Numbers in Spanish: 0 to a million, ordinals, prices, phone numbers and years
There are a few patterns in Spanish numbers, and once you have the patterns you can say any number up to a million. The words are the same in Mexico, Spain, Colombia and Argentina. What changes is how prices are written, how phone numbers are read out and the slang for money.
The numbers
| English | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | cero | |
| 1 | uno | un before a masculine noun, una before a feminine one |
| 2 | dos | |
| 3 | tres | |
| 4 | cuatro | |
| 5 | cinco | SEEN-koh in Latin America, THEEN-koh in most of Spain |
| 6 | seis | One syllable, like “sayss” |
| 7 | siete | |
| 8 | ocho | |
| 9 | nueve | |
| 10 | diez | |
| 11 | once | ON-seh. Nothing to do with the English word |
| 12 | doce | |
| 13 | trece | |
| 14 | catorce | |
| 15 | quince | KEEN-seh |
| 16 | dieciséis | One word, with an accent |
| 17 | diecisiete | |
| 18 | dieciocho | |
| 19 | diecinueve | |
| 20 | veinte | BAYN-teh. The v sounds like a soft b |
| 21 | veintiuno | veintiún before a masculine noun |
| 22 | veintidós | Accent |
| 23 | veintitrés | Accent |
| 24 | veinticuatro | |
| 25 | veinticinco | |
| 26 | veintiséis | Accent |
| 27 | veintisiete | |
| 28 | veintiocho | |
| 29 | veintinueve | |
| 30 | treinta | |
| 31 | treinta y uno | From 31 up, three words |
| 40 | cuarenta | |
| 50 | cincuenta | |
| 60 | sesenta | |
| 70 | setenta | Sesenta and setenta are easy to mix up when heard fast |
| 80 | ochenta | |
| 90 | noventa | |
| 100 | cien | |
| 101 | ciento uno | |
| 200 | doscientos | doscientas before a feminine noun |
| 300 | trescientos | |
| 400 | cuatrocientos | |
| 500 | quinientos | Irregular |
| 600 | seiscientos | |
| 700 | setecientos | Irregular, no siete- |
| 800 | ochocientos | |
| 900 | novecientos | Irregular, no nueve- |
| 1,000 | mil | Never un mil |
| 2,000 | dos mil | Mil does not take a plural here |
| 10,000 | diez mil | |
| 100,000 | cien mil | |
| 1,000,000 | un millón | |
| 2,000,000 | dos millones | No accent in the plural |
| 1,000,000,000 | mil millones | An English billion |
| 1,000,000,000,000 | un billón | A million million |
What trips learners up
Uno changes before a noun. You count uno, dos, tres, but you have un libro, una casa, veintiún años, treinta y un días. Before a feminine noun you will see both veintiuna personas and veintiún personas. Both are accepted, and veintiuna is the safer choice.
Sixteen to twenty-nine are one word. Dieciséis, veintitrés, veintiocho. From thirty on, the tens and the units are joined by y: treinta y cinco, noventa y nueve. The y only ever sits between tens and units. So 132 is ciento treinta y dos, never ciento y treinta y dos.
The accents go where the stress is. Dieciséis, veintidós, veintitrés, veintiséis and veintiún have one because the stress falls on the last syllable. Diez, seis and tres are one syllable on their own and have none.
Cien or ciento. Use cien on its own and directly before a noun or before mil and millones: cien euros, cien mil, cien millones. Use ciento when more digits follow: ciento diez, ciento cincuenta pesos.
The hundreds change for gender. Doscientos hombres, doscientas mujeres. Quinientas páginas. This is the one place where a number above one changes for gender.
Mil is plain, millón is a noun. Tres mil personas has no de. You need it in tres millones de personas, because millón is a noun, like docena. If more digits follow, the de goes: un millón doscientos mil euros. Miles de means “thousands of”.
A billion is not un billón. English “billion” is mil millones. Un billón is a thousand times bigger.
The th sound in Spain. In most of Spain, c before e or i and every z is said like the “th” in “think”. So cinco, doce, trece, diez and cien all have that sound. In Latin America people say an s.
Ordinals
| English | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| first | primero, primera | primer before a masculine noun: el primer día |
| second | segundo | |
| third | tercero, tercera | tercer before a masculine noun: el tercer piso |
| fourth | cuarto | Also “quarter” and “room” |
| fifth | quinto | |
| sixth | sexto | |
| seventh | séptimo | Also spelled sétimo, rarely |
| eighth | octavo | |
| ninth | noveno | |
| tenth | décimo |
Ordinals change to match the noun: la primera vez, los primeros días. They are written 1.º, 1.ª, 1.er on signs and forms.
Above ten, people switch to the cardinal numbers. El piso quince, el siglo veintiuno, Alfonso XIII read as Alfonso trece. Forms like vigésimo exist and appear in formal writing, but in speech they sound stiff.
Floors are counted differently. In Mexico, Spain and Argentina the ground floor is la planta baja, and el primer piso is one floor up. In Colombia el primer piso is usually the ground floor. Older buildings in Spain can also have an entresuelo and a principal between the ground and the first floor.
Prices and money
| You want to say | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| How much is it? | ¿Cuánto es? / ¿Cuánto cuesta? | Everywhere |
| Three euros fifty | Tres euros con cincuenta or tres cincuenta | Spain. The short form is the usual one |
| Twenty-five pesos | Veinticinco pesos | Mexico, Colombia, Argentina |
| Fifty cents | cincuenta céntimos (Spain), cincuenta centavos (Mexico, Argentina) | |
| Twelve thousand pesos | doce mil pesos or doce mil | Colombia and Argentina prices often run into the thousands |
| Half price | a mitad de precio | |
| Twenty percent off | veinte por ciento de descuento |
In Mexico, Colombia and Argentina the $ sign is used for the peso, so $200 on a menu means pesos. In Spain it is the euro, with the sign after the number: 3,50 €.
The decimal mark changes too. In Spain, Colombia and Argentina people write 1.500,75, with a point for thousands and a comma for decimals. In Mexico it is 1,500.75, as in English. A price of $12.000 in Bogotá is twelve thousand pesos.
Regional differences
| Mexico | Spain | Colombia | Argentina | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile phone | el celular or el cel | el móvil | el celular or el cel | el celular or el celu |
| A thousand (slang) | una luca | una luca | ||
| A million (slang) | un palo | un palo | ||
| Money (slang) | la lana, el varo | la pasta | la plata | la plata, la guita |
| A euro, a peso (slang) | un varo | un pavo | ||
| 100 percent | cien por ciento | cien por cien | cien por ciento | cien por ciento |
| Ask for a number | ¿Me pasas tu número? | ¿Me das tu número? | ¿Me regalas tu número? | ¿Me pasás tu número? (vos) |
Plata means silver and is the ordinary word for money across most of Latin America. In Spain, plata is only the metal, and dinero or pasta is the money.
Phone numbers
Phone numbers are read in groups, almost never digit by digit. Pairs are the most common grouping in Latin America: tres, quince, cuarenta y dos, dieciocho, setenta for 315 42 18 70. In Spain you will hear groups of three as well: seiscientos doce, trescientos cuarenta, cero ochenta y uno.
Phone numbers in Spain have nine digits, and mobiles start with a 6 or a 7. Mexican numbers have ten. Colombian mobile numbers have ten and start with a 3. In Argentina you may hear quince before a local mobile number, the old 15 prefix for mobiles.
If you lose track, ask for it again one digit at a time: ¿Me lo puede repetir número por número?
Years and dates
Years are read as one whole number. There is no “twenty twenty-six”.
| Year | Spanish |
|---|---|
| 1492 | mil cuatrocientos noventa y dos |
| 1999 | mil novecientos noventa y nueve |
| 2000 | dos mil |
| 2008 | dos mil ocho |
| 2026 | dos mil veintiséis |
En 2026 and en el 2026 are both correct. The article is more common in Latin America. Decades are los años ochenta or just los ochenta. Centuries are written in Roman numerals and read as cardinals: el siglo XXI, el siglo veintiuno.
For the first of the month, people in Spain mostly say el uno de mayo and in Latin America el primero de mayo. For every other date you use the plain number: el dos de mayo, el treinta y uno de diciembre.
Other number words you will need
| You want to say | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| a dozen | una docena | |
| half | medio (adjective), la mitad (noun) | medio kilo, la mitad del pastel |
| a third | un tercio | |
| a quarter | un cuarto | un cuarto de kilo |
| about twenty | unos veinte | |
| a week | ocho días | Colloquial, from Monday to Monday |
| two weeks | quince días or una quincena | In Mexico la quincena is also payday |
| plus / minus / times | más / menos / por | Dos por tres son seis. |
| divided by | entre | Diez entre dos son cinco. |
| equals | son or es igual a | |
| I am 30 | Tengo treinta años. | Tener, not ser |
The numbers in real sentences
- Somos cuatro, ¿tiene una mesa? There are four of us, do you have a table?
- Son veintiún euros con cuarenta. That’s twenty-one euros forty.
- Vivo en el tercer piso. I live on the third floor.
- Mi hija cumple dieciséis años en marzo. My daughter turns sixteen in March.
- ¿Me da medio kilo de tomates y una docena de huevos? Can I have half a kilo of tomatoes and a dozen eggs?
- Invitamos a doscientas personas a la boda. We invited two hundred people to the wedding.
- Nací en mil novecientos noventa y uno. I was born in 1991.
- Es la primera vez que vengo. It’s the first time I’ve come.
- La casa costó un millón doscientos mil dólares. The house cost 1.2 million dollars.
- Mi número es el tres, quince, cuarenta y dos, dieciocho, setenta. My number is 315 42 18 70.
Questions people ask
How do you say 100 in Spanish? Cien on its own and before a noun, mil or millones. Ciento when another number follows, as in ciento veinte.
Why is it veintiún and not veintiuno? The last letter of uno goes before a masculine noun, and so does the last letter of every number ending in uno. You say veintiún años and cincuenta y un kilos, but you count veintiuno, veintidós.
How do you say a billion in Spanish? Mil millones. Un billón is a million million, an English trillion.
Do Spanish speakers use a comma for decimals? In Spain, Colombia and Argentina, yes, with a point for thousands. In Mexico it is the English style, with a decimal point.
How do you say “first” in Spanish? Primero or primera, and primer before a masculine singular noun: el primer día, la primera noche.
Are numbers written in words or digits in Spanish? In running text, the rule in Spanish style guides is words for numbers that fit in one or two words and digits for longer ones. For prices, dates, phone numbers and addresses you use digits.
How do you say a phone number in Spanish? In groups, usually pairs, with each zero read as cero. If someone reads too fast, say más despacio, por favor, slower please.
Practise these words
número, cero, millón, primero, segundo, tercero, cuarto, mitad, docena, precio, año. Vozelu is a free website for practising Spanish, and it has each of these. You see a sentence with one word missing, you type the word, and a native voice reads the sentence back. Practise the words on this page.