How to Count to 100 in Swiss German

Counting - S. Hofschlaeger / pixelio.de

Counting to 100 in Swiss German

After learning the most common greetings in a language (e.g. hello, goodbye, how are you?), knowing how to count to 10 is one of the most popular things for language learners. Instead of just giving you the bare minimum 10 numbers in Swiss German, I'd like to teach you how to count to 100 in Swiss German.

Counting From 1 to 12

Swiss German numbers are pretty similar to German and English numbers, especially the ones from one to ten.

eis (one)
zwei (two)
drü (three)
vi-er (for)
foif (five)
sächs (six)
sibe (seven)
acht (eight)
nün (nine)
zäh (ten)
elf (eleven)
zwölf (twelve)

Counting From 13 to 100

Starting from 13, the numbers in Swiss German are simply a combination of a single number (1-9) and an ending (twenty, thirty, etc.) and some n's and e's to combine the two. 33 in Swiss German would be drü-e-drissg ("three-a-thirty") and 75 would be foif-e-sibezg ("five-a-seventy").

These decimal numbers (like 10, 20, 30, etc.) are also used as the endings for combined numbers:

zäh (10)
zwänzg (20)
drissg (30)
vierzg (40)
füfzg (50)
sächzg (60)
siebezg (70)
achzg (80)
nünzg (90)
hundert (100)

These are the in-betweens used with each single number. Note that except for the number one that changes from "eis" to "ei", all single numbers remain as they are!

ei-ne (one)
zwei-e (two)
drü-e (three)
vier-e (four)
foif-e (five)
sächs-e (six)
sibe-ne (seven)
acht-e (eight)
nün-e (nine)

Let's practice! How would you say 46, 59, 82 and 21 in Swiss German?

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