Knowing the numbers is one thing; knowing how Danes use them in real life is another. Saying your age, giving your phone number, finding the right floor, catching the right bus — each has its own little convention, and several of them differ sharply from English habits. This page is about the everyday number situations where a learner who knows en, to, tre perfectly can still end up on the wrong floor.
Age: the number, with år optional
To state age, Danish uses være "to be" plus the number — exactly like English uses to be, not to have as French and Spanish do. The word år "years" is usually added, but in casual speech it is very often dropped.
Jeg er tredive år.
I'm thirty years old.
Hvor gammel er du? — Jeg er femogtyve.
How old are you? — I'm twenty-five.
Note two things. First, gammel "old" is the neutral word for age — hvor gammel er du? literally "how old are you?" is the standard, polite question, with none of the awkwardness English attaches to it. Second, when you drop år, the number stands alone: jeg er femogtyve "I'm twenty-five". You can also add år gammel for emphasis: hun er hundrede år gammel "she's a hundred years old".
Phone numbers: read in pairs
This is the big one. Danish phone numbers are eight digits, and they are read aloud in pairs, not digit by digit. The number 42 65 18 09 is spoken as four two-digit numbers: toogfyrre, femogtres, atten, nul ni — "forty-two, sixty-five, eighteen, zero nine".
Mit nummer er toogfyrre, femogtres, atten, nul ni.
My number is 42 65 18 09.
Du kan ringe på treogtredive, tolv, nioghalvfjerds, seksoghalvtreds.
You can call 33 12 79 56.
So the eight digits 33 12 79 56 become four spoken numbers: treogtredive (33), tolv (12), nioghalvfjerds (79), seksoghalvtreds (56). A pair like 09 with a leading zero is read nul ni "zero nine" — the zero is pronounced. This pairing is so ingrained that reading a Danish number digit by digit sounds as strange to a Dane as reading "five five five..." would in any language.
Floors: the European off-by-one
Here is the trap that sends tourists to the wrong door. In Denmark — as across most of Europe — the floor at street level is the ground floor, called stueetagen or just stuen, and it is not counted as the first floor. The floor above it is første sal "first floor", which an American would call the second floor.
| Danish | Literally | American equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| stueetagen / stuen | "the ground floor" | 1st floor (street level) |
| første sal | "first floor" | 2nd floor |
| anden sal | "second floor" | 3rd floor |
| tredje sal | "third floor" | 4th floor |
| kælderen | "the cellar/basement" | basement |
The preposition is på "on": på første sal "on the first floor", i stuen or i stueetagen "on the ground floor" (note i "in" with the ground floor). Floors use the ordinal numbers (første, anden, tredje), not the cardinals.
Vi bor på tredje sal, og posten ligger i stuen.
We live on the third floor (American: 4th), and the mail is on the ground floor.
Lægen har klinik på første sal til venstre.
The doctor's surgery is on the first floor (American: 2nd), on the left.
Bus, room and house numbers: plain cardinals
Numbers that simply label a thing — buses, rooms, addresses, lines — are read as plain cardinal numbers, not ordinals and not in pairs. Bus 5 is bus fem "bus five"; room 12 is værelse tolv. House numbers are read as a single cardinal: Nørregade syvoghalvtreds "Nørregade 57".
Tag bus fem til Nørreport og stå af ved sidste stop.
Take bus five to Nørreport and get off at the last stop.
Jeg venter på dig foran værelse tolv.
I'll wait for you in front of room twelve.
"Number X": nummer
To say "number" plus a figure — like a ticket number, a place in a queue, or a model — Danish uses nummer (often abbreviated nr.) followed by a cardinal number.
Jeg er nummer to i køen.
I'm number two in the queue.
Hun bor i nummer otte, lige ved siden af bageren.
She lives at number eight, right next to the baker's.
Note nummer to, not "nummer anden" — after nummer you use the cardinal, even though English "the second one" feels ordinal. Nummer itself supplies the ordering sense, so the figure stays cardinal.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jeg har tredive år.
Incorrect — Danish uses *være* (to be) for age, not *have* (to have).
✅ Jeg er tredive (år).
I'm thirty (years old).
❌ [reading 42 65 18 09 as] fire to seks fem en otte nul ni
Incorrect — Danish phone numbers are read in pairs, not digit by digit.
✅ toogfyrre, femogtres, atten, nul ni
42, 65, 18, 09 — read as four two-digit numbers.
❌ [American 'first floor' = street level →] første sal
Incorrect — *første sal* is one floor ABOVE the ground; street level is *stueetagen*.
✅ Receptionen er i stueetagen, ikke på første sal.
Reception is on the ground floor, not on the first floor (one up).
❌ Tag bus femte til centrum.
Incorrect — a bus number is a label and stays a cardinal.
✅ Tag bus fem til centrum.
Take bus five to the centre.
❌ Jeg er nummer anden i køen.
Incorrect — after *nummer*, use the cardinal, not the ordinal.
✅ Jeg er nummer to i køen.
I'm number two in the queue.
Key Takeaways
- Age uses være
- number; år is optional in speech: jeg er tredive (år).
- Phone numbers are read in pairs of two digits: 42 65 18 09 = toogfyrre, femogtres, atten, nul ni.
- Street level is stueetagen/stuen; første sal is one floor up — Danish floor + 1 = American floor.
- Floors take ordinals (første, anden sal); buses, rooms and nummer X take cardinals (bus fem, nummer to).
Now practice Danish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- 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.
- Compound Numbers and HundredsA2 — Building Danish numbers 21–99 with units before tens joined by og and written as one word, plus hundrede, tusind and million, and how Danish formats thousands and decimals.
- Proper Nouns, Names and the GenitiveA2 — How Danish handles names of people, places and companies — no articles, no apostrophes in the genitive (except one neat exception).