Numbers & time

How German builds numbers

From 21 on, German says the ones first and the tens second, glued together with und: 21 is ein·und·zwanzig (“one-and-twenty”). Watch the spelling: 16 sechzehn and 17 siebzehn drop letters, and so do 60 sechzig and 70 siebzig. 30 is dreißig with ß. And each number is written as one (sometimes very long) word.

100 can be hundert or einhundert, 1000 can be tausend or eintausend. After the hundreds you just keep going: 101 is hunderteins, 321 is dreihunderteinundzwanzig.