How to Count in Spanish

Posted on August 16th, 2009 by Marck

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Spanish is one of the world’s most common languages. Millions of people speak and write in Spanish during casual conversation, formal discussions, or business transactions. Here are some tips to help you count in Spanish.

Masculine and Feminine Forms

Like many continental European languages, Spanish uses gender to classify nouns. Numbers are often used to describe the quantity of a given set of elements, expressed as nouns. For masculine nouns, a number spoken or written in Spanish should end with “-o.” For feminine nouns, the number ends with “-a.”

Counting from Zero to Ten

Like many languages, Spanish relies on the base-ten range most people are used to in counting numbers. Base ten is used to build bigger numbers in Spanish, in the same way it is used in English. Here’s how you count from zero to ten in Spanish:

0: cero
1: uno
2: dos
3: tres
4: quatro
5: cinco
6: seis
7: siete
8: ocho
9: nueve
10: dies

Counting from Eleven to Twenty

Counting from eleven to twenty gets a bit tricky in Spanish, because combining two numbers from base ten does not start until 15. Here’s how you count from eleven to twenty in Spanish:

11: once
12: doce
13: trece
14: catorce
15: quince
16: dieseseis
17: diesesiete
18: dieseocho
19: diesenueve
20: veinte

Base Ten to One Hundred

Starting from veinte, a number from base ten is combined to form a number. Here’s how you count bigger numbers in base ten using Spanish:

30: trenta
40: cuarenta
50: cincuenta
60: sesenta
70: setenta
80: ochenta
90: noventa
100: cien (for counting exactly to a hundred); ciento (for counting numbers higher than 100)

Counting Up to a Million

Spanish is a complex language, which means that you can count to numbers as high as a million. Here’s how you can count from one hundred to one million, with some number variations in between:

100: ciento
101: ciento uno
200: doscientos
223: doscientos veintitres
300: trescientos
345: trescientos cuarentaicinco
400: cuatrocientos
424: cuatrocientos veintequatro
500: quinientos
512: quinientos doce
600: seiscientos
673: seiscientos setentaitres
700: sietecientos

744: sietecientos cuarentaicuatro
800: ochocientos
896: ochocientos noventaiseis
900: novecientos
982: novecientos ochentaidos
1,000: mil
1,000,000: un million

Ordinals and Complex Numbers

Ordinals are particularly useful for ordered elements in a set, or for awarding prizes for contests:

First: primero for masculine nouns, or primera for feminine nouns
Second: segundo for masculine nouns, or segunda for feminine nouns
Third: tercero for masculine nouns, or tercera for feminine nouns
Last: ultimo for masculine nouns, or ultima for feminine nouns

Complex numbers like years are expressed in a similar manner as in the English language:

1821: mil ochocientos veinte uno
1995: mil nueve cientos noventa y cinco
2009: dos mil nueve

Counting in Spanish is tricky at first, but once you get used to its conventions and rules, you’ll find yourself counting out in Spanish more often than you expect. After learning how to count in Spanish, time for you to head to Barcelona, Spain which was rated no.4 in the list of Top ten tourist hotspots