This tool spells any whole number into German words. German has a distinctive units-before-tens word order, which the converter handles for you. It runs entirely in your browser.
How it works
Within each three-digit group German spells the hundreds, then the unit before the ten joined by und — so 21 is ein-und-zwanzig (one-and-twenty). Everything below a million is written as a single concatenated word, such as dreihundertfünfundvierzig (345). Above that, Million and Milliarde are separate words and are pluralised (Millionen, Milliarden) when there is more than one.
Example
The number 345 is built right-to-left within the hundreds group:
| Part | German |
|---|---|
| 300 | dreihundert |
| 5 (unit, first) | fünf |
| und 40 | undvierzig |
Concatenated: dreihundertfünfundvierzig. Likewise 1,234 is eintausendzweihundertvierunddreißig.
Everything happens in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded anywhere.
When you need German number words
Writing numbers in full German words is required in several formal and practical contexts:
- Cheques (Schecks) — German, Austrian and Swiss banking practice requires the amount spelled out in words
- Legal contracts and notarial documents — sums are routinely spelled out to eliminate ambiguity
- German language learning and exams — number spelling (Zahlen in Worten) appears in DaF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache) coursework and standardized tests like Goethe-Institut exams
- German school homework — primary and secondary students across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland practise writing numbers in Buchstaben
The units-before-tens rule — why German works this way
German’s inversion of units and tens (einundzwanzig for 21 instead of twenty-one) is historically shared with Dutch (eenentwintig) and traces back to older Germanic languages. Old English actually used the same structure (one-and-twenty), which still appears in formal contexts and literature in English. Modern English reversed the order to tens-before-units, but German retained the original pattern.
This means that 97 in German is siebenundneunzig — literally “seven-and-ninety” — not “ninety-seven.” For learners of German, this is often one of the first grammar points that causes stumbling in listening comprehension: the unit digit sounds before the tens digit.
The special cases: ein vs. eins, and dreißig
Two frequently mishandled German spelling points:
ein vs. eins: The word for 1 is eins when used alone, but ein (or inflected forms eine, einen, einem, einer) when part of a compound or before a noun. This converter uses ein inside compound numbers (e.g., einundzwanzig) and eins for the standalone digit 1.
dreißig: The word for 30 is dreißig (with an ß, not dreissig or dreizzig). In Swiss German orthography the ß is replaced by ss (so dreissig), but standard written German uses dreißig. The converter uses the standard German form.
Scale words and the long vs. short scale
German uses the long scale for large numbers, which differs from the English short scale:
| Number | German | English (short scale) |
|---|---|---|
| 10⁶ | eine Million | one million |
| 10⁹ | eine Milliarde | one billion |
| 10¹² | eine Billion | one trillion |
This matters significantly: a German Billion is 10¹², the same as an English trillion — not the same as an English billion. The converter handles Millionen and Milliarden (up to 12-digit numbers) and pluralises them correctly when the value exceeds one.
Compound numbers as one word
German orthography writes everything below one million as a single unbroken word. This can produce very long words in writing:
- 579 = fünfhundertneunundsiebzig
- 4,200 = viertausendzweihundert
- 99,999 = neunundneunzigtausendneunhundertneunundneunzig
These long compounds are correct German — not typos. The converter produces the standard written form used in formal documents and educational materials.