How to say the numbers and count in Dutch

Introduction

Learning to count in Dutch is not easy as there are some irregularities and you sometimes have to say numbers in reverse order compared to English but with some practice it won't take long before you get the hang of it.

Counting to 10

Knowing the numbers up to 10 is the foundation for all the bigger numbers so it is important that you familiarize yourself with them.

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

You can do some listening practice with just the numbers 0 to 10 to make sure that you really got it down.

Beyond 10

11 to 19

The numbers 11 to 19 are basically the numbers 1-9 but with "tien" at the end. Elf and twaalf you'll have to memorize though.

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

20 to 29

Up until now the numbers appear quite similar to English. Twenty is said as twintig . Twenty-one however would be eenentwintig or literally: one-and-twenty. As you can see this is the opposite of English which can be a bit confusing initially. Here is a list of the numbers 20 to 29

• 20: twintig
• 21: eenentwintig
• 22: tweeëntwintig
• 23: drieëntwintig
• 24: vierentwintig
• 25: vijfentwintig
• 26: zesentwintig
• 27: zevenentwintig
• 28: achtentwintig
• 29: negenentwintig

Up to 100

The rest of the numbers up to 100 follow the same pattern. You just need to learn the multiples of ten:

• 30: dertig
• 40: veertig
• 50: vijftig
• 60: zestig
• 70: zeventig
• 80: tachtig
• 90: negentig

You'll notice that these mostly consist of the number and -tig. Just note that we use veertig and tachtig for 40 and 80, not viertig and achtig.

Now you have all the skills required to create any number up to 100. For example:

• 34: vierendertig
• 42: tweeënveertig
• 58: achtenvijftig
• 64: vierenzestig
• 73: drieënzeventig
• 82: tweeëntachtig
• 99: negenennegentig

Now that you have learnt these numbers you may want to do another round of practice to make sure you really got it down and try to get used to the inversion.

Counting past 100

100 to 200

To say the numbers 100 to 200 simply add 'honderd ' in front of the number. For example:

• 100: honderd
• 110: honderdtien
• 120: honderdtwintig
• 138: honderdachtendertig

Note that in Dutch we just say "honderd" and there is no need to say "één honderd" (one hundred). For the other multiples of a hundred you do need to say the number in front. For example

• 200: tweehonderd
• 300: driehonderd

This can be combined to create any number like so

• 201: tweehonderdéén
• 202: tweehonderdtwee
• 754: zevenhonderdvierenvijftig

A thousand and bigger

The number "one thousand" is simply duizend in Dutch. After that you can keep counting

• 1 000: duizend

• 2 000: tweeduizend

• 2 238: tweeduizendtweehonderdachtendertig

• 3 000: drieduizend

• 9 000: negenduizend

• 10 000: tienduizend

• 100 000: honderdduizend

• 1 000 000: een miljoen

• 10 000 000: tien miljoen

• 100 000 000: honderd miljoen

Reference table

Below is a table with all the numbers in Dutch that you can use as a reference. Every number also has audio attached which you can listen to by pressing the button.