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'Million' and 'Milliarde': big numbers that behave like nouns

Most German numbers are simple words that never change: zwei, zwanzig, hundert, tausend. They are written in lowercase and fused into one long word, as in dreitausend. The two big ones, Million and Milliarde, work differently. They are real feminine nouns. They start with a capital letter, are written as separate words, and take a plural ending: eine Million but zwei Millionen, eine Milliarde but drei Milliarden.

English speakers find this tricky because English keeps the number word unchanged: you say two million, never two millions. So learners often write zwei Million or even zweimillion. In German, the plural -en is required, just as it is for any other feminine noun.

Word list
MillionfA1 million eine Million, zwei Millionen Menschen MilliardefB2 billion eine Milliarde, drei Milliarden Euro
How it works

Treat Million and Milliarde like ordinary nouns such as Frau or Stunde. With eine they stay singular. With any number above one they take the plural -en. The thing you are counting follows directly, with no of in between.

  • eine Million → zwei Millionen, zehn Millionen
  • eine Milliarde → drei Milliarden, achtzig Milliarden

Compare this with hundert and tausend, which stay lowercase, never add an ending, and join the number in front of them: zweihundert Menschen, fünftausend Euro. When you write out a very large number, the million part stands apart and the rest is fused as usual: zwei Millionen dreihunderttausend.

Because they are nouns, these words also take articles and case endings, for example mit einer Million Euro in the dative.

The words

Million is the one you will meet most often: in population figures, prices, and news reports. In writing it is often shortened to Mio.

Die Stadt hat zwei Millionen Einwohner.
(The city has two million inhabitants.)
Das Haus hat fast eine Million Euro gekostet.
(The house cost almost a million euros.)
Was würdest du mit einer Million machen?
(What would you do with a million?)
Das Video hat schon zehn Millionen Klicks.
(The video already has ten million views.)

Milliarde means a thousand million, so it is the word for English billion. It follows exactly the same pattern and is often shortened to Mrd. in newspapers.

Das Projekt kostet drei Milliarden Euro.
(The project costs three billion euros.)
Auf der Erde leben etwa acht Milliarden Menschen.
(About eight billion people live on Earth.)
Die Firma ist über eine Milliarde Dollar wert.
(The company is worth over a billion dollars.)
Watch out
False friend

The German word Billion is not an English billion. It means a million million, which is an English trillion. If you want to say billion in German, use Milliarde.

Vague amounts

Without a number in front, the plural works like English millions of. You can say Millionen Menschen or Millionen von Menschen. It is still a noun, so it is still capitalized.

Millionen von Menschen haben das Spiel gesehen.
(Millions of people watched the match.)
Not every counting noun works this way

Dutzend is also a noun, but after a number it stays unchanged, as in zwei Dutzend Eier, like other measure words. Only the vague plural Dutzende (dozens) has an ending. So Million and Milliarde are the ones to remember for the -en plural.

Er kaufte zwei Dutzend Eier.
(He bought two dozen eggs.)
Currency stays singular

After these words, Euro and Dollar do not change, as in drei Milliarden Euro. People and things, however, appear in their normal plural: zwei Millionen Autos.

Summary

Think of Million and Milliarde as feminine nouns, not as number words: capital letter, separate word, and -en in the plural. Say eine Million but zwei Millionen, and eine Milliarde but drei Milliarden, even though English says two million. And remember that an English billion is a German Milliarde.