A1-9 · Count and use plural verb forms
Numbers to 100
Build numbers from twenty-one to one hundred and use regular verbs with wir, ihr and sie/Sie.
About 5 minutes to read · 12 quiz questions
01
Tens and one hundred
Learn the tens first. Some spellings are shorter than the small number you already know. Listen and compare the groups.
zwanzig, dreißig, vierzig
twenty, thirty, forty
fünfzig, sechzig, siebzig
fifty, sixty, seventy
achtzig, neunzig, hundert
eighty, ninety, one hundred
dreißig und vierzig
thirty and forty
Dreißig uses ß. Sechzig drops the s of sechs; siebzig drops the en of sieben. Hundert and einhundert both mean one hundred.
02
Say the units first
From twenty-one to ninety-nine, say the unit, then und, then the ten. Write the parts as one word. Eins becomes ein before und.
einundzwanzig
twenty-one
zweiunddreißig
thirty-two
siebenundvierzig
forty-seven
neunundneunzig
ninety-nine
For 47, think sieben + und + vierzig. For 21, use einundzwanzig, not einsundzwanzig. German reverses the order of the spoken units and tens compared with English.
03
We, you all, they and polite you
Regular verbs use -en with wir and sie/Sie. Informal plural ihr uses -t. Compare lernen in these four sentences.
Wir lernen Deutsch.
We are learning German.
Ihr lernt Deutsch.
You all are learning German.
Sie lernen Deutsch.
They are learning German.
Lernen Sie Deutsch?
Are you learning German?
The pattern is wir lernen, ihr lernt, sie lernen, Sie lernen. Polite Sie is capitalized. Sentence-initial Sie can also mean they; context tells you which meaning is intended.
Ready to try it?
Check what you remember with 12 short questions.
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