Dutch cardinal numbers: 0 to 100 and beyond

Cardinal numbers are the counting numbers: een (one), twee (two), drie (three). This page covers 0 to 100 and the big round numbers above it. Once you know 0-20 and the tens, every other number is built by gluing pieces together.

Learn 0-20 by heart; they are the building blocks for everything else. Elf (11) and twaalf (12) are their own words, and 13-19 add -tien to the unit, with two small changes: 13 is dertien (not drietien) and 14 is veertien (not viertien).

The number een (one) is often written één with two accent marks when it could be confused with een (a/an): Ik heb maar één appel. (I have only one apple.) Those are the accents you meet again with numbers and stress.

Most tens are the unit plus -tig. Two are irregular in the same way the teens were: dertig (30) and veertig (40). Watch the spelling of tachtig (80), which does not start from acht.

Say the unit first, then en (and), then the ten, all as one word: eenentwintig (21), literally one-and-twenty. Dutch keeps this order for every number in the range.

1. Take the unit (1-9) and the ten (20-90).
2. Join them with en in the middle, unit first: vijf + en + veertig → vijfenveertig (45).
3. Write the whole thing as one word: zevenentwintig (27), negenentachtig (89).

When the unit is twee or drie, the join -en- would put three vowels in a row (twee + en), so a trema (the two dots) goes on the e to show where the next syllable starts: tweeëntwintig (22), drieëndertig (33), tweeënveertig (42). Units ending in a consonant need no trema: vierentwintig (24), vijfentwintig (25).

For 100 up, add honderd (hundred), duizend (thousand) and miljoen (million). Everything below a thousand is written as a single word; from a thousand up you put a space.

• honderd (100), tweehonderd (200), honderdvijfentwintig (125) — all one word.
• duizend (1000), tweeduizend (2000). From here on, put a space after duizend: tweeduizend zesentwintig (2026).
• miljoen (million) and miljard (billion) are always separate words: één miljoen (1,000,000), drie miljoen (3,000,000).

You may add en after honderd for round-ish numbers: honderdeneen or honderdeen (101). Honderd and duizend stand alone with no een in front: say honderd, not eenhonderd.

• Counting and quantities: Ik heb drie broers. (I have three brothers.)
• Prices and amounts: Dat kost vijftien euro. (That costs fifteen euros.)
• Years, read as a whole: negentienhonderdtachtig or negentientachtig (1980).
• As the base for ordinal numbers (first, second, third) and for telling the time.

English speakers often keep the English order and say twintig-een for 21. Dutch always puts the unit first: eenentwintig. The same holds inside bigger numbers: 145 is honderdvijfenveertig (hundred-five-and-forty), not honderdveertigvijf. Read the last two digits back-to-front.