Daily Ancestor-ten
In a German date, -ten or -sten after a number makes it an ordinal, so den 3ten März means "the third of March."
German forms ordinals from 1 to 19 with -te (dritte, third) and from 20 up with -ste (zwanzigste). After den, as in dates, the ending becomes -ten or -sten, and writers often put it right after the numeral: den 1sten, den 3ten, den 20sten.
Written-out dates follow the same pattern, as in den dritten März achtzehnhundert zwei und vierzig, March 3, 1842. Modern German writes the ordinal as a number with a period: den 3. März.
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Daily Ancestor. "-ten." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/german/ordinal-ten. Last checked 2026-10-28.