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Spanish Numbers from 0-100

Let's start with the basics. I'll show you the first 100 numbers in Spanish, then
I'll break things down and explain some tricks for remembering them.

31 41 51 61 71 81 91
1 11 21
treinta y cuarenta y cincuenta y sesenta y setenta y ochenta y noventa y
uno once veintiuno
uno uno uno uno uno uno uno

32 42 52 62 72 82 92
2 12 22
treinta y cuarenta y cincuenta y sesenta y setenta y ochenta y noventa y
dos doce veintidós
dos dos dos dos dos dos dos

33 43 53 63 73 83 93
3 13 23
treinta y cuarenta y cincuenta y sesenta y setenta y ochenta y noventa y
tres trece veintitrés
tres tres tres tres tres tres tres

34 44 54 64 74 84 94
4 14 24
treinta y cuarenta y cincuenta y sesenta y setenta y ochenta y noventa y
cuatro catorce veinticuatro
cuatro cuatro cuatro cuatro cuatro cuatro cuatro

35 45 55 65 75 85 95
5 15 25
treinta y cuarenta y cincuenta y sesenta y setenta y ochenta y noventa y
cinco quince veinticinco
cinco cinco cinco cinco cinco cinco cinco

36 46 56 66 76 86 96
6 16 26
treinta y cuarenta y cincuenta y sesenta y setenta y ochenta y noventa y
seis dieciseis veintiseis
seis seis seis seis seis seis seis

37 47 57 67 77 87 97
7 17 27
treinta y cuarenta y cincuenta y sesenta y setenta y ochenta y noventa y
siete diecisiete veintisiete
siete siete siete siete siete siete siete

38 48 58 68 78 88 98
8 18 28
treinta y cuarenta y cincuenta y sesenta y setenta y ochenta y noventa y
ocho dieciocho veintiocho
ocho ocho ocho ocho ocho ocho ocho

39 49 59 69 79 89 99
9 19 29
treinta y cuarenta y cincuenta y sesenta y setenta y ochenta y noventa y
nueve diecinueve veintinueve
nueve nueve nueve nueve nueve nueve nueve

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
diez veinte treinta cuarenta cincuenta sesenta setenta ochenta noventa cien

A lot to take in? Take another look and try to spot the patterns. I recommend
you follow these steps to get all the numbers into your head:

1. Learn the numbers for 1-15. There's no real pattern, you just have to learn
them: uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez, once,
doce, trece, catorce, quince.
2. Learn the numbers for the multiples of ten: veinte, treinta, cuarenta,
cincuenta, sesenta, setenta, ochenta, noventa. A few tips to help you
remember:
o Other than veinte, they all end in -enta
o Other than veinte (again), they all have a clear relationship with the
related smaller number: cuatro <-> cuarenta, ocho <-> ochenta, etc.
Once you've memorized the above, you can fill in the gaps with a simple
formula:

 For numbers from 16-19, take the rightmost digit and say “diez + y + (digit)”.
E.g. 17 = “diez + y + siete” = “diez y siete”, which contracts to diecisiete. This
is much like how in English 16 is “six-ten” i.e. “sixteen”.
 For numbers above twenty, simply take the “tens” number (veinte, treinta,
etc.) and the “ones” number (uno, dos, tres, etc.) and stick “y” (“and”) in the
middle. E.g. 31 = “thirty and one” = treinta y uno. 98 = “ninety and eight”
= noventa y ocho.
 The only extra thing to be aware of is that numbers from 21-29 get contracted
into a single word – so instead of “veinte y cuatro”, it's “veinticuatro”.
Finally, don’t forget that:

 zero = cero (this one should be easy to remember!)


 100 = cien (note the link with English words like “century”, “centipede”, or
“percent“.)
With these simple steps, you’ll have the numbers 1-100 memorized in no time.

Spanish for “One”: Un, Uno, or Una?


Spanish doesn't distinguish between “one” and “a” in the same way that
English does. “Un libro” can mean “a book” or “one book”.

When you think about it, those two phrases mean the same thing; the only
difference is in emphasis.

However, it's important to note that the word uno changes to match the
gender of the noun it describes. Before a feminine noun, it becomes una.
Before a masculine noun, you drop the o and just use un.

Some examples:
 Un libro – a book/one book. Drop the “o” from “uno” because it's followed by a
masculine noun.
 Una mesa – a table/one table. Change “uno” to “una” because it's followed by
a feminine noun.
 Tengo uno – “I have one”. “Uno” is unchanged because it's not followed by a
noun.
 “¿Hay preguntas?” “Solo una.” – “Any questions?” “Only one”. In this case you
use unabecause you're referring to a pregunta (question), which is a feminine
word.
Spanish for 100: Cien or Ciento?
The number 100 can be translated into Spanish as either cien or ciento.
What's the difference?

Use “cien” when you have exactly one hundred of something:

 Cien personas = one hundred people


 Cien libros = one hundred books
Use “ciento” as part of a larger number, e.g. “one hundred and one” is ciento
uno.

But how do you form those larger numbers anyway?

Spanish Numbers from 100 to 999


Larger Spanish numbers can be formed according to some simple rules:

For numbers from 100 to 199, use ciento:

 101 = ciento uno


 129 = ciento veintinueve
 195 = ciento noventa y cinco.
(Note that you don't need to add y after ciento – it's ciento uno, not ciento y
uno.

For numbers from 200 to 999, you must first learn the multiples of 100. Don’t
worry, they’re really straightforward:

 200 = doscientos
 300 = trescientos
 400 = cuatrocientos
 500 = quinientos
 600 = seiscientos
 700 = setecientos
 800 = ochocientos
 900 = novecientos
These are simple enough – just note that 500 (quinientos), 700 (setecientos)
and 900 (novecientos) are slightly irregular.

These eight numbers have masculine and feminine forms, and so must agree
with the noun:

 setecientas personas = seven hundred people


 ochocientos libros = eight hundred books
To fill in the gaps, e.g. between 200 and 300, just follow the same patterns as
for 100 (ciento):

 201 = doscientos uno


 202 = doscientos dos
 220 = doscientos veinte
 221 = doscientos veintiuno
 225 = doscientos veinticinco
 238 = doscientos treinta y ocho
Spanish Numbers from 1 Thousand to 1
Million
The only two new words you need to learn are mil (1,000) and un
millón (1,000,000).

Note that 1,000 is mil, not un mil – whereas for un millón, you can't leave out
the un.

The only time you'll see un mil is in numbers like cuarenta y un mil (41,000).
You obviously need to put an un in this number to distinguish it from cuaranta
mil (40,000). When you're just talking about 1,000 with nothing the “ten-
thousands” column, write mil, with no un.

Forming new numbers with mil and un millón is fairly straightforward, and is
best illustrated by example:
 1,000 = mil
 1,001 = mil uno (not “mil y uno”!)
 1,500 = mil quinientos
 1,686 = mil seiscientos ochenta y seis
 2,001 = dos mil
 20,000 = veinte mil
 33,000 = treinta y tres mil
 100,000 = cien mil
 483,382 = cuatrocientos ochenta y tres mil trescientos ochenta y dos
 1,000,000 = un millón
 3,000,000 = tres millones
 6,492,000 = seis millones cuatrocientos noventa y dos mil
 8,841,932 = ocho millones ochocientos cuarenta y un mil novecientos treinta y
dos (Yikes! What a mouthful.)
Finally, note that when you're using un millón or millones with a noun, you
must use de. So, for example, “one million books” is un millón de libros.
Literally, you're saying “one million of books*”.

Breaking Up Spanish Numbers: Dots or


Commas?
In English, it's conventional to break up big numbers with a comma every
three digits to aid readability. So instead of writing “1048710123901”, we write
“1,048,710,123,901”.

We also indicate the decimal point with a dot, so “one half” can be written as
“0.5”.

Be careful! In Spanish-speaking countries – as in many other parts of the


world – these conventions are reversed. They use a comma for decimals, and
break up large numbers with dots – or alternatively, they put a space between
every three digits. So my two examples above would be written as
“1.048.710.123.901” (or “1 048 710 123 901”) and “0,5”.

(For the sake of consistency, I'm going to stick with the English-like
conventions for the rest of this article. But make sure to do things the other
way around when writing Spanish.)
Billions and Trillions in Spanish (They’re Not
What You Think)
What do you think the Spanish words billón and trillón mean? Did you guess
“billion” and “trillion”? Sadly, things aren't that simple.

In the English-speaking world, a “billion” is one thousand millions


(1,000,000,000) and a “trillion” is one thousand billions (1,000,000,000,000.)
In other words, every “step up” involves multiplying by 1,000.

Not everyone does it like this! Our way is called the “short scale” numbering
system, but many countries around the world – including most Spanish-
speaking countries – use the “long scale” system.

In this system, a “billion” (or its cognate) is one million millions, and a “trillion”
is one million billions. Rather than multiplying by a thousand each time, you
multiply by a million.

So Spanish words like billón don't “match up” with their English counterparts
like you might expect:

 un millón = one million = 1,000,000


 un millardo (or “mil millones”) = one billion = 1,000,000,000
 un billón = one trillion = 1,000,000,000,000
 mil billones = one quadrillion = 1,000,000,000,000,000
 un trillón = one quintillion = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000
(Note: in the past, American English used the short-scale system while British
English used the long-scale system. This is no longer true – all dialects of
English now use the short-scale system.)

How to Say “…and a Half” in Spanish


In English, we often abbreviate the names of numbers by saying “… and a
half”, “… and a third”, etc..

So instead of saying “two thousand five hundred”, an English speaker might


say “two and a half thousand”. Instead of “one million five hundred thousand”,
they might say “one and a half million”.
I often notice Spanish people getting this wrong when they speak English.
They put the “and a half” in the wrong place – instead of saying (for example)
“one and a half million”, they say “one million and a half”. That's because
they're translating directly from how they'd say in Spanish – un millón y medio.

Try not to make the opposite mistake when you speak Spanish. Say un millón
y medio, not un y medio millón.

Ordinal Numbers in Spanish


So far I’ve only talked about cardinal numbers – one, two, three, etc. It’s also
important to learn the ordinal numbers – first, second, third, fourth, etc. Here
are the first ten:

English Español

first primero

second segundo

third tercero

fourth cuarto

fifth quinto

sixth sexto

seventh séptimo

eighth octavo

ninth noveno

tenth décimo

Ordinal numbers are adjectives that must agree with the noun – although,
unlike most Spanish adjectives, they go before the noun, not after:

 el segundo libro = the second book


 la segunda persona = the second person
 los primeros carros = the first cars
 las primeras flores = the first flowers
Note that primero and tercero drop the “o” before a singular masculine noun:
 el primer día = the first day
 el tercer hijo = the third son
To form ordinal numbers above 10, you must first learn the numbers for the
multiples of ten:

English Español

twentieth vigésimo

thirtieth trigésimo

fortieth cuadragésimo

fiftieth quincuagésimo

sixtieth sexagésimo

seventieth septuagésimo

eightieth octogésimo

ninetieth nonagésimo

Then fill in the gaps by combining numbers from the above two tables:

 22nd = vigésimo segundo


 56th = quincuagésimo sexto
 81st = octogésimo primero
Just remember that both parts of the number must agree with the noun: “the
22nd person” would be la vigésima segunda persona.

For numbers from “11th” to “19th”, it’s more common to write them as one
word than two:

 11th = decimoprimero or décimo primero


 14th = decimocuarto or décimo cuarto
 18th = decimoctavo or décimo octavo (Notice how the “o” at the end
of decimo merges with the “o” at the beginning of octavo here, so you don’t
write two “o”s)
Finally, note that “11th” and “12th” can alternatively be translated
as undécimo and duodécimo.

If this is a lot to take in, don’t worry! Ordinal numbers higher


than décimo aren’t actually used very often. They tend to be reserved for
formal writing. In everyday speech you’re much more likely to hear the
cardinal number:

 “The eleventh day” = El undécimo día or el día once


 “The 56th person” = la quincuagésima sexta persona or la persona cincuenta
y seis

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