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As in English, German uses words like first, second, third... to indicate the day of the month.

To say from... to... you use vom... bis zum... plus the dates.
To say on, you use am.

To express the date up to the 19th, you simply add -ten to the original number.
From 20th onwards, the ending is -sten.

Vom vierten bis zum achten August From 4th to 8th August
Vom zwanzigsten bis zum einunddreißigsten From 20th to 31st

Some numbers change when taking the ending:

ersten 1st
dritten 3rd
siebten 7th
achten 8th

Dates are abbreviated using a full stop.

Von 4. bis zum 8. August From 4th to 8th August
Von 20. bis zum 31.. From 20th to 31st

When stating the date on its own, the endings are -ter, -ster, eg fünfter, dreißigster.


See also...
Numbers 1-10
Months
Describing objects



Now click on 'start the activity' and drag the words into the bar below to build words and phrases to say a date. Please note that in some phrases you need to drag and drop parts of a word to build a number, eg. 'ein + und + zwanzigster'.




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