Spanish employs cardinal and ordinal numerals (as does English). You are probably more familiar with the cardinals—numerals that express quantity and are used for counting: one, two, three, and so on. In fact, Spanish often uses cardinal numerals even when American English would choose ordinals—numerals that show the order of an item in a given series: first, second, third, and so on.

The Basics: 0–15

The single-digit numbers 1 through 9 are the most utilized in Spanish because they are employed alone and within larger numbers. All you really need to do is memorize the first nine, plus the word for 0 and 10 through 15; the rest is a matter of combining what you already know. When simply counting, numerals stand alone. Treat them as you would pronouns:

Numbers 0–15

When enumerating items, however, the numeral is acting as an adjective and precedes the items enumerated. Any number above uno requires the use of the plural form of the item (see Chapter 4 for rules on how to add plural endings to nouns). Keep in mind that the actual numeral employed will not be in the plural form for quantities less than 200. For example:

un sacerdote	one priest
una bebida	one drink
cinco dedos	five fingers
cinco quejas	five complaints
ocho vestidos	eight dresses
ocho cortinas	eight curtains

Moving On: 16–99

Double-digit numbers are formed similarly to the way they are formed in English. For example, “21” is “twenty-one.” If you know the words for “twenty,” “thirty,” “forty,” and so on, as well as how to count from 1 to 9, you will be able to come up with any number from 1 to 100.

It is pretty much the same in Spanish. First, you need to learn the numbers divisible by 10:

The rules are slightly different for numbers 16 through 29 than for 30 through 99. Take a look at how the numbers 16 through 29 are formed:

For numbers 30 through 99, the rule is exactly the same, and there is no need to combine the number into one word: The two components remain connected by a y (and). Here are a few examples:

36	treinta y seis
48	cuarenta y ocho
59	cincuenta y nueve
81	ochenta y uno

Next Up: Hundreds

In Spanish, you rarely if ever say “one hundred”—instead, you simply say cien (hundred). Any number between 101 and 199 uses the term ciento in combination with the numerals specified in the previous section. Notice that a conjunction is not used between the “hundred” and “ten” words:

116	ciento dieciséis
131	ciento treinta y uno
177	ciento setenta y siete

Multiples of 100 are cientos. To create a specific number of “hundred” units, all you really need to do is combine the number of 100s with cientos:

It follows, then, that for numbers 201 to 999, the process for putting together the numbers goes like this:

206	doscientos seis
331	trescien tos trein ta y uno
447	cuatrocientos cuarenta y siete
650	seiscientos cincuenta
809	ochocientos nueve

Keep in mind: You should use y only between the “tens” and the “units” values. Otherwise, the y is omitted (so, treinta y ocho, but trescientos ochenta). Also, the numbers containing “hundreds” parts do conform to the gender of the nouns they modify. For example: trescientas casas (300 homes), quinientas veintiuna quejas (521 complaints).

Moreover: Thousands

Like cien, mil (thousand) generally exists without a preceding article. Unlike ciento, however, mil does not take on any endings when it is part of a number. For any number of thousands above 1,000, simply place the number of thousands before mil (dos mil, tres mil, and so on). For example:

1,216 mil doscientos	dieciséis
2,331	dos mil trescien tos trein ta y uno
3,477	tres mil cuatrocientos setenta y siete
5,000 cinco	mil
45,783	cuarenta y cinco mil setecientos ochenta y tres

Note that when you write in Spanish, you use a period instead of a comma to separate the digits in numbers greater than 1,000, and vice versa for the sign used to denote decimal points.

Period and Comma in Spanish Numbers

Spanish	English
3.000	3,000 (three thousand)
4,7	4.7 (four point seven)

Last but Not Least: Millions and Beyond

This is a time to recall the warning on misleading cognates from the first chapter. Though some Spanish and American English numbers do coincide (like million and millón), larger numbers do not. Compare:

millón	million
mil millones	one billion
billon	one trillion

Use the following examples to practice what you have just learned.

1,000,001	un millón uno
2,000,002	dos millones dos
1,000,000,345	mil millones, trescientos cuarenta y cinco
14,500,900,005	catorce mil quinientos millones, novecientos mil, cinco
1,000,100,700,000	un billón, cien millones, setecientos mil

A subtle change in meaning occurs when you begin using numbers in the millions and larger. You already know that “hundreds” and “thousands” no longer describe the quantity of things, but that they themselves become the objects of discussion. This is generally true of one million and beyond. Whereas you can say cien mujeres (100 women), you cannot say un millón mujeres—the correct phrase would be un millón de mujeres (one million women), where de mujeres describes the million. If you are talking of an unspecified number of books ranging in the millions, then you would say millones de libros.

Practice Counting

First, practice recognizing Spanish numbers that you encounter. Below, fill in the correct digits of a number expressed in Spanish.

1.	dieciocho	_____________
2.	veintidós	_____________
3.	cincuenta y cuatro	_____________
4.	noventa y tres	_____________
5.	ciento catorce	_____________
6.	doscientos setenta y nueve	_____________
7.	quinientos sesenta y dos	_____________
8.	setecientos treinta y cinco	_____________

Next, practice translating from English into Spanish:

1. 18	_______________________
2. 89	_______________________
3. 226	_______________________
4. 345	_______________________
5. 1,512	_______________________
6. 10,587	_______________________
7. 22,713	_______________________
8. 3,080,000	_______________________

Find answers to these exercises.