Dutch/Vocabulary/The numbers

Counting is often the first thing one wants to learn when visiting another country.

0 to 10

0	noicon nul	1	noicon één, een	2	noicon twee	3	noicon drie	4	noicon vier	5	noicon vijf	6	noicon zes	7	noicon zeven	8	noicon acht	9	noicon negen	10	noicon tien

Notice that the cardinal 1 (one) is usually written using stress marks as één to distinguish it from the unstressed indefinite article een (English a or an). However stress marking is only allowed in Dutch if otherwise confusion might arise. Thus the marks are not always written.

Zeven is sometimes pronounced as "zeuven" [zøvə(n)] to distinguish it better from "negen".

11 to 20

11	noicon elf	12	noicon twaalf	13	noicon dertien	14	noicon veertien	15	noicon vijftien	16	noicon zestien	17	noicon zeventien	18	noicon achttien	19	noicon negentien

As in English the first two are irregular; they betray an ancient suffix -lif as in English.

The rest has -tien as a suffix with a few irregularities

20 to 100

The equivalent of -ty in English is -tig.

20. twintig

30. dertig

40. veertig

50. vijftig

60. zestig

70. zeventig

80. tachtig

90. negentig

The "z" of zestig and zeventig are usually pronounced as [s], not [z].

21, 22 etc.

In contrast to English the units come first

21 eenentwintig ("oneandtwenty")

If the unit ends in a vowel and this collides with the vowel of "en" a diaeresis (trema) is used:

22 tweeëntwintig

100, 200

In contrast to English, Dutch just uses "hundred", not "one hundred"

100. honderd

101. honderdéén

200. tweehonderd

201. tweehonderdéén

300. driehonderd

400. vierhonderd

500. vijfhonderd

600. zeshonderd

700. zevenhonderd

800. achthonderd

900. negenhonderd

1000 to 100,000

This basically goes the same. Notice that Dutch uses periods as separators for factors of one thousand rather than commas. This notation is the reverse of the English one. Dutch has a decimal comma, not a decimal point.

1000. duizend

1001. duizend (en) één

1012 duizend twaalf

1524 duizend vijfhonderdvierentwintig or vijftienhonderdvierentwintig

2000. tweeduizend

5000. vijfduizend

10.000. tienduizend

15.324 vijftienduizend driehondervierentwintig

20.000. twintigduizend

50.000. vijftigduizend

100.000. honderdduizend

For years the 'honderd' is often dropped, similar to English:

In 1355: in dertien vijfenvijftig.

All numerals up to 1000 are written as one word. After -duizend there is always a space.

Large numbers

1.000.000. één miljoen

1.500.000. één miljoen vijfhonderdduizend

2.000.000. twee miljoen

For larger numbers Dutch uses the long scale rather than the short scale, which is currently used in all English-speaking countries. There are two suffixes -joen and -jard that alternate.

1.000.000.000. miljard

1.000.000.000.000. biljoen

1.000.000.000.000.000. biljard

1.000.000.000.000.000.000. triljoen

1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000. triljard

The words miljoen, miljard etc. are always written as separate words with spaces on both sides.

Fractions

The ordinals are used to express fractions (as in English)

een derde - a third

Exceptions are:

een half - 1/2

anderhalf - 1 1/2

een kwart - 1/4

Numerators and denominators are written as separate words:

twee derde - 2/3

drie duizenste - 3/1000

But in compounds the general rule of compounding prevails:

een tweederdemeerderheid - a two thirds majority

Decimals

Remember that Dutch uses a decimal comma rather than a decimal point.

6,7%: zes komma zeven procent.

Self-test

Dutch/Vocabulary/The numbers/Hover test