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Dutch numbers 0–1,000,000

Dutch counts almost the way English does, with one twist that trips up every beginner: the tens are reversed. Eenentwintig is literally “one-and-twenty” for 21. Learn that pattern and the digit words below, and you can build every number up to a million.

0 to 20

These are the building blocks. There is no shortcut — memorise them, because everything larger is assembled from these words plus the tens.

Note that 13 and 14 change the vowel of 3 and 4: not drietien but dertien, not viertien but veertien. The number 1 is written een but stressed and often written één with accents when it means “one” rather than the indefinite article “a”.

The reversed tens: 21 to 99

This is the rule that matters most. For any two-digit number that is not a round ten, Dutch says the unit first, then en (“and”), then the ten — all written as one word. So 21 is eenentwintig (“one-and-twenty”), 34 is vierendertig (“four-and-thirty”), 99 is negenennegentig.

Hundreds, thousands and millions

Above 100 the reversed-tens rule still applies to the last two digits, but hundreds and thousands are said in normal order. Honderd (100) and duizend (1,000) usually appear without een in front: 100 is just honderd, not een honderd. Everything up to duizend is written as one long word.

Watch the punctuation: Dutch uses a comma for the decimal point and a period (or a space) for thousands. So English 1,000.50 is Dutch 1.000,50. Spoken, the decimal comma is read as komma: 3.14 is drie komma veertien. Note that miljard means a thousand million (10⁹), matching the British “milliard” rather than the modern English “billion” only in name — the value is the same as an American billion.

Ordinal numbers (first, second, third)

Ordinals are formed with two endings: -de for most numbers up to 19, and -ste for 1, 8, 20 and everything above. A handful are irregular. Ordinals behave like adjectives, so they usually take a final -e before a noun — see Dutch adjectives for that rule.

Written as digits, ordinals take a lowercase e: 1e, 2e, 3e (or the older 1ste, 2de). You will see them on floors, dates and rankings: de derde verdieping (the third floor).

Numbers in real life: prices, dates, years, phone numbers

Prices. The euro amount and the cents are joined with euro in the middle, or simply spoken as two numbers. €4,50 is vier euro vijftig or vier vijftig. In shops you will often just hear the round figure. In Belgium the currency and pronunciation are identical — both countries use the euro.

Years. Years up to 1999 are usually split into two halves: 1975 is negentienvijfenzeventig (“nineteen seventy-five”). From 2000 on, the whole-number form is normal: 2026 is tweeduizend zesentwintig. Both patterns are understood.

Dates. The day comes before the month and the month is not capitalised: 6 juli 2026. See days, months and seasons for the month names and date phrases.

Phone numbers. Dutch speakers usually read phone numbers in pairs: 06-24 15 33 becomes nul zes, vierentwintig, vijftien, drieëndertig. This is exactly where the reversed tens catch learners out, because you have to flip each pair as you hear it. Practising by listening to numbers spoken aloud pays off faster than any table.