Free German Numbers to Words Converter

How the German numbers to words converter works

There is one box, and it works both ways. Type a number in digits, such as 97 or 2026, and it appears written out in German words: 97 is siebenundneunzig and 2026 is zweitausendsechsundzwanzig. Negatives work too, so -7 becomes minus sieben. Decimals are read the way Germans read them, one digit at a time after the Komma, so 3,14 is drei Komma eins vier and 0,05 is null Komma null fünf. Whole numbers go up to 24 digits, which takes you into the Trilliarden.

German writes the decimal mark as a comma, and that makes one case ambiguous. This page is in English, so 1,500 on its own is read as fifteen hundred and 1.500 as one and a half. When that happens, the converter says so and tells you how to type the other reading. A number such as 3,5 can only be a decimal, so it's read as one.

Each result sits on its own row with a Copy button. The first row, In German words, gives the everyday form: 101 is hunderteins, 1100 is tausendeinhundert and 2,500,000 is zwei Millionen fünfhunderttausend. For 1100 to 1999 it adds the year form, because a year in that range is always said in hundreds. So 1987 as a year is neunzehnhundertsiebenundachtzig, and as a plain number it's tausendneunhundertsiebenundachtzig. When the Swiss spelling differs, it's shown too: Switzerland writes ss for ß, so 30 is dreissig.

The next row, With ein, gives the forms that start with einhundert and eintausend: 100 is einhundert and 1100 is eintausendeinhundert. Both hundert and einhundert are correct. The row is labeled “the safe form on a cheque,” because nobody can add a word in front of a number that starts with ein.

The money row writes the number out in euros or Swiss francs. German doesn't put the currency in the plural, so 21.50 euros is einundzwanzig Euro und fünfzig Cent. One euro is ein Euro, 101 euros is hundertein Euro and a million euros is eine Million Euro. Swiss francs use Franken and Rappen with the Swiss spelling, so 30.05 francs is dreissig Franken und fünf Rappen.

From 1 to 1,000,000 you also get the ordinal, shown with its article: der erste, am ersten. The list runs erste (1.), zweite, dritte, siebte (or siebente), achte, zwanzigste, einundzwanzigste, hundertste, hunderterste, tausendste and millionste.

The converter also reads German back into digits. Type siebenundneunzig and you get 97. It takes hundert or einhundert, ß or ss, the older hundertundeins, a capital at the start, and the words with or without spaces. It reads zwo too, with a note that zwei is the written form. If your keyboard has no umlauts, fuenf and funf both read as fünf, with a note to check the umlaut. Other slips get a note too. Zwei millionen needs a capital, because Million and Milliarde are nouns. Drei hundert vier should be one word, because below a million German writes a number as one word. Sechszehn, siebenzehn, sechszig and siebenzig get a note on the spelling of 16, 17, 60 and 70. Type an ordinal such as dritte and it asks you to type the cardinal number instead.

How to write German numbers from 1 to 100

The numbers up to 12 each have their own word: null, eins, zwei, drei and so on up to elf and zwölf. From 13 to 19 you add zehn: dreizehn, vierzehn, fünfzehn. The tens are zwanzig, dreißig, vierzig, fünfzig, sechzig, siebzig, achtzig and neunzig. Note the ß in dreißig, where the other tens end in -zig. In Switzerland it's dreissig.

Between the tens, German says the units first and joins them to the tens with und. So 21 is einundzwanzig, one-and-twenty, and 97 is siebenundneunzig, seven-and-ninety. English used to count this way too, which is where “four and twenty blackbirds” comes from. It feels backward for a week or two, and then it doesn't.

Two families drop letters. Sechs loses its s in 16 and 60, so they're sechzehn and sechzig, though 26 is sechsundzwanzig. Sieben loses its en, so 17 is siebzehn and 70 is siebzig, though 27 is siebenundzwanzig. Then 100 is hundert or einhundert. With those rules you can write all the German numbers from 1 to 100 in words. That's also the quiz's default range.

Eins, ein and eine

The number 1 has three forms, and the converter picks the right one. At the end of a number it's eins: hunderteins, tausendeins. Inside a number it's ein: einundzwanzig, einhundert, hunderteintausend (101,000). So einsundzwanzig is wrong, and the quiz says so.

Before a noun, ein comes back even at the end of a number: ein Euro, hundertein Euro. And Million is a feminine noun, so 1,000,000 is eine Million. Above that it's zwei Millionen, drei Millionen and so on.

Hundreds, thousands and millions in German

Below a million, German writes a number as one word, however long it gets. So 999,999 is neunhundertneunundneunzigtausendneunhundertneunundneunzig. That's 57 letters with no spaces, and it's correct. From a million up, the words split, because Million and Milliarde are nouns. They take a capital and a plural, so 2,500,000 is zwei Millionen fünfhunderttausend.

German uses the long scale, so its big number words don't match English. Eine Milliarde is 10 to the power of 9, which English calls a billion. A German Billion is 10 to the power of 12, an English trillion. After that come the Billiarde (10 to the power of 15), the Trillion (10 to the power of 18) and the Trilliarde (10 to the power of 21). So a German report of eine Billion Euro means a trillion euros. If you translate figures for work, check this one twice.

Years in German

A year from 1100 to 1999 is said in hundreds, never in thousands. So 1987 is neunzehnhundertsiebenundachtzig, nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, while the plain number 1987 is tausendneunhundertsiebenundachtzig. From 2000 the year is a plain number again: 2026 is zweitausendsechsundzwanzig. The converter shows the year form for every number from 1100 to 1999, and the quiz has a years range from 1900 to 2099.

German numbers practice

Below the converter is a practice mode that works as a German numbers quiz. Pick a range: 0 to 20, 0 to 100, 100 to 1,000, 1,000 to 1,000,000, or the years 1900 to 2099. It starts on 0 to 100. Then pick a direction. You either see the digits and type the German words, or read the German words and type the digits. There are buttons for ä, ö, ü and ß, so you don't need a German keyboard. Each answer is marked at once, and a running count of right and wrong, with your percentage, stays on screen.

Hundert and einhundert are both accepted, and so are ß and ss. In the years range, 1900 to 1999 are asked as years (neunzehnhundertneunundneunzig for 1999), and both year forms are accepted. Small slips get “Almost”: a lowercase million, a space inside the one-word part, a missing umlaut, or zwo. Sechszehn and the other dropped-letter spellings are marked wrong with a note, and so is eins inside a number, as in einsundzwanzig. When the einhundert form differs, the answer shows it too. Press Stop to see your score and the numbers you missed, then “Practice my mistakes” goes through just those. There's no audio, so the quiz won't help with how German numbers sound.

If you're working on the rest of your German as well, the German verb conjugation worksheets print exercises with an answer key, the German verb conjugation quiz asks one form at a time, and the German case worksheets cover articles, prepositions and adjective endings.

Number converters in seven other languages

Each of these works both ways, from digits to words and from words back to digits. Each one also has money, ordinals and a practice quiz, and they're all free.

• Spanish numbers to words converter
• French numbers to words converter
• Italian numbers to words converter
• Portuguese numbers to words converter
• Russian numbers to words converter
• Japanese number converter
• Korean number converter

Frequently asked questions