Numbers, dates & time
Companion to our Numbers prompts in scenarios — distilled patterns travellers actually need.
Cardinals (pattern)
- 0–12 — learn cold: null, eins, zwei, drei … zwölf
- 13–19 — three-ten „dreizehn“ style (exceptions: dreizehn, sechzehn, siebzehn)
- 20, 30 … — zwanzig, dreißig, vierzig (+ “und” merges in 21–29: einundzwanzig)
- 100 / 1000 — hundert / tausend; „one hundred twenty“ logic: hundertzwanzig OK in speech contexts
Euro prices (spoken)
Often shortened: „drei,fünfzig“ (with pause) → drei Euro fünfzig; formal shops still say digits clearly — listen for comma as decimal in writing (German uses comma for decimals).
Weekdays
Montag · Dienstag · Mittwoch · Donnerstag · Freitag · Samstag · Sonntag Ask “Welcher Wochentag ist heute?” when booking.
Clock time phrases
- Um acht Uhr — at eight (sharp)
- Viertel nach acht — quarter past eight
- Viertel vor neun — quarter to nine
- halb neun — half past eight (half towards nine)
- REGIONAL: Viertel neun vs Viertel nach acht — clarify with context.
Dates (speaking habit)
Written numeric dates often DD.MM.YYYY. Out loud Germans often flip to ordinal + month name — when in doubt mirror what the clerk says back.
Prefer drills? Jump to scenario prompts · Numbers topic.