Day 8: Numbers

0–12 · the teens · the tens · backwards 21–99 · prices · phone numbers · ordinals · 25 min

German numbers are easy for six days and then do one genuinely strange thing: 21 to 99 are said backwards. einundzwanzig is "one-and-twenty".

This is not a curiosity you can skip. It affects every price, every phone number, every time you are told a room number, and it is the reason listening to numbers stays hard long after reading them is easy. Section 3 is the whole day.

1. Zero to twelve — memorise these

★ Every trap from Day 1 is in this list: z = ts (zwei, zehn), ei = eye (drei), ie = ee (vier, sieben), chs = ks (sechs), ü/ö (fünf, zwölf). If you can say 1–12 cleanly, your decoder works.

⚠️ drei is dry, not dray. vier is feer, not fire. These two get swapped constantly because the English eye wants ei and ie the other way round.

eins vs ein

Ein Bier, bitte — never eins Bier.

2. Teens and tens

13–19 = digit + zehn

⚠️ Two shortenings, and they carry into the tens as well. 16 = sechzehn — the s of sechs falls out. 17 = siebzehn — the en of sieben falls out.

The tens

⚠️ 30 is dreißig, not dreizig — it is the only ten that ends in -ßig. And remember from Day 1: -ig at the end is pronounced -ich → TSVAN-tsikh.

3. ★★ 21–99 — the backwards numbers

Units first, then und, then the ten. All written as one word.

einundzwanzig = ein + und + zwanzig = one-and-twenty = 21

⚠️ 21 uses ein, not eins — einundzwanzig.

Why this is harder than it looks

Read on a page, backwards numbers are a two-second puzzle. Heard out loud, they force you to wait. Someone says a price and the first thing out of their mouth is the last digit. Your brain has to hold it, hear the ten, and then reassemble.

57 — you hear "sieben…" and start writing 7. Then "…undfünfzig" arrives and the 7 was never the first digit at all.

★ How to fix it — the only drill that works: Say a number, then write it. Not read-and-say — hear-and-write. Start with the tens you are worst at, do 20 a day, and use the Dictation mission for exactly this.

English used to do this too. Four and twenty blackbirds, four score and seven.German simply never stopped. It is not arbitrary — it is old.

4. Big numbers

Everything runs together into a single word: 345 = dreihundertfünfundvierzig — three-hundred, five-and-forty.

⚠️ The comma and the dot are swapped

€3,50 is read "drei Euro fünfzig" — you say the currency in the middle and the cents bare. Not "drei Komma fünf null Euro".

Years

⚠️ Years up to 1999 use the hundert pattern like English. From 2000 they switch to tausend. And no preposition — Ich bin 1998 geboren, not in 1998.

5. Numbers in the wild

Prices

Was kostet das? — vass KOS-tet dass — What does that cost?Wie viel kostet das? — same thing, longer Das macht 12,50 €. — dass makht tsverlf OY-roh FEWNF-tsikh — That comes to €12.50 Das ist zu teuer. — dass ist tsoo TOY-uh — That's too expensive

Phone numbers

Germans read phone numbers digit by digit, or in pairs: 030 / 24 15 78 → "null drei null — vierundzwanzig, fünfzehn, achtundsiebzig"

★ On the phone, zwei becomes zwo (tsvoh) — because zwei and drei sound too alike over a bad line. You will hear this constantly and it is not a dialect.

Your age, again

Ich bin einunddreißig Jahre alt. — I'm 31.

6. Ordinals — first, second, third

Three irregulars, and they are the three you use most:

Dates use ordinals with a dot: 1. Mai = der erste Mai.Day 9 is entirely about dates, so today just note the three irregulars.

7. Dialogue

Verkäufer: Guten Tag! Was möchten Sie? — vass MERKH-ten zee — What would you like?Alex: Zwei Kaffee und ein Brötchen, bitte.Verkäufer: Das macht siebenundfünfzig… ach, Entschuldigung — 7,50 €.Alex: Wie bitte? Noch einmal, bitte. — vee BIT-tuhVerkäufer: Sieben Euro fünfzig.Alex: Ah, danke. Hier sind zehn Euro.Verkäufer: Und zwei fünfzig zurück. — oont tsvy FEWNF-tsikh tsoo-REWK — And €2.50 back.Alex: Danke schön! Wie ist Ihre Telefonnummer?Verkäufer: Null drei null, zwo vier, fünfzehn.

★ Alex's Wie bitte? is the Day 2 word doing real work. Numbers are exactly where you will need it — ask, do not guess.

8. Exercises

A. Write the numeral.

1. siebzehn 2. dreißig 3. einundzwanzig 4. sechsundvierzig
2. neunundneunzig 6. dreihundertzwölf

B. Write it out in German.

1. 13 2. 16 3. 30 4. 27 5. 68 6. 71 7. 100 8. 2026

C. ⚠️ Fix the error.

1. dreizig 2. sechszehn 3. siebenzehn 4. einsundzwanzig 5. Eins Bier, bitte.

D. Read these prices aloud, then write how you said them.

1. 3,50 € 2. 12,99 € 3. 1.500 €

E. Ordinals.

1. the 1st 2. the 3rd 3. the 7th 4. the 4th 5. the 20th

F. ★ The real test — cover the answers, have someone read these, write the numerals.

1. vierundsiebzig 2. achtundachtzig 3. zweiunddreißig 4. sechsundsechzig 5. neunzehn

9. Today's 10 sentences (flashcards)

1. Was kostet das? — What does that cost? (vass KOS-tet dass)
2. Das macht sieben Euro fünfzig. — That comes to €7.50 (dass makht ZEE-ben OY-roh FEWNF-tsikh)
3. Das ist zu teuer. — That's too expensive (dass ist tsoo TOY-uh)
4. Ein Bier, bitte. — One beer, please (ine BEE-uh, BIT-tuh)
5. Zwei Kaffee, bitte. — Two coffees, please (tsvy KA-fay, BIT-tuh)
6. Ich bin einunddreißig Jahre alt. — I'm 31 (ine-oont-DRY-sikh YAH-ruh alt)
7. Wie ist deine Telefonnummer? — What's your phone number? (vee ist DY-nuh tay-lay-FOHN-noo-muh)
8. Wie viele Personen? — How many people? (vee FEE-luh per-ZOH-nen)
9. Noch einmal, bitte. — Once more, please (nokh INE-mal, BIT-tuh)
10. Hier sind zehn Euro. — Here's ten euros (heer zint TSAYN OY-roh)

10. 📲 Upload to LangNote

Upload sections 1–3 (the number tables) and section 9 → study language German.

★ Do 20 heard-and-written numbers a day for the rest of the challenge. It takes two minutes and it is the difference between reading German and understanding a cashier.

langNote is a paid subscription and this course recommends it. The 30 lessons are free and complete either way.