A1-3 · Numbers and regular verb endings

Numbers 0–20

Count to twenty, give an age and practise the endings for ich, du and er/sie/es.

About 5 minutes to read · 12 quiz questions

Count in small groups

Read the numbers aloud in groups. Notice that eleven and twelve have their own words. Practise the spellings before using the numbers in a sentence.

null, eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf

zero, one, two, three, four, five

sechs, sieben, acht, neun, zehn

six, seven, eight, nine, ten

elf, zwölf, dreizehn, vierzehn, fünfzehn

eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen

sechzehn, siebzehn, achtzehn, neunzehn, zwanzig

sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty

Write sechzehn without the s of sechs, and siebzehn without the en of sieben. Zwanzig means twenty.

A regular verb changes with the person. Remove -en from lernen to get lern-, then add the ending. The pattern is the same for spielen and wohnen.

Ich lerne Deutsch.

I am learning German.

Du lernst Deutsch.

You are learning German.

Er lernt Deutsch.

He is learning German.

Sie spielt Fußball.

She plays football.

Use -e with ich, -st with du and -t with er/sie/es. Lowercase sie here means she. Learn sein separately: ich bin, du bist, er ist.

For age, German uses sein. In a phone number, say each digit separately. The number below is a short practice sequence, not a real contact number.

Ich bin achtzehn Jahre alt.

I am eighteen years old.

Wie alt bist du?

How old are you?

Er ist zwanzig Jahre alt.

He is twenty years old.

null, drei, eins, sieben

zero, three, one, seven

In Ich bin achtzehn, bin gives the person and achtzehn gives the age. Use the digit words when spelling out a phone number.

Check what you remember with 12 short questions.