Eleven and Twelve
Like in English, the Dutch words for eleven (elf) and twelve (twaalf) are unique.
| The man has eleven books. | De man heeft elf boeken. |
The Teens (-tien)
From thirteen to nineteen, Dutch numbers end in -tien (ten), just like the English "-teen".
You generally add -tien directly to the single-digit number. Notice the slight spelling shifts for thirteen (dertien) and fourteen (veertien).
| We buy twelve apples and thirteen cookies. | We kopen twaalf appels en dertien koekjes. |
| The boy is fourteen and the girl is fifteen. | De jongen is veertien en het meisje is vijftien. |
| I have sixteen pens and seventeen books. | Ik heb zestien pennen en zeventien boeken. |
| Eighteen teachers and nineteen students are waiting here. | Achttien docenten en negentien studenten wachten hier. |
Twenty
Twenty is twintig. This introduces the suffix -tig, the Dutch equivalent of "-ty" for multiples of ten.
| Twenty friends drink eleven bottles of water. | Twintig vrienden drinken elf flessen water. |
Numbers and Nouns
Numbers go directly before the plural noun. They never change form, whether the noun takes de or het.
| Twelve rooms are big and twenty rooms are small. | Twaalf kamers zijn groot en twintig kamers zijn klein. |
| The hotel does not have thirteen, but fourteen rooms. | Het hotel heeft niet dertien, maar veertien kamers. |
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