Spanish Numbers

How to Say Numbers in Spanish

In the last lesson you learned about some ways Spanish uses the verb “to be.” We’ll learn more about that in Chapter 2.4. Now, it’s time to learn Spanish numbers.

Starting out: 0 to 35

0 – cero	12 – doce	24 – veinticuatro
1 – uno	13 – trece	25 – veinticinco
2 – dos	14 – catorce	26 – veintiséis
3 – tres	15 – quince	27 – veintisiete
4 – cuatro	16 – dieciséis	28 – veintiocho
5 – cinco	17 – diecisiete	29 – veintinueve
6 – seis	18 – dieciocho	30 – treinta
7 – siete	19 – diecinueve	31 – treinta y uno
8 – ocho	20 – veinte	32 – treinta y dos
9 – nueve	21 – veintiuno	33 – treinta y tres
10 – diez	22 – veintidós	34 – treinta y cuatro
11 – once	23 – veintitrés	35 – treinta y cinco

Por ejemplo:

Masculine and Feminine Numbers

You don’t have to worry about gender with numbers 90% of the time. However, if you are talking about one thing, or are using a number that ends in 1, you need to change the ending to reflect the gender of the noun that the number is describing.

If a number ends in 1, change the ending according to whether or not the number is referring to a masculine or feminine noun. (The ending will only change according to gender, not by whether the noun is singular or plural.)

• “un” for masculine, e.g. un perro, un año, un lápiz
• “una” for feminine, e.g. una vaca, una flor, una chica

Por ejemplo:

1. Eduardo tiene treinta y un años de edad.
- (Edward is thirty-one years old.)
2. Necesito veintiuna invitaciones más.
- (I need twenty-one more invitations.)

However … if you want to talk about the number 1 (or 21 or 31) on its own (i.e., as a numerical term rather than a quantity), you will not have to worry about gender. You will simply use “uno.” For example, if you want to say that 20 + 1 = 21, you will say:

Veinte más uno son veintiuno.

Numbers from 36 to 102

36 – treinta y seis	60 – sesenta
37 – treinta y siete	70 – setenta
38 – treinta y ocho	80 – ochenta
39 – treinta y nueve	90 – noventa
40 – cuarenta	100 – cien
41 – cuarenta y uno	101 – ciento uno
50 – cincuenta	102 – ciento dos

Once you master the basic pattern, you can construct any number. For example, how would you say 135? Simply remember: 135 = 100 + 30 + “and” + 5.

Ciento + treinta + y + cinco = ciento treinta y cinco

Although the number 100 is cien, any number between 101 and 199 starts with ciento.

199 = ciento + noventa + y + nueve = ciento noventa y nueve

Asking How Much or How Many

In Spanish, the question “How many?” is asked with one simple word:

¿Cuántos?

If you are asking how many oranges (las naranjas) there are, however, you must ask, “¿Cuántas?” as oranges are feminine.

If you want to know how much something costs (el costo), ask: “¿Cuánto cuesta?” Can you guess why you use cuánto instead of cuántos Here’s a hint: is “el costo” singular or plural?

A response to “How many?” will often begin “There are….” For example,

How many (orange are there)? - ¿Cuántas (naranjas hay)?
There are 10 oranges. - Hay diez naranjas.

Fortunately, in Spanish there is no difference between “there is” and “there are.” You can say both of them with a single word:

hay

You can also use “hay” to ask the questions: “Is there?” or “Are there?”

Por ejemplo:

You may also be interested to know that the words unos and unas can also mean “some.” For example:

• Tengo unas flores. - (I have some flowers.)

• Quiero unos pantalones. -(I want some pants.)

Numbers from 101

Be careful … some of these numbers can be tricky.

101 ciento uno	1100 mil cien
102 ciento dos	2000 dos mil
110 ciento diez	3000 tres mil
150 ciento cincuenta	5000 cinco mil
200 dos cientos	100,000 cien mil
500 quinientos	500,000 quinientos mil
700 setecientos	1,000,000 un millón (de)
900 novecientos	2,000,000 dos millones (de)
1000 mil	100,000,000 cien millones (de)

Unlike English, you do not say “one thousand” for the number 1000 in Spanish (un mil is incorrect), but simply use the word “mil.”

Also note that when you get to the thousands, the word for “thousand” in Spanish, mil, does not have a separate plural form. Two thousand is dos mil, NOT ‘dos miles.’

The only time mil is used in its plural form (miles) is when you talk about “thousands” of something in general, using it in the sense of “many” rather than any particular number. For example,

Hay miles de peces en el mar.
- (There are thousands of fish in the sea.)

Tengo un millón doscientos mil quinientos pesos en el banco.
- (I have 1,200,500 pesos in the bank.)

Hay cincuenta mil automóviles en la carretera.
- (There are 50,000 automobiles on the highway.)

En Chile hay más o menos trece millones de habitantes.
- (In Chile, there are more or less 13,000,000 inhabitants.)

Don’t Forget the Gender

Not only will you continue to change the gender of numbers ending in 1 when used as a quantity, you will also change the gender of numbers ending in –tos (i.e., the hundreds) to reflect the noun they describe.

Por ejemplo:

1. El rancho tiene cuatrocientas vacas.
- (The ranch has four hundred cows.)

2. Hay dos cientas niñas en la escuela.
- (There are two hundred girls in the school.)

3. Manejamos seiscientos clientes en mi compañía.
- (We manage six hundred clients in my company.)

Reverse Puncuation: How to Write Big Numbers

If you are in Spain and about to write down a number for some Spanish friends, you need to be careful with your punctuation! Periods and commas are reversed in Spanish numbers. For example, if you want to tell them that something costs $12,870.65, you need to write it down as $12.870,65.

Although some parts of the Spanish-speaking world do follow the American convention, it helps to know that €99,95 is not a typo in Spain, so don’t go looking for a missing final digit!

In the next section we’ll work on How to Tell the Time in Spanish

This is just the tip of the iceberg! There's so much more in the Rocket Spanish Premium Edition. If you are really serious about learning to speak Spanish, then you should check out this page right now...

Visit: www.rocketlanguages.com/spanish/premium

About The Editor:
Amy Waterman became fluent in Spanish while living and working in the Andes Mountain region of Ecuador. Her extensive experience in Spanish learning systems led her to formulate the concept behind the Interactive Audio component of Rocket Spanish.

About The Author:
Mauricio Evlampieff, originally from Chile, is a native Spanish speaker who is passionate about his country’s culture, language and heritage. He is also author of the popular RocketSpanish.com. He is best known for his enthusiasm and insights into the language of his homeland, and has shared this love of the Spanish language and culture with students the world over.

His Rocket Spanish Premium Edition product contains a complete interactive audio course designed to get you speaking conversational Spanish in the quickest time possible. You’ll receive four e-books crammed with grammar lessons, useful words and phrases, vocabulary, exercises, and more! It doesn’t end there. You’ll also receive the Rocket Spanish MegaVocab and MegaAudio software games, which you can modify to suit the vocabulary that YOU need to learn. Together, this dynamic and comprehensive Rocket Spanish package will completely transform how you think about learning another language. Learn more at: http://www.rocketspanish.com/premium.

Rocket Languages Ltd. & Libros Media Ltd. - Copyright 2004-2009
USA: 8721 Santa Monica Bvld #1229 Los Angeles CA 90069-4057 USA | Phone: +1-323-297-2935
Asia/Pacific: P.O. Box 2873 Level 2-107 Cashel Street Christchurch 8011 New Zealand | Phone: +64-3-377-8305