zwei

Etymology
From, from (neuter of ).

Cognate with 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬.

Number

 * 1) two

Etymology
From, from (neuter of ).

Numeral

 * 1)  two

Etymology
From, from (neuter of ).

Compare 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬,. In Old High German, and still today in some dialects, distinct forms are used for the three grammatical genders. Zwei was originally the neuter form, now used for all genders. The Old High German masculine is found back in early modern ; the feminine  lives on in the variant  (but now without any gender distinction).

Numeral

 * 1)  two numerical value represented by the Arabic numeral 2; or describing a set with two components

Declension

 * In adjectival use (that is, with a following noun):
 * Nominative and accusative are always uninflected.
 * The genitive case takes the form  if no article or pronoun is preceding: Vater zweier Kinder – “a father of two children”; but: der Vater der zwei Kinder – “the father of the two children”. The form zweier is somewhat elevated; even in formal writing it is sometimes more natural to avoid it (Vater von zwei Kindern).
 * In substantival use (that is, without a following noun):
 * Nominative and accusative are uninflected in the contemporary standard language. The form still exists in colloquial German, chiefly in eastern Germany.
 * The genitive is often expressed using , for example . The equivalent form is.
 * The dative case may take the form : Ich sprach mit zweien. – “I spoke with two (people).” This rule is usually observed in formal standard German; but when a specification in the genitive case (or with ) is following, the bare form is more common: Ich sprach mit zwei der Zeugen. – “I spoke with two of the witnesses.” In colloquial German, zweien is never obligatory.

Derived terms

 * (Gleichrichter)
 * (Gleichrichter)