How to read and speak dates, decimals, monetary information,
and official time
Dates:
Divided by periods (US) / full stops (UK), dates are given in
the order of day/month/year and read as ordinal numbers with
the appropriate adjective endings. Note: It is standard practice in
American English to write the date in m/d/order, while in British
English and most other languages, when expressed in numerals the
date is written in d/m/y order.
Examples:
Heute ist der 1. 5. 2002. [Heute ist der erste fünfte
(/erste Mai/) zweitausednzwei]. (Today is May first,
2001.)
Sie ist am 12. 4. 1971 geboren [Sie ist am zwölften
vierten (/zwölften April/) neunzehnhunderteinundsiebzig
geboren].(She was born on April 12, 1971.)
Letters usually bear the date and location in the upper right
corner:
München, den 18 .2. 2013 [München,
den achzehnten zweiten zweitausenddreizehn]. (Munich, on
February 18, 2013)
Decimals
Unlike in Englsih, where decimals are indicated by a point
(.), in German, decimals are indicated by a comma (,).
Examples:
Diese Milch hat 2,1 [Zwei Komma Eins] Prozent
Fettgehalt. (This milk has a fat content of 2.1
percent.)
Minnesota hat eine Arbeitslosenquote von 0,3 [Null
Komma Drei] Prozent. (Minnesota has an unemployment rate of
0.3 percent.)
Monetary information and official time-telling
18,30 DM is read as Achzehn Mark dreißig or
Achzehn Mark und dreißig Pfennig.
57,28 S is read as Siebenundfünfzig Schilling
achtundzwanzig or Siebenundfünfzig Schilling und
achtundzwanzig Groschen.
17, 08 FR is read as Siebzehn Franken und acht
Rappen.
45,20 € is read as Fünfundvierzig Euro
zwanzig.
Similarly, 19.25 Uhr is read as Neunzehn Uhr
fünfundzwanzig.
Notes
DM is read either as D-Mark or Mark,
never as Deutschmark.
While decimal numbers and monetary values are divided by a
comma, expressions of official time are divided by a point.
It is quite common in spoken German to use the 24 hour time
system. If 12 hour values are occasionally expressed for am/pm,
3pm becomes "Fünf Uhr nachmittags" (Five o'clock in
the afternoon.) and 11pm becomes "Elf Uhr abends"
(Eleven o'clock in the evening).