Once you know the tens (tyve 20, tredive 30, and the famously odd vigesimal halvtreds 50, firs 80…), you can build every number up to 99 with one rule — and it runs backwards compared to English. Danish says the units before the tens, joins them with og ("and"), and writes the whole thing as one word: 21 is enogtyve — literally "one-and-twenty". This page covers that compound rule, the larger units hundrede, tusind and million, and the way Danish formats large numbers and decimals (which swaps the English comma and period). The base tens themselves, including the vigesimal logic, are explained on the tens and vigesimal page; here we focus on combining them.
The compound rule: units before tens, joined by og, one word
To make 21–99, take the unit (1–9), add og, then the ten — and write it solid, no spaces:
unit + og + ten = one word
So 21 = en + og + tyve = enogtyve. This "unit-first" order is the opposite of English ("twenty-one") and is shared with German (einundzwanzig) and Dutch. It feels reversed at first, but it's perfectly regular.
| Number | Built from | Written |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | en + og + tyve | enogtyve |
| 34 | fire + og + tredive | fireogtredive |
| 47 | syv + og + fyrre | syvogfyrre |
| 55 | fem + og + halvtreds | femoghalvtreds |
| 68 | otte + og + tres | otteogtres |
| 76 | seks + og + halvfjerds | seksoghalvfjerds |
| 82 | to + og + firs | toogfirs |
| 99 | ni + og + halvfems | nioghalvfems |
Min bedstefar fylder enoghalvfjerds til september.
My grandfather turns seventy-one in September.
Der var seksoghalvfjerds tilmeldte til løbet.
There were seventy-six people signed up for the race.
Bussen kører klokken toogfirs minutter over.
The bus leaves at eighty-two minutes past. (i.e. the 82-minute mark)
Hun blev nioghalvfems år gammel.
She lived to be ninety-nine years old.
Hundrede — 100, and it doesn't pluralise
Hundrede is "(one) hundred". The number "one" in front is optional: (et) hundrede = 100. Crucially, hundrede stays invariable when counting — you say to hundrede ("two hundred"), not *to hundreder, when it's a plain multiplier.
Der bor omkring to hundrede mennesker i landsbyen.
About two hundred people live in the village.
Billetten kostede et hundrede kroner.
The ticket cost one hundred kroner.
To build a number like 155, link the hundred and the rest with og: (et) hundrede *og femoghalvtreds*. The lower part keeps the unit-before-ten compound rule.
Vandfaldet er hundrede og femoghalvtreds meter højt.
The waterfall is a hundred and fifty-five metres tall.
Hotellet har tre hundrede og tolv værelser.
The hotel has three hundred and twelve rooms.
Tusind and million
Tusind (or tusinde) is "(one) thousand"; million is a million. Tusind is also typically invariable as a multiplier: to tusind ("two thousand"). Million, being a loanword noun, does take a plural -er: to millioner ("two million").
Byen har lidt over halvtreds tusind indbyggere.
The town has a little over fifty thousand inhabitants.
Lotteriets førstepræmie er på en million kroner.
The lottery's first prize is one million kroner.
Der blev solgt to millioner billetter på en uge.
Two million tickets were sold in a week.
Formatting: the comma and period are swapped
This is a small but high-stakes difference for anyone reading Danish prices, statistics, or recipes. Danish uses the period (.) as the thousands separator and the comma (,) as the decimal point — the exact reverse of English/American convention.
| Quantity | Danish | English convention |
|---|---|---|
| one thousand | 1.000 | 1,000 |
| ten thousand | 10.000 | 10,000 |
| three point five | 3,5 | 3.5 |
| nineteen ninety-five (price) | 19,95 | 19.95 |
Bilen kostede 250.000 kroner, altså en kvart million.
The car cost 250,000 kroner — a quarter of a million.
Opskriften kræver 3,5 deciliter mælk.
The recipe calls for 3.5 decilitres of milk.
Reading the spoken decimal
Decimals are read with komma: 3,5 is spoken tre komma fem ("three comma five"). The whole-number part comes before komma, the digits after are read individually or as a small number.
Temperaturen falder til minus tre komma fem i nat.
The temperature drops to minus three point five tonight.
Common Mistakes
1. English tens-before-units order.
❌ Hun er tyve-en år gammel.
Incorrect — Danish puts the unit first: one-and-twenty
✅ Hun er enogtyve år gammel.
She is twenty-one years old.
2. Writing the compound as separate words.
❌ Der var fem og halvtreds gæster.
Incorrect — a compound number is one word
✅ Der var femoghalvtreds gæster.
There were fifty-five guests.
3. Pluralising hundrede / tusind as a multiplier.
❌ Der kom to hundreder mennesker.
Incorrect — hundrede stays invariable when counting
✅ Der kom to hundrede mennesker.
Two hundred people came.
4. Reading 1.500 as a decimal.
❌ '1.500 kroner' = 'one and a half kroner'.
Incorrect — the period is the thousands separator
✅ '1.500 kroner' = 'one thousand five hundred kroner'.
1,500 kroner in English formatting.
5. Using a period for the decimal.
❌ Mælken er 3.5 procent fedt.
Incorrect — Danish decimals use a comma
✅ Mælken er 3,5 procent fedt.
The milk is 3.5 percent fat.
Key Takeaways
- 21–99: unit + og + ten, one word — enogtyve, femoghalvtreds, toogfirs. The order is reversed from English.
- hundrede and tusind stay invariable as multipliers; link them to the rest with og (hundrede og femoghalvtreds).
- million does pluralise: to millioner.
- Danish swaps the separators: period = thousands (1.000), comma = decimal (3,5). Read decimals with komma.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- The Tens and the Vigesimal System (50-90)A2 — Danish counts its tens from 50 to 90 on base twenty: halvtreds (2½×20), tres (3×20), halvfjerds, firs, halvfems. Decode the halv- prefix and the full historical -sindstyve forms — and why there's no femti.
- Cardinal Numbers 0-20A1 — The Danish numbers from zero to twenty, including the two forms of 'one' and the spelling traps in seksten and otte.
- Danish Numbers: An OverviewA1 — A map of the Danish number system — and an early warning that the tens from 50 to 90 are built on base twenty, not base ten.
- Dates, Time and MoneyA2 — Telling the time in Danish (including the half-hour trap where halv ti means 9:30), reading dates with ordinals, saying years, and handling kroner and øre.
- Pronouncing Numbers and LoanwordsB1 — The big tens (50–90) and many loanwords are pronounced nothing like they are spelled — here are the actual clipped spoken forms, with stress and reduced vowels.