Spanish Numbers 1-100 and How to Use Them

Whether you want to haggle at the flea market or discuss the stock market, learning numbers in Spanish is a practical skill that you can learn here today! 

Much like in English, numbers in Spanish follow a logical pattern and are used in daily life. This article will teach you how to count Spanish numbers 1-100, how to say and read longer numbers, how to say how old you are, and almost any numbers related topic you can think of!

How to count in Spanish: Spanish Numbers 1-100 

The numbers 0-100 are the building blocks to all larger numbers and are used to express common things like a person’s age, the time, the date, and how many beers you want. 

Spanish Numbers 0-15

Here are the numbers 0 to 15. Each number is unique and is written as one short word. Study them carefully, especially numbers 1 to 9. They will come up in the next section quite a lot!

• 0 – cero
• 1 – uno
• 2 – dos
• 3 – tres
• 4 – cuatro
• 5 – cinco
• 6 – seis
• 7 – siete
• 8 – ocho
• 9 – nueve
• 10 – diez
• 11 – once
• 12 – doce
• 13 – trece
• 14 – catorce
• 15 – quince

Spanish Numbers 16-100

This is where we begin to see a pattern with numbers. When we get to 16 and beyond, all we do is take the tens place and add the ones place.

• 16 – diez y seis (ten and six)
• 27 – veinte y siete (twenty and seven)
• 82 – ochenta y dos (eighty and two)

See the pattern? This means once you have mastered the Spanish number 1-10, and twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, and ninety, you can say any number all the way up to 99! Here is a chart with all of the 2 digit numbers ending with zero.

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

For numbers 16 to 29, you will often see a “modern” version written out as one word instead of three, as seen in dieciseis instead of diez y seis for sixteen, and veintiocho instead of veinte y ocho for twenty eight. Over time, the components diez y seis just got squished together to form one word, and this was applied to the numbers 16 to 29 (sometimes languages like Spanish like to squish words together to make them look more like they sound).

The word for 100 has two words in Spanish; cien and ciento. Basically, 100 by itself is cien, and when you count past 100 people use ciento instead. You will see examples of this in the next section, so don’t stress if you don’t get it yet!

Spanish Numbers: What happens beyond 100 

You might think that if you’re just travelling for a short while, there’s no need to learn to count past 100. However, if you are going to a Latin American country and want to buy something, learning higher numbers could come in handy. This is because one US dollar is equivalent to about 21 Mexican pesos, 755 Chilean pesos, or 3,815 Colombian pesos as of writing this article. That means a simple purchase will likely be over 100 pesos!  

Hundreds

To count past 100, it is very similar if not the same as English. 

Here are some examples with helpful colors to illustrate.

• 154
  • • One hundred / fifty four
    • Ciento cincuenta y cuatro
• 115
  • • One hundred / fifteen
    • Ciento / quince
• 193
  • • One hundred / ninety three
    • Ciento / noventa y tres
• 462
  • • Four hundred / sixty two
    • Cuatrocientos / sesenta y dos

If you want to say two hundred, three hundred, etc. then usually you can put the number dos or tres in front of the word for hundreds. There are a few exceptions, so here is a chart with all of the hundreds listed.

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

Thousands

Now that you know how to count up to 999 and know the numbers pattern, counting in the thousands will be intuitive. The word for one thousand in Spanish is mil. Anything from 1000 to 1999 will start with mil and end with the remaining part of the number.

For example,1421 is mil cuatrocientos veinte y uno. When you look at each piece and compare it to English, it’s the same format!

To say numbers from 2,000 all the way to 999,000, say the number before the comma, then the word mil, then the rest of the number. Just like in English.

👉Remember though, Spanish uses a decimal point instead of a comma, and vice versa. 

Here are some more examples with corresponding colors that will visually explain how the numbers are put together.

• 3.592
  • Three thousand / five hundred / ninety two
  • Tres mil / quinientos / noventa y dos
• 827.249
  • Eight hundred / twenty seven thousand / two hundred / forty nine
  • Ochocientos / veinte y siete mil / doscientos / cuarenta y nueve
• 332.943
  • Three hundred / thirty two thousand / nine hundred / forty three
  • Trescientos / treinta y dos mil / novecientos / cuarenta y tres

Millions, Billions and Trillions

The word for million in Spanish is a cognate, so it looks and sounds like the English word.

One million is un millón. For two million, three million, and so on, be sure to pluralize it and say millones as in cinco millones.

👉Watch out! Billón is a common false friend in Spanish, meaning it looks like an English word but it doesn’t mean what it looks like. The word for billion is actually mil millones in Spanish – a thousand millions. So what does billón mean? Un billón is a trillion!

How to use Spanish Numbers in Sentences

Now that you know how to count all the stars in the sky in Spanish, let’s look at some practical applications and how to use numbers in daily life.

Numbers in Adjective Form

You may not have realized before that numbers can act as adjectives. Think about it – you are describing how many of something there is, and an adjective describes a noun. 

In Spanish, adjectives have to match the gender and plurality (as in singular vs plural) of the noun they are describing. “The brown and white dog” is el perro moreno y blanco, while “these big and yellow pillows” is estas almohadas grandes y amarillas. 

A few numbers change in gender depending on the noun they are describing.

Numbers ending in one, as in 21, 31, 161 change to un if it is a masculine word. “I am twenty one” is tengo veintiún años. They also change to una if it is a feminine word – “thirty one women” is treinta y una mujeres. Think of indefinite articles un and una used to say “a/an” – it’s the same concept.

Numbers containing ciento/s change to cienta/s if they are describing feminine nouns. Three hundred tables would be trescientas mesas. Now that’s a lot of tables!

How to Say Your Age in Spanish

How old are you? ¿Cuántos años tienes? In Spanish, age is expressed with the verb tener – to have. Tengo treinta años means “I am thirty years old” but it literally translated to “I have thirty years.” To say your age, just plug in the number using this sentence: Tengo # años.

The number is in adjective form here because you are describing how many years, so the adjective form rule for numbers ending with one applies. In short, “I am twenty-one” is tengo veintiún años.

How to tell time in Spanish

Here is a short and simple way to tell the time in Spanish. There are other terms not included for the sake of time (pun intended) so take this as an introduction and practice and learn more with apps like Lingodeer!

For times that are right on the hour, use the following formulas:

It’s one o’clock.

Es la una.

It’s (number greater than 1) o’clock.

Son las (number greater than 1).

 

“It’s three o’clock” is son las tres. “It’s seven o’clock” is son las siete. Pretty straight forward so far. Note that for one o’clock the word es is used along with the singular la whereas numbers greater than one use son and las.

To add minutes, tell the time like shown above then add y followed by the number of minutes.

It’s 1:20.

Es la una y veinte.

 

It’s 4:10

Son las cuatro y diez.

Years and Dates in Spanish

¿Cuál es la fecha hoy? What is the date today? Expressing the date can be used for more than just this simple question, but learning how to answer it will help you talk about other dates like your date of birth, the date of your flight to Puerto Rico, your anniversary, and so on.

In English, we use ordinal numbers like first, second, third, and so on when saying the date. Luckily, Spanish only uses one – first! All the other dates are simply numbers. Take a look at these formulas and examples.

Today is the first of (month), (year).

Hoy es el primero de (month) de (year).

Example:

Today is the first of July, 2020.

Hoy es el primero de julio de dos mil veinte.

In Spanish the year is said like any other number, versus English which breaks the year into two parts.

Today is the (#) of (month), (year).

Hoy es el (#) de (month) de (year).

Example:

Today is the seventeenth of February, 1983.

Hoy es el diez y siete de febrero de mil novecientos ochenta y tres.

If you want to talk about other dates besides today’s, replace the word hoy with the event! For example, “my birthday is October 12th” is mi cumpleaños es el doce de octubre.

Here are the months of the year in Spanish. Months are not capitalized.

Mathematics in Spanish

A lot of us have trouble doing math in English, let alone in another language! It’s useful to know a few terms if you’re splitting the bill with friends at a restaurant, are confused about your bill at the hotel, want to haggle and use math to justify a lower price, etc. Don’t worry, there’s no need to get into square roots and calculus, the basics are perfect.

Add, Subtract, Multiply and Divide

Once you know numbers in Spanish, you can read a math problem by learning the following terms:

plus – más

minus – menos

divided by – dividido entre

times – por

equals – es igual a

Here are some simple math problems written out using the above terms so that you can see them in action.

8 + 10 = 18

Ocho más diez es igual a dieciocho

125 – 25 = 100

Ciento veinticinco menos veinticinco es igual a cien

60 ÷ 20 = 3

Sesenta dividido entre veinte es igual a tres

2 × 40 = 80

Dos por cuarenta es igual a ochenta