An Easy Guide to Spanish Numbers 1 to 100 & Other Big Numbers in Spanish

How many times do you use numbers every day? In what ways? And if you learn Spanish numbers 1 to 100, what would be the first thing you would use your knowledge for?

Maybe to ask for the phone number of Latina you want to ask out?

Maybe tell your birthday to someone? Or order food for yourself?

The point is numbers are extremely important for any language. And if you are in my country Colombia, here is what we are talking about.

If you are wondering how to say all the numbers in Spanish, you can follow this Spanish numbers guide.

And while there are many differences between Latin American Spanish and Spain Spanish, the numbers are the same.

Spanish Numbers 1 to 10

Let’s start with Spanish numbers 1 to 10 first. Here are the cardinal numbers in Spanish from 1-10:

0-cero

Spanish numbers from 11 to 15

11- once
12- doce
13-trece
14- catorce
15- quince

There are no rules to learn numbers from 1-15. You simply need to learn and remember them. Same as English. You can try repeating them a few times or use flashcards or any other exercise.

However, from 16 onwards, we will start seeing patterns. But in order to learn these patterns, we would need to learn the multiples of ten and hundred first.

Spanish Numbers 1 to 100: Multiples of Ten

When learning the Spanish numbers 1 to 100, try to learn the multiples of ten first. It will make your life easier for the other numbers.

10	diez
20	veinte
30	treinta
40	cuarenta
50	cinuenta
60	sescenta
70	setenta
80	ochenta
90	noventa

Takeaway

• Multiples of ten after 20 all end with “enta” and start with the first letter of the related smaller number.
  
  Ex- cuatro -> cuarenta

Spanish for 100: Ciento or Cien?

This is something that confuses Spanish beginners. Actually, they are both right. Here is the rule of thumb.

Spanish Numbers from 100 to 1000: Multiples of hundred

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

Takeaway

• Multiples of hundred all end with “entos” and start with the first letter of the related smaller number. (Exception- quinientos)
  
  Ex- cuatro -> cuatrocientos

Spanish Number List: Rules and Tricks

16-19	diez +y+rightmost digit Ex- 17 becomes diez y siete
21-29	veinti + rightmost digit Ex- 22 becomes veintidos
31-39, 41-49…	treinta + y + rightmost digit Ex- 36 becomes treinta y seis 45 becomes cuarenta y cinco
101-199	ciento+ two rightmost digits as a whole number Ex- 131 becomes ciento treinta y uno
201-999	First digit+ ciento+ two rightmost digits as a whole number Ex- 323 becomes trescientos

Takeways

• You need to add y after multiples of ten for all the two-digit numbers after 15.
• You don’t need to add y after ciento. One hundred ten is ciento diez, not ciento y diez.

Big Numbers in Spanish

The list of Spanish numbers would be incomplete unless we talk about the big numbers in Spanish.

• 1,000 – mil
• 1,020 – mil veinte (not “mil y veinte”!)
• 1,686 – mil seiscientos ochenta y seis

In English, you can say a thousand or one thousand to refer to a quantity. But in Spanish, you would simply say mil not un mil or una mil or uno mil.

• 2,021 – dos mil veintiuno
• 3333- tres mil trescientos treinta y tres

In English, you can say two thousand twenty one or twenty twenty one to refer to 2021. However, in Spanish, you would need to stick to the bigger version of the number rather than splitting it to two two-digit numbers.

For this reason, saying viente veintiuno in Spanish would sound weird. Don’t worry, people will still understand though.

• 40,000 – cuarenta mil
• 100,000 – cien mil
• 798,332 – setecientos noventa y ocho mil trescientos treinta y dos

Spanish Numbers Million

• 1,000,000 – un millón
• 5,000,000 – cinco millónes
• 8,932,000 – ocho millones novecientos treinta y dos mil

de comes before the noun when using un millón or millones with a noun.

For example, “one million animals” is un millón de animales, which literally translates to, “one million of animals”.

Masculine and Feminine Forms of Numbers in Spanish

Spanish for One: uno or una or un

The number one in Spanish is kind of special, coz’ it will change for masculine and feminine nouns. Also while English distinguishes between “one” and “a”, Spanish does not.

Uno becomes una before a feminine noun and un before a masculine noun.

If you are counting generically (one, two, three …), you can use “uno”. But if you are referring to specific numbers like “one woman”, “one car”, use “un” or “una.”

But one is not the only number where this happens. It also happens for multiples of 100.

Ordinal Numbers in Spanish

Once you are done with the Spanish cardinal numbers, you can jump to the ordinal number in Spanish.

English cardinal number	English ordinal number	Spanish cardinal number	Spanish ordinal number
one	first	uno	primero
two	second	dos	segundo
three	third	tres	tercero
four	fourth	cuatro	cuarto
five	fifth	cinco	quinto
six	sixth	seis	sexto
seven	seventh	siete	séptimo
eight	eighth	ocho	octavo
nine	ninth	nueve	noveno
ten	tenth	diez	décimo

Ordinal numbers in Spanish are adjectives that change into masculine or feminine forms and get pluralised depending on the noun.

Unlike other adjectives in Spanish that always come after the noun, Spanish ordinal numbers come before the noun.

• the second street – la segunda calle
• the fifth element – el quinto elemento

Similarly, in case of more than one noun, you would say

• the first steps- los primeros pasos
• the first civilizations- las primeras civilizaciones

primero and tercero drop the “o” before a singular masculine noun:

• el primer milagro – “the first miracle”
• el tercer hombre – “the third man”