Numbers in Spanish - Spanish411 http://www.spanish411.net/Spanish-Numbers.

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Numbers in Spanish
Let's start with the good news: there is (almost) no difference between the way that we write numbers in
Spanish and the way we write them in English. The bad news is that when we use numbers in
conversation, they definitely aren't pronounced the same way. But whether you've picked it up from
"Sesame Street" or "Dora the Explorer" you probably already know at least a handful of Spanish numbers.
Keep reading to learn more.

"El 60 por ciento de las veces

funciona siempre."
Numbers in Spanish
Bonus: see Long and short
scales
The shorter, combined word is
Cardinal Numbers
preferred nowadays.
Ordinal Numbers
Fractions
Multiples
Percentages

Cardinal Numbers
A "cardinal number" is just a fancy term for a numbers we use in counting things (or indicating times,
dates, or ages). Let's take a trip through the Spanish cardinal numbers from cero (0) to un trilión
(1,000,000,000,000,000,000) noticing some interesting quirks along the way.

The first 10 numbers (as well as zero) all have unique names:
Fun Fact: Cinco is the only
cero zero 0 Spanish number with the
same number of letters as
uno one 1 the number it represents.
dos two 2

tres three 3

cuatro four 4

cinco five 5

seis six 6

siete seven 7

ocho eight 8

nueve nine 9

diez ten 10

The next five also have unique names:

once eleven 11

doce twelve 12

trece thirteen 13

catorce fourteen 14

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quince fifteen 15

After that the numbers come in combinations. You are literally saying "ten and six," "ten and seven," "ten
and eight," etc.:

dieciséis / diez y seis sixteen 16

diecisiete / diez y siete seventeen 17

dieciocho / diez y ocho eighteen 18

diecinueve / diez y nueve nineteen 19

Veinte means "twenty" and from that point on the pattern is very similar to sixteen through nineteen; you
are literally saying "twenty and one," "twenty and two," etc.:

veinte twenty 20

veintiuno / veinte y uno twenty-one 21

veintidós / veinte y dos twenty-two 22

veintitrés / veinte y tres twenty-three 23

veinticuatro / veinte y cuatro twenty-four 24

veinticinco / veinte y cinco twenty-five 25

veintiséis / veinte y seis twenty-six 26

veintisiete / veinte y siete twenty-seven 27

veintiocho / veinte y ocho twenty-eight 28

veintinueve / veinte y nueve twenty-nine 29

After veinte comes treinta and the same pattern is followed:

treinta thirty 30

treinta y uno thirty-one 31

treinta y dos thirty-two 32

treinta y tres thirty-three 33

etc. etc.

All of the numbers in the forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties work the same way as in
the thirties:

cuarenta forty 40

cincuenta fifty 50

cincuenta y uno fifty-one 51

sesenta sixty 60

setenta seventy 70

ochenta eighty 80

ochenta y cinco eighty-five 85

noventa ninety 90

Technically ciento means "one hundred" in Spanish, but its shortened form, cien, is preferred when there
are exactly 100 of something:

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cien one hundred 100

ciento uno one hundred one 101

ciento dos one hundred two 102

ciento tres one hundred three 103

etc. etc.

You may have noticed there is no longer any y." This is because the "y" is only used to separate the 10's
place from the 1's place. If there is nothing in the 10's place, we don't use "y."

ciento diez one hundred ten 110

ciento veinte one hundred twenty 120

ciento veintiuno one hundred twenty-one 121

ciento treinta y cinco one hundred thirty five 135

etc. etc.

Ciento is followed by:

doscientos two hundred 200

doscientos cincuenta two hundred fifty 250

trescientos three hundred 300

cuatrocientos four hundred 400

quinientos five hundred 500

seiscientos six hundred 600

setecientos seven hundred 700

ochocientos eight hundred 800

novecientos nine hundred 900

"One thousand" in Spanish is mil. And we don't un mil; it's simply mil:

mil one thousand 1.000

mil quinientos one thousand five hundred 1.500

dos mil two thousand 2.000

tres mil three thousand 3.000

etc. etc.

After the thousands comes the 10s and 100s of thousands:

diez mil ten thousand 10.000

cien mil one hundred thousand 100.000

ciento treinta mil one hundred thirty thousand 130.000

doscientos mil two hundred thousand 200.000

trescientos mil three hundred thousand 300.000

etc. etc.

Next, a thousand thousand is a million or un millón. When we move from one million, millón becomes
millones:

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un millón one million 1.000.000

un millón doscientos mil one million two hundred thousand 1.200.000

dos millones two million 2.000.000

tres millones three million 3.000.000

etc. etc.

Now things get a little weird. Adding three zeros to a million in English gets us to a billion. But in Spanish
it's a mil millón, or a thousand million. This throws the rest of the chart out of synch with what we might
expect as well:

mil millones one billion 1.000.000.000

dos mil millones two billion 2.000.000.000

un billón one trillion 1012

mil billones one quadrillion 1015

un trillón one quintillion 1018

Cardinal Numbers as Adjectives

If you're simply counting numbers (like in "Hide and Seek" while your friends are hiding) the list above is
accurate. However, much of the time when we use a number we follow it up with a noun, e.g. "six cars,"
"24 tables," "38 houses," etc. When we do this we're actually using the number as an adjective and some
interesting things need to happen.

First of all uno gets shortened to un when it comes before a masculine noun, and likewise numbers ending
in "-uno" are shortened to "-ún" (note the accent mark). Ciento is also shortened to cien when (and only
when) we're dealing with exactly 100 of something. For example:

un coche cien coches

veintiún coches ciento tres coches

Secondly, as with other adjectives, we need to make our numbers agree in gender with the nouns that
they modify. However, this only happens with numbers ending in "-uno" and words ending in "-ientos" (all
of the "hundreds" words from 200 to 900). For example:

masculine: feminine:

un coche una casa

veintiún coches veintiuna casas

cien coches cien casas

quinientos coches quinientas casas

Every part of a number that can agree with the gender of the noun should agree. For example 654,321
tables would be written out as "seiscientas cincuenta y cuatro mil trescientas veintiuna mesas."

Decimal Points and Commas

You may have noticed the strange looking decimal points in the right hand column above. This is not a
typo. The majority of Spanish-speaking countries do the opposite of English-speaking countries when it
comes to decimal points and grouping thousands: commas are used for decimal points and periods are
used to separate the groups of zeros. The number "21.7" would be written "21,7" in Spanish and would be

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read "veintiuno punto siete."

Ordinal Numbers
While we use cardinal numbers to count things, we use "ordinal numbers" to put things in order (such as
the order in which runners finish a race). Here are the Spanish ordinal numbers :

primero first

segundo second

tercero third

cuarto fourth

quinto fifth

sexto sixth

séptimo seventh

octavo eighth

noveno ninth

décimo tenth

undécimo / decimoprimero eleventh

duodécimo / decimosegundo twelfth

décimo tercero thirteenth

décimo cuarto fourteenth

etc. etc.

--- ---

vigésimo twentieth

vigésimo primero twenty-first

vigésimo segundo twenty-second

etc. etc.

--- ---

trigésimo thirtieth

cuadragésimo fortieth

quincuagésimo fiftieth

sexagésimo sixtieth

septuagésimo seventieth

octogésimo eightieth

nonagésimo ninetieth

centésimo hundredth

milésimo thousandth

último last

When used as adjectives, all of the ordinals agree in gender with the noun they modify, therefore
"-o" endings change to "-a" with feminine nouns. For example: la segunda casa, su tercera novia, mi
última tarea.

The ordinals primero and tercero are shortened to primer and tercer when used with masculine

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nouns. For example; en primer lugar, en tercer grado. This is only true of primero and tercero.

When an ordinal prefix ending in "-imo" is combined with "octavo" one of the o's is dropped to avoid
repeating the same sound, e.g. "decimoctavo."

Ordinals are not typically used with dates; use cardinal numbers instead: "Hoy es el quince de
enero."

We often use a sort of shorthand abbreviation for ordinals in English — 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. We can
do something similar in Spanish — 1º, 2º, 3º, etc. (or 1ª, 2ª, 3ª, etc. if feminine)

Fractions
We express Spanish fractions the following way:

un entero a whole (1/1)

una mitad one half (1/2)

dos tercios two thirds (2/3)

tres cuartos three quarters (3/4)

cuatro quintos four fifths (4/5)

cinco sextos five sixths (5/6)

seis séptimos six sevenths (6/7)

siete octavos seven eighths (7/8)

ocho novenos eight ninths (8/9)

nueve décimos nine tenths (9/10)

--- ---

onceavos elevenths

doceavos twelfths

treceavos thirteenths

catorceavos fourteenths

quinceavos fifteenths

dieciseisavos sixteenths

diecisieteavos seventeenths

dieciochoavos eighteenths

diecinueveavos nineteenths

veinteavos twentieths

--- ---

centavos hundredths

From "fourths" to "tenths" we simply use ordinal numbers. From "elevenths" to "twentieths" we use
cardinal numbers with the suffix avo. Beyond "twentieths" we simply use an ordinal number with the word
parte. E.g.: un trigésimo parte.

Multiples
We use "multiplicatives" to make multiples out of a number. Spanish multiples are similar to the English:

doble double

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triple triple

cuádruple quadruple

quíntuple quintuple

séxtuple sextuple

séptuple septuple

óctuple octuple

nónuplo nonuple

décuplo decuple

etc. etc.

Percentages
Precentages are written the same way in Spanish as they are in English. The word "percent" is por ciento
in Spanish.

6 por ciento 6 percent (6%)

75 por ciento 75 percent (75%)

99 por ciento 99 percent (99%)

Fun Numbers Facts

When writing checks in Spanish it is acceptable (and a good idea) to write "un mil" rather than the
grammatically correct "mil" to ensure that no one alters the check amount.

Writing "two or three" in Spanish looks like this, "2 o 3," and could possibly be confused with "203."
Because of this the "or" is somtimes accented to avoid confusion: "2 ó 3." (As handwriting is being
replaced by technology, the need to do this is diminishing.)

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