German Numbers and Counting From 0 to 20

Professor talking to college students
Hero Images / Getty Images

Learning numbers or counting in German is not difficult, but true mastery of numbers, in any language, takes time. It is fairly easy to learn to rattle off the numbers — "eins, zwei, drei..." and so forth. However, most of the time numbers are used in more practical ways: in telephone numbers, in math problems, in prices, for addresses, etc. Also, because you have already internalized the numbers in English or another first language, there can be the same kind of interference that happens with other vocabulary.

So, do learn to say the numbers, but also try these exercises to see if you really know how to deal with them. If someone tells you a phone number in German, can you write it down? Can you do simple addition or subtraction in German? 

Die Zahlen 0 to 10

0 null 6 sechs
1 eins 7 sieben
2 zwei * 8 acht
3 drei 9 neun
4 vier 10 zehn
5 fünf * Often zwo is used to avoid
confusion with drei

Die Zahlen 11 to 20

11 elf 16 sechzehn
12 zwölf 17 siebzehn
13 dreizehn 18 achtzehn
14 vierzehn 19 neunzehn
15 fünfzehn 20 zwanzig

Übung 7A (Exercise 7A)

Mathe — Write out the answer to the following math problems in German.
Note: + in German is "plus" (PLOOHS); - is "minus" (MEEN-OOS).

1. zwei + fünf = ________________

2. zwölf - zwei = ________________

3. drei + neun = _________________

4. vier - vier = _________________

5. eins + sechs = _________________

6. dreizehn - zwei = _________________

7. sieben + elf = _________________

Übung 7B (Exercise 7B)

Diktat (Dictation) — Write out the following phone numbers as numerals. Example: null, vier; zwölf, vierzehn, zwanzig = 04 12 14 20 (German phone numbers are often printed/written in groups of two-number pairs.)

1. null, zwo; zwölf, elf, zwanzig = ______________

2. neunzehn; null, fünf; sechzehn, = ______________

3. null, acht; zwölf, elf, zwanzig = ______________

4. null, drei; vier, sieben; achtzehn, zwanzig = ______________

5. dreizehn, zwölf, zehn, vierzehn = ______________

Format
mla apa chicago
Your Citation
Flippo, Hyde. "German Numbers and Counting From 0 to 20." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/german-numbers-and-counting-0-20-4074926. Flippo, Hyde. (2023, April 5). German Numbers and Counting From 0 to 20. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/german-numbers-and-counting-0-20-4074926 Flippo, Hyde. "German Numbers and Counting From 0 to 20." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/german-numbers-and-counting-0-20-4074926 (accessed April 20, 2024).