German ordinal numbers tell you the position of something in a sequence — first, second, third — and in writing they appear as a digit followed by a period, such as 1., 2., 3. Spelled out they become erste, zweite, dritte and carry adjective endings that change with gender and case. This tool spells out any number as a German ordinal and shows every inflected form.
How it works
The ordinal is built in two steps. First the cardinal number word is generated (for example 24 becomes vierundzwanzig). Then an ordinal suffix is attached: -te for numbers up to 19 and -ste from 20 upward, giving vierundzwanzigste. Four stems are irregular and must be memorised: erst- (1.), dritt- (3.), siebt- (7.) and acht- (8.).
Because a German ordinal behaves like an adjective, it then takes a declension ending. After a definite article (der, die, das) it uses the weak pattern, where the ending is -e in the nominative singular and most other slots shift to -en. So you get der erste Tag, den ersten Tag, dem ersten Tag and des ersten Tages.
Example
For the input 3 with masculine nominative, the tool returns dritte (as in der dritte Platz). Switch to dative and it becomes dritten (as in dem dritten Platz). The table below the result lists all four cases for the chosen gender at once, which is handy when you are unsure which ending a sentence requires.
Tips
Remember that the suffix boundary is at 20, not at any round number — neunzehnte uses -te but zwanzigste uses -ste. Compound numbers inflect only at the end, so einhundertzwölfte changes its last syllable, never ein. When in doubt about the ending, default to the nominative -e form after der/die/das and adjust only if the sentence clearly needs accusative, dative or genitive.