most part, the German numbers 1-20 are pretty regular.

Number	German	English
0	Null	Zero
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
11	Elf	Eleven
12	Zwölf	Twelve

A note about German numbers pronunciation: These numbers already sound awfully close to English. More so when you realize that words starting with “t” in English very often have a counterpart starting with “z” in German—remember the German “z” is pronounced [ts].

While we’re on the topic of pronunciation, let’s recall that an “s” at the beginning of a word is pronounced like “z” in English.

I’ll also mention that we went all the way up to twelve because eleven and twelve are “irregular” in both English and German. What do I mean by that?

Well, look at thirteen through nineteen:

Number	German	English
13	Dreizehn	Thirteen
14	Vierzehn	Fourteen
15	Fünfzehn	Fifteen
16	Sechzehn	Sixteen
17	Siebzehn	Seventeen
18	Achtzehn	Eighteen
19	Neunzehn	Nineteen

When talking about the “ten” numbers in English, we use the word “teen” at the end. But in German, it’s clear as day. Couldn’t be simpler. Eight and ten make eighteen. Germans make this easy by using the number and tacking the word for “ten” (zehn) to the end. See, numbers in German language really aren’t that hard!

Once we hit twenty (which is zwanzig) and beyond, that simplicity keeps going—but in a way that may make you do a double-take at first.

Number	German	English
21	Einundzwanzig	Twenty-one
22	Zweiundzwanzig	Twenty-two
23	Dreiundzwanzig	Twenty-three

Yes, it’s backwards from what we’re used to. Remember that old rhyme “four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie?” Imagine we talked like that all the time, and you’ve got modern German.

But if you think about it, it really is just keeping the same pattern from thirteen through nineteen. “Eight-ten, nine-ten, twenty, one-and-twenty, two-and-twenty…”

The same pattern continues as long as you’ve got anything in the tens and ones place.

• Fünftausendzweihundert
  Five-thousand two-hundred
• Zweiunddreißigtausendsechshundertfünfundfünfzig
  Thirty-two thousand six-hundred fifty-five.

Yeah, they’re all one word, up to the millions at least.

• Drei Million vierhunderttausend
  Three-million four-hundred-thousand

Watch out here: in German, the really big numbers are false friends.

• Die Million, die Milliarde, die Billion
  The million, the billion, the trillion

2. Writing Numbers Down

In Europe—not just Germany—most people write numbers with commas and decimals flipped from the way we use them in many English-speaking countries.

To separate hundreds, Germans use spaces or periods instead of commas.

• 35 000/35.000
  35,000

And it’s even called das Komma!

• 3,3 Million (drei Komma drei Millionen)
  3.3 million (three point three million)

Lastly, prices are expressed this way too, though we’ll go into that a little bit later.

• €13,45
  €13.45

3. Special Numbers with Special Sounds

You know how airplane pilots in English always say stuff like “That’s Victor-seven-four-niner, over?” They say “niner” so that nobody confuses “nine” with “five.”

People reading out numbers in German will often say “zwo” for the same reason—nobody wants to confuse zwei and drei when the stakes are high!

In English, we have the special numbers “score” and “dozen,” meaning 20 and 12 units of something, respectively. “Score” was brought to England by the Vikings, but “dozen” is old enough to be in both German and English. You’ll find it in your German dictionary under Das Dutzend.

4. Ordinal Numbers

If you’ve had to learn English as a foreign language, you’ll be thrilled to hear that German ordinal numbers are much simpler than those in English.

Well, sort of. Here’s how they look in their nominative forms:

Numeral	German	English
1st	Erste	First
2nd	Zweite	Second
3rd	Dritte	Third
4th	Vierte	Fourth
5th	Fünfte	Fifth
6th	Sechste	Sixth

That’s right, they all end in –te!

So what’s the bad news? Well, they all have to follow the rules of German adjectives.

On the one hand, you’re just learning a bunch more adjectives and they’re all regular and predictable. Nothing too serious there.

On the other hand, you do have to stop and think about the cases when you use these words—at least until it all becomes automatic.

When writing these down, Germans follow other European conventions and simply put a full stop after the number to indicate that it’s an ordinal. There’s no written hint to tell you about the declension, unfortunately.

• 4. Stock (vierter Stock)
  Fourth floor
• zum 3. Mal (zum dritten Mal)
  For the third time
• am 12. Mai (am zwölften Mai)
  On the twelfth of May

5. Once, Twice, Thrice

The word “time,” as in “there’s a first time for everything,” is mal in German. So the words for “once,” “twice,” “thrice,” and so on are simply einmal, zweimal, and dreimal. And where English stops at two or three (depending on if you like the word “thrice” or not), German continues ad infinitum.

• Man lebt nur einmal.
  You only live once.

The word mal in German also carries the same meaning as “times” when talking about how many times larger, smaller, and so on that two things can be in comparison to each other.

• Fünfmal so breit.
  Five times as wide.

One thing surprisingly absent from all of my German classes in school is how Germans order things at counter-service bakeries or restaurants. In our numbers in German lessons, we’ll try to cover this so you’re not left dazed and confused when ordering!

• Einmal Brezel, bitte.
  One pretzel, please.

You’ll hear this used in every German city you go to, so you can likely use it wherever you go. If you go to order some food and it turns out that you’re not understood, simply go with ich hätte gern ein…bitte (meaning “I would like a…” in English) instead.

6. Fractions and More (Easy) Math

Are you out of school? You might have thought you wouldn’t need any math in your foreign language, but as it happens, basic math words are an important part of being able to use German effectively and precisely.

And it’s something that people tend to use in speech without thinking, maybe saying under their breath something like “let me see, that’s…thirty-five divided by seven…five dollars each!” If those numbers relate to you, you’re going to want to understand what’s going on.

There are three different words for “equals”: ergibt, ist, and macht.

• Fünf plus zehn macht fünfzehn.
  Five plus ten equals fifteen.
• Zwanzig minus dreizehn ist sieben.
  Twenty minus thirteen equals seven.
• Neunundneunzig durch neun ergibt elf.
  Ninety-nine divided by nine equals eleven.
• Zwölf mal zwölf macht einhundertvierundvierzig.
  Twelve times twelve equals one-hundred forty-four.

As in English, a word for “times; by; multiplied by” is also used for noting dimensions of physical objects.

• Das Zimmer ist sechs Meter mal sieben Meter.
  The room is six meters by seven meters.

Now, let’s take a look at fractions and percents. As in English, there are specific nouns meaning “an Xth part of,” and in German they’re just as regular. Check this out:

German	English
Die Hälfte	The half
Das Drittel	The third
Das Viertel	The fourth
Das Fünftel	The fifth
Das Sechstel	The sixth
Das Zehntel	The tenth

• Er hat ein Viertel einer Flasche Whiskey getrunken.
  He drank a fourth of a bottle of whiskey.

Percentages in German work exactly the same as in English, with one word that’s practically the same in both languages.

• Ich verstehe vielleicht neunzig Prozent.
  I understand about ninety percent.

7. Lemme Get Your Number

In English, when we tell someone our phone number, we usually break it up into sections. This varies, of course, depending on where you’re from. For example, American telephone numbers have a three-digit area code, and the number itself is broken up into two groups of three and four numbers. Or in Morocco, phone numbers are broken up into five groups of two numbers.

In Germany, phone numbers used to be of no fixed lengths. Some numbers were as short as two digits!

However, in 2010, the telecoms agreed on a new plan to use eleven-digit numbers for all subsequent landlines. It’s still not entirely consistent (think of how many people you know that haven’t changed their number for eight years), but more so than it was before. Germans usually separate the area code from the regular number with a slash like this:

• Meine Nummer ist 0125/12345678.
  My number is (0125) – 12345678.

Why so much detail here? Well, when you’re giving or taking a phone number down, it’s surprisingly easy to be caught off guard by the numbers being too few or too many than you’re used to.

8. German Numbers and Dates

Giving the date in German is only slightly different from doing so in English. We use the ordinal forms in both languages.

• Heute ist der vierte Mai.
  Today is the 4th of May.

The definite article “the” isn’t necessary here in German. It would be necessary if we were specifying a specific day, week, month, or year, like so:

• Die dritte Woche in Januar.
  The third week in January.

How about talking in terms of decades or centuries? After all, German culture has been around for a long time.

In German, as in English, we don’t say “the ninety decade”; we just say “the nineties.” There are two words for “decade,” incidentally, and those are: das Jahrzehnt and die Dekade.

• die Achtziger [note that this is written as “80er”]
  the eighties

Jahrzehnt is wonderfully clear in meaning—it’s literally “year-ten.” How about century?

• 18. Jahrhundert
  18th century

Remember that this “18.” is actually pronounced achtzehnte.

9. Checking the Time

The first thing you’ll notice is that Germany, like most of the world, uses the 24-hour clock as standard. So definitely get used to that before you visit.

Saying the hour is a little different than what we’ve been doing with years. You just use the cardinal number without any kind of declension.

• Es ist dreizehn Uhr.
  It’s 13 o’clock (one o’clock).

This is what you’ll see posted on shop signs and in any kind of official correspondence. However, just because something is standard doesn’t make it universal. There are plenty of people who use the 12-hour clock when speaking.

When it’s necessary to distinguish between a.m. and p.m., they’ll use vormittags for the morning, nachmittags for the afternoon, abends for the evening, and nachts for the night.

• Es ist drei Uhr nachts, was machst du gerade so?!
  It’s three a.m., what are you doing?!

• Unser Termin ist morgen um 9 Uhr vormittags.
  Our meeting is tomorrow at 9 a.m.

There’s one more peculiarity about telling time in German, and that’s the way they talk about halves of hours.

They literally say “half of the next hour” to say what English-speakers know as “half past.”

• Jetzt ist es halb sechs.
  Now it’s half past five.

This can be really confusing if you don’t know to look out for it. Remember that Germans value punctuality!

10. Numbers When Shopping

When you go out to buy a Currywurst or Schinkenbrot, you’ll need to understand the prices you hear at the register. There’s no sales tax added on after the price, but you’ll learn that prices tend to slide right out of your memory when you’re bringing your breakfast pastry to the register—especially in a foreign language!

By the way, in Germany, it’s still extremely common to pay in cash. Most tiny shops either reluctantly take credit cards or not at all, and you can forget about mobile pay.

Better get used to counting out coins, though a lot of shops round to the nearest five cents so you don’t have to deal with the one- and two-cent Euro coins anymore (das ein-Cent-Stück and das zwei-Cent-Stück, respectively).

Here’s what you’ll hear when the cashier rings up your total:

• Das macht vier Euro fünfzig. (€4,50)
  That’s four euros fifty.

Or:

• Vierzehn Euro achtzig Cent. (€14,80)
  Fourteen euros eighty cents.

Guten Appetit! (Enjoy your meal!)

11. Conclusion: How GermanPod101 Can Help You Master German!

It may seem like a ton of detail to remember right now, but there’s no way you need to learn all German numbers at once.

One of the best ways to internalize German numbers at home is to watch documentaries. You’ll constantly hear prices, percentages, hundreds, millions, and more.

And if you’re really ambitious, you could try translating all the digits you see during the day into German. It’s really easy to skip numbers when reading out loud, so by quietly murmuring sale prices or times of the day in German while you’re out and about, you’ll build up that skill of automatically switching to German numbers.

Then when it’s time to use them for real, you won’t stumble at all. So go out there and enjoy our world of numbers—our Nummernwelt—in German!

GermanPod101.com wants to be here with you for each step of your journey to German mastery! We provide practical learning tools for every learner, including insightful blog posts like this one, free German vocabulary lists, an online community forum, and even a MyTeacher program for those with a Premium Plus account! With your determination and our support, you’ll know German culture and the German language inside and out!

Author: Yassir Sahnoun is a HubSpot certified content strategist, copywriter and polyglot who works with language learning companies. He helps companies attract sales using content strategy, copywriting, blogging, email marketing & more.

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