December 23, 2021 by Olga Put Spanish Vocabulary 0 comments

Easily Master Numbers in Spanish: Counting, Spelling and Pronunciation

Can you imagine the world without numbers—not only Spanish numbers, but any numbers at all. Life without counting money, things, hours, or the number of years you’ve lived. Impossible, isn’t it?

That’s why many historians believe that counting is older than writing.

The Spanish numbers we know today look almost the same as the English numbers. They both belong to an Indo-Arabic based decimal system. However, until the 10th century, the Roman numeration system was in use. Slowly, the Indo-Arabic numerical system started to become more popular, and dominated the Spanish and European mathematical texts. Later, it replaced other local systems on other continents, for example the Mayan numeral system in Latin America.

Spanish numbers are worth learning at an early stage. Of course, you can start slowly with basic numbers and gradually increase your vocabulary with higher numbers.

Instead of memorizing all Spanish numbers at once or trying to learn 1-100 in Spanish, it’s best to break this topic into logical and easy-to-learn chunks.

I’ll start with basic numbers in Spanish for beginners and then increase the level of difficulty. You’ll learn how to spell Spanish numbers and how to say Spanish numbers.

Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about Spanish numbers:

1-10 Spanish Numbers
10-20 Spanish Numbers
10-100 Spanish Numbers
How to build and write bigger numbers
Gender of Spanish numbers
Types of Spanish numbers (ordinals, fractions, percentages)

¡Tres, dos, uno – Vamos!
Three, two, one – Let’s go!

Spanish Numbers 1-10

Let’s start with the most basic Spanish cardinal numbers from 1 to 10. Listen to the audio if you’re wondering how to pronounce these numbers.

1 – uno
2 – dos
3 – tres
4 – cuatro
5 – cinco
6 – seis
7 – siete
8 – ocho
9 – nueve
10 – diez

Spanish Numbers 10-20

Let’s take a look now at how to count in Spanish from 10 to 20. Once again, click on the audio to hear how to pronounce the following Spanish numbers:

11 – once
12 – doce
13 – trece
14 – catorce
15 – quince
16 – dieciséis
17 – diecisiete
18 – dieciocho
19 – diecinueve
20 – veinte

As you can see, only the numbers from 11 to 15 look like completely new words. The Spanish numbers from 16 to 19 follow a pattern. They all start with dieci that comes from diez and then add the numbers you already know from 6 to 9.

These numbers used to be written as diez y seis for example and later got fused into one single word with some minor spelling changes (y to i). Mind the accent in dieciséis!

Spanish Numbers 10-100

Let’s break this section into two. I’ll first show counting in Spanish by tens. Then, you’ll learn how to add units to them.

Counting by 10 up to 100

Let’s see the multiples of 10 first. Don’t forget to listen to the audio!

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

Have you noticed how other than veinte (20) they all end in -enta and clearly relate to the numbers you already know? Tres – treinta, cuatro – cuarenta, and so forth.

Adding Units

You already know how to add units to 10, when counting from 16 to 19. Now, let’s see how to do it for numbers above 20.

It’s also easy. For numbers from 21 to 29, just add the units to the word veinte but change the last e into i.

21 – veintiuno
22 – veintidos
23 – veintitres
24 – veinticuatro
25 – veinticinco
26 – veintiseis
27 – veintisiete
28 – veintiocho
29 – veintinueve

For other “tens,” it’s even easier. Just take the “tens” number, add the conjunction y and the “unit” number you need. For example:

31 – treinta y uno
32 – treinta y dos
44 – cuarenta y cuatro
88 – ochenta y ocho

Check out the complete chart of Spanish numbers 1-100:

How to Build and Write Bigger Numbers

What happens when you make Spanish numbers bigger than 100? Then the word cien changes to ciento and you simply add the tens and units without any conjunctions. For example:

101 – ciento uno
102 – ciento dos
116 – ciento dieciséis

For higher multiples of 100, use the plural form cientos—except for 500, quinientos. Let’s see the multiples of 100. Be sure to click on the audio!

200 – doscientos
300 – trescientos
400 – cuatrocientos
500 – quinientos
600 – seiscientos
700 – setecientos
800 – ochocientos
900 – novecientos

Did you notice that the diphthongs ie and ue disappeared in 700 and 900?

When you know the hundreds, you can easily add the tens and units as separate words. For example:

347 – trescientos cuarenta y siete
555 – quinientos cincuenta y cinco

And how do you say 1,000 in Spanish? It’s mil and it never changes to a plural form. So you’ll say:

1,000 – mil
2,000 – dos mil
3,000 – tres mil
…
1,000,000 – un millón

Un millon (a million), on the other hand, does have plural forms:

2,000,000 – dos millones
11,000,000 – once millones

Just so you know, in Spanish a billón is one million millions, whereas, in the English system, a billion is one thousand millions.

Spain: Un billón – 1,000,000,000,000
English system: One billion – 1,000,000,000

So un billón in Spanish is one trillion in English (12 zeroes).

And how do you say even bigger numbers?

quadrillion (15 zeros) – un mil billones
quintillion (18 zeros) – un trillón

Learn More about Complex Spanish Numbers

In Spanish, you use a period to separate thousands and a comma to separate the decimals. Just opposite to the Anglo-Saxon system.

So for example $4.546,65 is read as cuatro mil quinientos cuarenta y seis con sesenta y cinco centavos (in English, you would write it as $4,546.65).

Can you say this number in Spanish?

19.435.456 — diecinueve millones cuatrocientos treinta y cinco mil cuatrocientos cincuenta y seis.

Gender of Spanish Numbers

Do Spanish numbers have a gender? Some of them do, and some of them don’t.

Un, Uno, and Una

When we count in Spanish, we say un, dos, tres or uno, dos, tres. It really doesn’t matter. However, when you count objects, for example, you have to pay attention if the noun you’re counting is masculine or feminine. In front of feminine nouns, it becomes una. Before masculine nouns, cut off the o and use un instead.

un sillón – one armchair

una mesa – one table

However, if you’re counting the masculine nouns, but you don’t mention their name, you’ll keep the uno form:

¿Cuántos sillones tienes? Solo uno.
How many armchairs do you have? Just one.

Other Types of Numbers in Spanish

Now that you know how to count from one to almost the infinitive, let’s see other types of numbers:

Ordinal Spanish Numbers

Let me show you some basic ordinal numbers. The ones that you’ll most probably need are the ones from 1-10.

English	Spanish
first	primero
second	segundo
third	tercero
fourth	cuarto
fifth	quinto
sixth	sexto
seventh	séptimo
eighth	octavo
ninth	noveno
tenth	décimo

See also: Ordinal Numbers in Spanish

Fractions in Spanish

Here is the chart with the most common Spanish fractions:

Number	Fraction
1/2	la mitad, medio (half)
1/3	un tercio (a third)
1/4	un cuarto (a fourth)
1/5	un quinto (a fifth)
1/6	un sexto (a sixth)
1/7	un séptimo (a seventh)
1/8	un octavo (an eighth)
1/9	un noveno (a ninth)
1/10	un décimo (a tenth)

Check out Math Time! How to Express Spanish Fractions to learn more fractions and how to use them correctly.

Percentages in Spanish

The Spanish phrase for “percent” is por ciento, and it always uses the masculine form:

El 75 por ciento de los estudiantes aman su escuela.
Seventy-five percent of students love their school.

Las ventas han disminuido veinte por ciento.
Sales have decreased by 20 percent.

Practice Spanish Numbers

Now that you know all about Spanish numbering and how to translate Spanish numbers, it’s time to practice. Reading and memorizing the numbers isn’t enough to use them with fluency.

And speaking of numbers, do you know that according to a study conducted by The Economist, a person can earn anywhere from cincuenta mil ($50,000) to ciento veinticinco mil dólares ($125,000) extra just by knowing a foreign language alone.

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Ready to learn more Spanish grammar and vocabulary? Check these out!

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Olga Put

Freelance Writer at Homeschool Spanish Academy

I'm a Spanish philologist, teacher, and freelance writer with a Master's degree in Humanities from Madrid. I speak Polish, Spanish, and English fluently, and want to get better in Portuguese and German. A lover of literature, and Mexican spicy cuisine, I've lived in Poland, Spain, and Mexico and I'm currently living and teaching in Madeira, Portugal.