Einundzwanzig: the unit comes first

21 to 99: the unit comes first

German builds 21 to 99 as unit, then und, then the ten, all in one word:

The unit keeps its full form: sechsundsechzig keeps the s at the front and loses it at the back. Only the ten shrinks. English used to count this way too: four-and-twenty blackbirds.

The hard part is hearing these, not saying them. When you hear siebenundvierzig, write the 7 with a gap in front of it, then fill in the 4.

eins or ein?

One is the only number that changes shape:

12345678910

1. 1ein Apfel
2. 2zwei Äpfel
3. 3drei Äpfel
4. 4vier Äpfel
5. 5fünf Äpfel
6. 6sechs Äpfel
7. 7sieben Äpfel
8. 8acht Äpfel
9. 9neun Äpfel
10. 10zehn Äpfel

Counting aloud you say eins, but in front of a noun one is ein: ein Apfel, then zwei Äpfel, drei Äpfel and on to zehn.

Before a noun, one is the article ein, with the noun's gender and case: ein Mann, eine Frau, mit einem Mann (with a man). German does not split a from one, so Ich habe ein Kind means both I have a child and I have one child. The full set of forms is in German articles.

zwo: two on the phone

You will hear zwo for zwei on the phone, in station announcements and anywhere a number must survive a noisy line, because zwei and drei sound alike. It is standard German, rarely written:

• Null, zwo, drei. - Nought, two, three.

Phone numbers are read digit by digit or in pairs: zweiundvierzig dreiundachtzig is 42 83. In pairs, the unit-first habit bites hardest.

Hundreds and thousands: one long word

hundert or einhundert is 100. The hundreds are the unit plus hundert, usually with no und after it:

• Das kostet zweihundert Euro. - That costs two hundred euros.

You will also hear hundertundeins for 101; that und is optional and usually left out in writing. Every number below a million is one word. Read a long one by chopping at tausend and hundert: zwei-tausend, vier-hundert, neunzig.