🇩🇪 German for beginners (A1) · Chapter 5

Numbers, dates and telling the time

German says 47 as 'seven-and-forty' and 8:30 as 'half nine'. Two reversals — and once you see them, every price, platform and appointment makes sense.

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The basics

Numbers, dates and time in German follow a handful of patterns, two of which run backwards compared with English.

The problem it solves: in your first week you will hear prices at the till, a platform number at the station, a phone number from your landlord and a Termin (appointment) time at the city office — usually fast, usually once. If you miss halb neun, you arrive an hour late.

The mental model: from 21 to 99, German says the units first: 47 = siebenundvierzig (seven-and-forty). For half hours it counts towards the next hour: halb neun = 8:30, half way to nine. Hindi already does this for quarters — paune nau is 8:45 — so you have the instinct.

Explained

The ticket machine says 47. The man at the counter says sieben-und-vierzig — seven-and-forty.

Your Termin is at halb neun. You arrive at 9:30. The office closed the slot at 8:30.

Two reversals cause almost every number mistake in German. This lesson is about seeing them coming.

0 to 20 — learn by heart

0 null      7 sieben     14 vierzehn
1 eins      8 acht       15 fünfzehn
2 zwei      9 neun       16 sechzehn   (no s)
3 drei     10 zehn       17 siebzehn   (no en)
4 vier     11 elf        18 achtzehn
5 fünf     12 zwölf      19 neunzehn
6 sechs    13 dreizehn   20 zwanzig

Pronunciation reminders from gm-001: zwei = tsvy, zehn = tsayn, vier = feer, neun = noyn.

Tens: 20 zwanzig, 30 dreißig (ß, not z), 40 vierzig, 50 fünfzig, 60 sechzig, 70 siebzig, 80 achtzig, 90 neunzig, 100 hundert, 1000 tausend.

21 to a million: units first

From 21 to 99, say the unit, und, the ten, all as one word:

21   ein-und-zwanzig        (eins loses its s)
35   fünf-und-dreißig
47   sieben-und-vierzig
99   neun-und-neunzig
365  dreihundert-fünf-und-sechzig
2026 zweitausend-sechs-und-zwanzig

Old English did this too — 'four-and-twenty blackbirds'.

Written numbers swap comma and point:

English     German
2.50        2,50     zwei Euro fünfzig
1,000       1.000    tausend
3.5 km      3,5 km   drei Komma fünf Kilometer

The clock, the German way

8:00   Es ist acht Uhr.
8:05   fünf nach acht
8:15   Viertel nach acht
8:30   halb neun          ← half TO nine
8:45   Viertel vor neun
8:50   zehn vor neun

You already count like this in Hindi:

8:15   sawa aath     Viertel nach acht
8:30   saadhe aath   halb neun   (German looks ahead!)
8:45   paune nau     Viertel vor neun

paune nau and Viertel vor neun both look ahead to nine. German simply does the same for the half hour.

Questions: Wie spät ist es? or Wie viel Uhr ist es? (What time is it?) · Um wie viel Uhr? (At what time?) — Um acht.

Official time and dates

Trains, offices, cinemas and emails use the 24-hour clock, read as hours + Uhr + minutes:

18:30 — achtzehn Uhr dreißig · 07:05 — sieben Uhr fünf

Dates are day.month.year: 15.08.2026. Spoken, the day becomes an ordinal:

1. erste   2. zweite   3. dritte   4. vierte
7. siebte  8. achte    20. zwanzigste   31. einunddreißigste

1–19 add -te, from 20 add -ste. After am (on) the ending is -ten:

Heute ist der fünfzehnte August. (Today is 15 August.)

Am sechsundzwanzigsten Januar ist Republic Day.

Ich habe am dritten Mai Geburtstag. (My birthday is on 3 May.)

Years: 1998 = neunzehnhundertachtundneunzig; 2026 = zweitausendsechsundzwanzig. Say Ich bin 2001 geboren — no 'in'.

Booking a Termin by phone

Wednesday, 11:20. You call a doctor's practice in Düsseldorf.

Praxis: Praxis Dr. Wolf, guten Tag.

Arjun: Guten Tag, hier ist Arjun Mehta. Ich brauche einen Termin, bitte.

Praxis: Am Freitag, um halb zehn?

Arjun: Halb zehn — also neun Uhr dreißig?

Praxis: Genau. Freitag, der vierzehnte, neun Uhr dreißig.

Arjun: Super. Und Ihre Telefonnummer?

Praxis: Null, zwo, elf, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben, acht.

Arjun: Vielen Dank. Auf Wiederhören!

Three things to steal: check halb by repeating it in 24-hour form; zwo replaces zwei on the phone so it is not confused with drei; and on the phone it is Auf Wiederhören ('until we hear again').

Halb looks ahead. halb neun is half way TO nine — 8:30. Like paune nau.

Units first, like the old rhyme: four-and-twenty → vierundzwanzig.

Comma for money, point for thousands: 1.250,50 € = one thousand two hundred fifty euros and fifty cents.

Sixteen and seventeen go on a diet: sech-zehn, sieb-zehn.

Mistakes Indian learners make

• halb neun = 9:30. It is 8:30. Confirm any half-hour appointment in 24-hour form.
• zwanzigeins for 21. Units first: einundzwanzig.
• einsundzwanzig. eins drops its s inside a number: ein-und-zwanzig.
• 2.50 € on a form. German writes 2,50 €; 2.500 means two thousand five hundred.
• in 2026. German says 2026 or im Jahr 2026, never in 2026.
• sechszehn, siebenzehn, dreizig. It is sechzehn, siebzehn, dreißig.
• Uncrossed 7s. Germans write 1 with a long up-stroke (it can look like your 7) and always cross their 7. Cross yours on forms, and read a handwritten 1 carefully.

Words to know

In two minutes

• Learn 0–20 by heart; from 21 to 99 the units come first: 47 = siebenundvierzig.
• Watch the spelling: sechzehn, siebzehn, sechzig, siebzig drop letters; dreißig uses ß.
• Germans use a decimal comma and a thousands point: 2,50 € and 1.000.
• halb + hour means half an hour BEFORE that hour: halb neun = 8:30.
• Viertel nach = quarter past, Viertel vor = quarter to; trains and offices use the 24-hour clock.
• Dates go day.month.year; spoken dates use ordinals: der dritte Mai, am dritten Mai.
• Years: 1998 = neunzehnhundertachtundneunzig, 2026 = zweitausendsechsundzwanzig — and never 'in 2026'.

Test yourself

There are 9 questions, 3 puzzles and 5 recall cards for this lesson in the app — the recall cards come back on later days, just before you would forget.