Counting from 1 to 12 in German
Today’s lesson is very important, we will talk and learn about Counting from 1 to 12 in German.
Counting in any language is a valuable skill best learned early on.
In German as in English, there are both cardinal (counting) and ordinal (place or order) numbers, and number formation is similar in that the first twelve numbers are unique.
Above twelve, numbers are formed by combination. For example, 13 is dreizehn and 14 is vierzehn.
Higher numbers will be the subject of later lessons. Note in the table how ordinals are formed from the cardinals in German by adding te.
‘Ten’ becomes ‘tenth’ in English; zehn become zehnte in German. As in English, there are several nonconforming variants: erste, dritte, and siebte.
| cardinal numbers | ordinal numbers | ||
| one | eins | 1st | erste |
| two | zwei | 2nd | zweite |
| three | drei | 3rd | dritte |
| four | vier | 4th | vierte |
| five | fünf | 5th | fünfte |
| six | sechs | 6th | sechste |
| seven | sieben | 7th | siebte |
| eight | acht | 8th | achte |
| nine | neun | 9th | neunte |
| ten | zehn | 10th | zehnte |
| eleven | elf | 11th | elfte |
| twelve | zwölf | 12th | zwölfte |
Aussprache
Learning the German words for the numbers provides an excellent opportunity to practice German pronunciations.
Following are some helpful hints for English speakers attempting to count in German. A “dental sound” is made by moving the tongue into the back of the upper teeth—almost as if the word started with a ‘t’.
A “gutteral sound” comes from deep in the throat. Also, remember, in words of more than one syllable, the emphasis is on the first syllable.
Final consonants are cut off quickly in German, not drawn out as in many English words. English speakers might call this being curt or brusque with eachword. eins say ‘eyen-zah’ but drop the ‘ah’; ‘z’ is between an ‘s’ and ‘z’ zwei sounds like ‘zveye’; the ‘w’ is between a ‘v’ and a ‘w’ drei sounds like “dry”, but with dental ‘d’ and roll the ‘r’ vier sound is between “fear” and ‘fee-yahr’ fünf say ‘foon-fah’ without the ‘ah’; very slight ‘r’ after the ‘ü’ sechs sounds like “sex”,
but with a more dental leading ‘s’ sieben sounds like “see Ben” (use dental ‘s’) acht sounds like ‘ahkt’; the ‘ch’ is guttural neun sounds like “loin” with an ‘n’ zehn sounds like the name, “Zane”, but the ‘z’ is more dental elf sounds pretty much like “elf” (the German ‘e’ is a little higher) zwölf sounds like ‘zwolf’, but the
‘o’ is closer to ‘u’ in ‘up’
