Numbers in German, French and Spanish: The Tricky Parts
Each of these languages has a feature that trips up learners and translators. Here are the ones that matter for writing amounts in words.
German: units before tens, one long word
German says the unit first: 21 is einundzwanzig (“one and twenty”). Numbers below one million are written as a single word, so 1,234 becomes eintausendzweihundertvierunddreißig and 1,999 becomes eintausendneunhundertneunundneunzig. From a million upward, the scale words are separate nouns: eine Million (singular) but zwei Millionen (plural). Also, eine Milliarde is 109, while eine Billion is 1012.
1100 → eintausendeinhundert | 21 → einundzwanzig | 2,000,000 → zwei MillionenFrench: the 70s, 80s and 90s
Standard French counts 70 as sixty-ten and 90 as four-twenties-ten:
| Figure | French (Numbrate output) |
|---|---|
| 70 | soixante-dix |
| 71 | soixante et onze |
| 80 | quatre-vingts |
| 81 | quatre-vingt-un |
| 90 | quatre-vingt-dix |
| 99 | quatre-vingt-dix-neuf |
| 200 | deux cents |
Notice the details that cause errors: “vingt” and “cent” take an s when they end the number (quatre-vingts, deux cents) but lose it when followed by another number (quatre-vingt-un, deux cent trois). Belgium and Switzerland use septante and nonante instead; Numbrate uses the standard form of France.
Spanish: one word below 30, gender and “mil millones”
Spanish writes 16 to 19 and 21 to 29 as one word (veintiuno), then separates the rest with “y” (treinta y uno). Numbers ending in uno or hundreds agree in gender with the noun: doscientas personas, veintiún euros. There is no standalone word for 109; it is mil millones (“a thousand millions”), while un billón means 1012.
101 → ciento uno | 1000 → mil | 2,000,000 → dos millonesDecimals
German and French use a comma as the decimal mark, and Numbrate reads the digits after it one by one: 3.25 gives drei Komma zwei fünf in German and trois virgule deux cinq in French. Turkish reads the fractional part as a number: üç virgül yirmi beş. In currency mode, decimals become the subunit instead (euros and cents).
Frequently asked questions
Why is 21 “einundzwanzig” in German?
German places the unit before the ten, joined by “und”, and writes the result as one word.
Is it “quatre-vingt” or “quatre-vingts”?
With an s when it ends the number (80), without an s when another number follows (81).