Counting from 13 to 100

Dear learner , you will learn in this lesson the way of counting from 13 to 100 in German . Once you have memorized the numbers from 1 to 12 in a previous lesson , counting higher in German becomes very much like counting in English . From 13 to 19 , add -zehn (10; “-teen” in English) after the cardinal number root :

• 13 → 🔊 Listen dreizehn (irregular in English: ‘thirteen’)
• 14→ 🔊 Listen vierzehn
• 15 → 🔊 Listen fünfzehn
• 16 → 🔊 Listen sechzehn (note that the ‘s’ in sechs is dropped)
• 17 → 🔊 Listen siebzehn (note that the ‘en’ in sieben is dropped)
• 18 → 🔊 Listen achtzehn
• 19 → 🔊 Listen neunzehn

Above 19 the counting system is constant : add -zig (“-ty” in English) to the cardinal root . Thus , we get :

• 20 → 🔊 Listen zwanzig
• 21 → 🔊 Listen einundzwanzig (note: ‘one-and-twenty’)
• 22 → 🔊 Listen zweiundzwanzig (note: ‘two-and-twenty’)

And the same for 30, 40, 50….etc .

• 30 → 🔊 Listen dreißig (this is an exception to the -zig Rule)
• 40 → 🔊 Listen vierzig
• 50 → 🔊 Listen fünfzig
• 60 → 🔊 Listen sechzig
• 70 → 🔊 Listen siebzig
• 80 → 🔊 Listen achtzig
• 90 → 🔊 Listen neunzig
• 100 → 🔊 Listen hundert

So , combining these , we get :

• 34 → 🔊 Listen vierunddreißig (note: ‘four-and-thirty’)
• 143 → 🔊 Listen hundertdreiundvierzig (note: ‘hundred-three-and-forty’)
• 170 → 🔊 Listen hundertsiebzig
• 199 → 🔊 Listen hundertneunundneunzig

It would be excellent practice towards learning these numbers by counting (in German, of course) from 1 to 199—or counting along any continuous sequence that comes to mind . For example , start with your age and count to 50 (count down if appropriate) .