Lesson 2: Personal pronouns. Numbers 21–1000

Part 1: The eight pronouns

Eight words. Learn them — and you can talk about anyone.

Pronoun	English	Example
ich	I	Ich bin Katja.
du	you (singular, informal)	Du bist jung.
er	he	Er wohnt in Berlin.
sie	she	Sie kommt aus London.
es	it	Es ist kalt.
wir	we	Wir lernen Deutsch.
ihr	you (plural, informal — "y'all")	Ihr seid schnell.
Sie	you (formal, sing. or plural)	Sie sprechen gut Deutsch.

Cognate alert: ich ≈ "I" (via Old English ic). wir ≈ "we". mein later = "mine". You share more DNA with German than you think.

du or Sie?

Simple. Du = friends, kids, family, peers. Sie = strangers, your boss, the cashier, anyone in a tie.

Think of it as the old "thou vs you" English used to have. Quakers still say "thou". Germans never gave it up — they just split it into du/Sie. When in doubt, say Sie. A German will offer "du" when they're ready.

Trap! The word sie shows up THREE times with different meanings: — sie (lowercase s) = she: Sie trinkt Kaffee. — She drinks coffee. — sie (lowercase s, plural) = they: Sie trinken Kaffee. — They drink coffee. — Sie (uppercase S) = you (formal): Sie trinken Kaffee. — You drink coffee. How do you tell "they" from formal "you"? In writing — the capital letter. In speech — context. Don't panic; you'll feel it after a week.

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Part 2: Numbers 21–100

The main principle: Germans count backwards

In English: twenty-five. Tens first, then units.

In German: fünfundzwanzig. Units first, then tens. With und (and) in between.

25 = fünf + und + zwanzig = "five-and-twenty"

Not a joke. Real. And you'll get used to it in a couple of days. Remember the nursery rhyme: "Sing a song of sixpence... four and twenty blackbirds." That's literally how Germans still talk.

The tens

Number	Word	What you see
20	zwanzig	special word
30	dreißig	drei + ßig (NOT -zig!)
40	vierzig	vier + zig
50	fünfzig	fünf + zig
60	sechzig	sech + zig (no s!)
70	siebzig	sieb + zig (no en!)
80	achtzig	acht + zig
90	neunzig	neun + zig

Trap! 30 is dreißig, not dreizig. The only ten ending in -ßig instead of -zig. 60 and 70 drop letters again: sechzig (not sechszig), siebzig (not siebenzig). Same lazy Germans from Lesson 1 — they don't want to pile up consonants.

Cognate: German -zig ≈ English "-ty" (twenty, thirty, forty). Same Germanic root.

Compound numbers 21–99

Formula: unit + und + ten

Number	Breakdown	Word
21	1 + und + 20	einundzwanzig
34	4 + und + 30	vierunddreißig
47	7 + und + 40	siebenundvierzig
56	6 + und + 50	sechsundfünfzig
68	8 + und + 60	achtundsechzig
73	3 + und + 70	dreiundsiebzig
85	5 + und + 80	fünfundachtzig
99	9 + und + 90	neunundneunzig

Round tens (20, 30, 40...) — no und. Just the word alone.

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Part 3: Numbers 100–1000

Hundreds

Number	Word
100	(ein)hundert
200	zweihundert
300	dreihundert
400	vierhundert
500	fünfhundert
600	sechshundert
700	siebenhundert
800	achthundert
900	neunhundert
1000	(ein)tausend

For 100 just say hundert. "Einhundert" — only when you want to stress "exactly one hundred, not two".

Cognates: hundert ≈ "hundred". tausend ≈ "thousand". Free vocabulary.

Compound numbers — building blocks

Order: hundreds + unit + und + ten

Yes, units still come before tens. Hundreds go at the very start.

Number	Breakdown	Word
115	100 + 15	hundertfünfzehn
243	200 + 3-und-40	zweihundertdreiundvierzig
671	600 + 1-und-70	sechshunderteinundsiebzig
999	900 + 9-und-90	neunhundertneunundneunzig

Anchor. Memorize the order: hundreds — unit — und — ten. 738 = sieben (hundreds) + hundert + acht (unit) + und + dreißig (ten) = siebenhundertachtunddreißig. Long? Yes. But logical. Build it piece by piece.

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