Numbers in Spanish - Spanish411

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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.

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.

Fun Fact: Cinco is the only Spanish number with the same number of letters as the number it represents.

The first 10 numbers (as well as zero) all have unique names:

cero	zero	0
uno	one	1
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
quince	fifteen	15

Note: There are two acceptable options for writing the numbers 16 through 19. The “old-school” way is to simply say “ten and six,” “ten and seven,” etc. The newer method is to combine those words into one word. At that point the “z” in diez becomes a “c” and the “y” becomes an “i.” Both versions are pronounced the same way. The shorter, combined word is preferred nowadays.

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.:

Note: Once again it is also preferable to condense these numbers down to one word by replacing the trailing “-e” and the “y” with an “i.” Twenty two, twenty three, and twenty six will also need an additional accent mark.

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:

Note: After the twenties we no longer condense our numbers into one word.

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:

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 notice 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.

Note: The plural of cien is cientos (not cienes.)

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 say 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 10’s and 100’s of thousands:

Note: In compound numbers, use ciento if the number that follows is smaller than 100. Use cien if the number that follows is larger than 100.

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:

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.

Note: This is not actually so much of a difference in languages as it is a difference in ways of counting very large numbers. Historically there is some disagreement even between English-speaking countries as to what exactly “billion” represents.

Bonus: see Long and short scales

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

Still have questions about numbers? Try out the Spanish Number Translator

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
veintiún coches

cien 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 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 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

Note: Multiples can also have masculine and feminine forms: cuádruplo, cuádrupla.

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

	doble	double
	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 sometimes accented to avoid confusion: “2 ó 3.” (As handwriting is being replaced by technology, the need to do this is diminishing.)