Numbers and age

Zahlen und Alter

Learn key numbers, ask someone’s age, say your age, and introduce a phone or reference number.

German number words are useful for ages, prices, addresses, and phone numbers. From 21, German usually puts the ones before the tens. The number 21 is written as one word: einundzwanzig. For understanding, you can break it into ein + und + zwanzig, literally “one and twenty.” Ask Wie alt bist du? and answer Ich bin … Jahre alt.

In einundzwanzig, say one first, then und, then twenty. Eins becomes ein inside the compound.

Use numbers for ages, prices, dates, house numbers, postcodes, and phone numbers.

Do not say zwanzigeins for 21; say einundzwanzig. Say Ich bin 30 Jahre alt, not Ich habe 30 Jahre.

Remember one + and + twenty: ein-und-zwanzig. Learn the complete age frame.

Say your age, then invent and spell a two-digit number.