Modern German Grammar: A Practical Guide, Second Edition

These are written with a small letter and are undeclined when used as a standard

numeral (like zwanzig, dreißig, etc.):

nach hundert Kilometern

after a hundred kilometres

nach zweihundert Kilometern

after two hundred kilometres

nach vielen hundert Kilometern

after many hundred kilometres

They are written with a capital letter, and are plural nouns, when used as nouns of

quantity in contexts such as:

mit Tausenden von Mitgliedern

with thousands of members

mit Zehntausenden von Mitgliedern

with tens of thousands of members

mit mehreren Tausenden von Mitgliedern

with several thousands of members

59.2 Splitting up words

When dividing up a word at the end of a line, the hyphen is generally placed before the

consonant which begins the next syllable:

in-teressant

Va-ter

However, single vowels at the beginning or end of a word, and the component parts of

complex words are never separated off in this way:

atonal

atonal

Ruhe

peace and quiet

 See^1 (p. 3) and^3 (p. 4).

The component parts of complex words, e.g. words with a prefix or compound words,

remain intact when the word is split:

ver-einigt

unified

aus-atmen

breathe out

Double consonants are generally split down the middle:

Mit-te

middle

Mil-lion

Million

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Spelling and punctuation