Ages and Numbers to 100

What you will learn

You can read and write the numbers from 21 to 100, say how old someone is and ask how old someone is.

The tens

You already know tjugo. The tens from trettio to nittio all end in tio, the word for ten. Look at the spelling. Fyrtio is written with y. Trettio, sjuttio, åttio and nittio have a double t before io.

100 is hundra. Etthundra, one hundred, is also correct.

Numbers between the tens

Say the ten first and then the unit, and write them together as one word.

English writes forty-five with a hyphen. Swedish writes fyrtiofem as one word, with no space and no hyphen.

When counting, use tjugoett, trettioett and so on. Before an en-word you can use tjugoen, as in tjugoen kronor. Ages use år, an ett-word, so twenty-one years is tjugoett år.

How the numbers sound

In everyday speech the tens often lose their last sound, so trettio can sound like tretti. Fyrtio is usually said like förti. Always write the full word. Audio for this course is planned.

Ages

Swedish uses är for an age, as English uses is. The number comes with år, which means year. År keeps the same form after a number, so nio år and trettio år. You can leave out år when it is clear, as in Hen är femtiotre.

Hur gammal är means how old is. Use it about one person, with du, han, hon, hen or a name. Gammal changes its form in other sentences, and that comes in a later chapter.

Rooms and badges

Prices and phone numbers come in a later chapter.

Common mistakes