Would you like to learn how to read and write Spanish numbers as they come to your mind? The Teach Numbers Spanish Numbers page is the perfect place to start!

Spanish numbers are easy to learn. In this article, you’ll find a step-by-step explanation and some useful tools, like our Spanish number translator (right below!)

Every Spanish numeral

First, let’s take a bird’s-eye view. These are all the numerals you’ll ever need to learn by heart. Any other number is written as a combination of them:

1	uno/una/un	31	treinta y uno/una/un
2	dos	32	treinta y dos
3	tres	40	cuarenta
4	cuatro	50	cincuenta
5	cinco	60	sesenta
6	seis	70	setenta
7	siete	80	ochenta
8	ocho	90	noventa
9	nueve	100	cien (to)
10	diez	101	ciento uno/una/un
11	once	182	ciento ochenta y dos
12	doce	200	doscientos/as
13	trece	300	trescientos/as
14	catorce	400	cuatrocientos/as
15	quince	500	quinientos/as
16	dieciséis	600	seiscientos/as
17	diecisiete	700	setecientos/as
18	dieciocho	800	ochocientos/as
19	diecinueve	900	novecientos/as
20	veinte	1000	mil
21	veintiuno/una/ún	1001	mil uno
22	veintidós	1010	mil diez
23	veintitrés	1100	mil cien
24	veinticuatro	10000	diez mil
25	veinticinco	100000	cien mil
26	veintiseis	1000000	un millón
27	veintisiete	2000000	dos millones
28	veintiocho	1012	un billón
29	veintinueve	1018	un trillón
30	treinta	1024	un cuatrillón

The Rules 1-1000

Main Numbers in Spanish: Units and Tens

First, let’s take a look at the Spanish numbers from 0-9

0	cero
1	uno
2	dos
3	tres
4	cuatro
5	cinco
6	seis
7	siete
8	ocho
9	nueve

Make sure to memorize them all (you’ll find some mnemonic aids below).
Now, lets see the 10’s for 10 to 90:

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

Now, you’ve learned a total of 19 Spanish numbers, right? Guess again! You actually now know 82, because numbers from 31 all the way to 99 are formed simply by writing the tens and the units, separated by the word y (and).

Here’s How:

31	treinta y uno
32	treinta y dos
33	treinta y tres
…	…
97	noventa y siete
98	noventa y ocho
99	noventa y nueve

“Special” Numbers 11-29

But, what about the numbers from 11 to 29? There are specific numerals for them, so you’ll need to learn them by heart. Don’t worry though, you’ll notice some patterns that will make it easier.

11	once	21	veintiuno
12	doce	22	veintidós
13	trece	23	veintitrés
14	catorce	24	veinticuatro
15	quince	25	veinticinco
16	dieciséis	26	veintiséis
17	diecisiete	27	veintisiete
18	dieciocho	28	veintiocho
19	diecinueve	29	veintinueve

Counting 100 to 1000

Congratulations! Now you know how to count from 0 to 99. To be able to count all the way to 1000, you just need to learn ten more Spanish numbers, the hundreds:

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

To form the rest of the numbers, just write first the word for the hundreds, and then the “remaining” number, from 1 to 99, just as before.

But what is “one hundred” in Spanish? “One hundred” is ciento nearly always. It is cien only when the number is exactly 100, or when it goes right before mil (thousand), millones (millions), millardos (billions), billones (trillions), and so on (more on that later).

100	cien
101	ciento uno
102	ciento dos
…	…
199	ciento noventa y nueve

Large Numbers

To be able to count all the way to millions, you just need to learn a couple of new words:

1000	mil
1 000 000	millón

The thousands above 1000 are written exactly the same as in English: two thousand (dos mil), and so forth.

1000	mil
2000	dos mil
222 000	doscientos veintidós mil

If the number is not an exact multiple of 1000, then simply add the rest at the end, just as in English

1225	mil doscientos veinticinco
999 888	novecientos noventa y nueve mil ochocientos ochenta y ocho

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Try Our Spanish Numbers Interactive Translate Tool

Millions

For millions, you do also just as in English: first, you write the number of millions and then the rest of the number. The only difference is that when the number of millions is greater than one, the plural form is used (millones instead of millón)

1 000 000	un millón
2 000 000	dos millones
100 000 100	cien millones cien

Gazillions!

Unlike in English, in Spanish we use the long scale of powers of a million. That means that un billón is not “one thousand millions”, but “one million millions”. By the same token, un trillón is “one million of billones“, and so on:

1 000 000 (106)	un millón
1 000 000 000 (109)	mil millones (or un millardo)
1 000 000 000 000 (1012)	un billón
1018	un trillón
1024	un cuatrillón
1030	un quintillón
1036	un sextillón
1042	un septillón
1048	un octillón
1054	un nonillón
1060	un decillón
1066	un undecillón
1072	un duodecillón
1078	un tredecillón
1084	un cuatordecillón
1090	un quindecillón
1096	un sexdecillón
10102	un septendecillón
10108	un octodecillón
10114	un novendecillón
10120	un vigintillón
gazillions	tropecientos / chorrocientos millones

In Spanish-speaking countries, a common mistake is to translate the word billion as billón. This is a serious (if understandable) error since the resulting number is 999 000 000 000 units greater than the original.

On the other hand, this “mistake” is so common among Spanish speakers living in the USA that finally, in 2014, the Royal Spanish Academy added, in the 23rd edition of its dictionary, a second entry for the word billón in the USA, meaning precisely billion. Thus, for a Spanish speaker living in the USA, the use of the short scale is now considered acceptable.

The Word “millón” is a Noun

In sentences such as one million euros, you must use the word de (millón de, millones de). That’s because, strictly speaking, the word millón is not a numeral, but a noun. Thus, it is used in the same way as any other quantity noun:

• Un millón de dólares. — One million dollars.
• Un montón de monedas. — A pile of coins.
• Dos litros de agua. — Two liters of water.

The same happens with the words millardo, billón, trillón, and so on.

Mnemonics

The Spanish numbers can be more easily remembered if you associate them with English words that have a common origin (or some kind of resemblance).

uno	union, unit, unique
dos	duo, duet, dual
tres	triple, trilogy, trident
cuatro	quadruped, quadriceps, quad bike
cinco	zinc, “Thing co.”, lingo, bingo
seis	space, face, lace
siete	September (the seventh month on the Roman calendar)
ocho	October, octopus, octogenarian
nueve	November
diez	December, decimal
once	“once and for all”
doce	dozen
cien(to)	century, cent, centimeter

Apocope and gender

The Spanish numbers uno and veintiuno are apocopated (shortened) when they are right before a noun, adjective or another numeral. Then they become un y veintiún, respectively:

One	Uno
One dog	Un perro
One beautiful dog	Un bello perro
Twenty-one	Veintiuno
Twenty-one dollars	Veintiún dólares
Twenty-one thousand	Veintiún mil
Thirty-one	Treinta y uno
Thirty-one dollars	Treinta y un dólares

Some numerals have specifically feminine forms. These are needed when the number precedes a feminine word

Masculine	Feminine
uno, un	una
veintiuno, veintiún	veintiuna
doscientos, trescientos, …, novecientos	doscientas, trescientas, …, novecientas

On the other hand, the feminine forms are never apocopated.

One ball	Una pelota
Twenty-one pounds	Veintiuna libras
Thirty-one thousand pounds	Treinta y una mil libras

In the last case (numerals ending in -one before mil), the feminine form is considered optional. That is, it is also correct (and frequent) to say treinta y un mil libras.

As millardo(s), millón(es), billón(es), etc., are all masculine nouns, numerals before them are always masculine: 21,000,000 pounds → veintiún millones de libras.

At this point, you should be able to do well on our quiz on Spanish numbers. Go ahead, I’ll wait for you.

Spanish Numbers with a Decimal Part

Periods, commas, apostrophes… Traditionally, several different delimiters have been used to separate the fractional part from the integer part of a decimal number. Currently, the recommended separator in Spanish is the comma, as established by international guidelines (the period is also acceptable, though).

For example, the number pi in Spanish is 3,14159… In words: tres coma uno cuatro uno cinco nueve…

The separator for the thousands was traditionally the period, but in the currently recommended format, it’s a white space (which can be a thin space). This way, we avoid possible confusion with the decimal point. Numbers with only four digits must not be separated.

English	Spanish
8,212	8212
2,000,000	2 000 000
57,235.12	57 235,12

Real Examples of Sentences with Spanish Numbers

Spanish	English
Los jueces le dieron cero (0) puntos.	The judges gave him zero points.
No se puede conducir con más de 0,5 (cero coma cinco) gramos de alcohol por litro de sangre.	You can’t drive with more than 0.5 grams of alcohol per liter of blood.
Marta tenía entonces veintiún años (21), Javier treinta y uno (31).	Marta was then twenty-one years old, Javier was thirty-one.
250 (doscientas cincuenta) personas se beneficiarán por el tope de 25,64 euros (veinticinco euros con sesenta y cuatro céntimos).	13,300 people will benefit from the limit of 25.64 euros.
En 2016 (dos mil dieciséis), más de 472 (cuatrocientos setenta y dos) millones de personas tienen el español como lengua materna.	In 2016, more than 472 million people have Spanish as a mother tongue.

Some things you may have noticed:

• In Spanish, any quantity which is not exactly “1”, including “0”, is expressed in plural form. Even when the number is “1.0”, or “1.00”, the plural form is also used, as in 1,0 gramos.
• In some cases, it is correct to mix digits and letters to express a number, like in 400 millones (400 000 000) or 2,5 billones (2 500 000 000 000).
• When writing dates in Spanish, days of the month and years are typically written with numbers (e.g. 16 de febrero de 2016, although Roman numerals can also be used sometimes).

Some Idioms Using Cardinal Numbers

• ¡Eres el/la número uno! — “You’re the number one!” (the best).
• Una de dos, o pagas, o vas a la cárcel. — “One of two things is true: either you pay or you go to prison”.
• ¡No consigo dormirme ni a la de tres! — “I can’t fall asleep, no matter how hard I try!”
• Al funeral fueron cuatro gatos. — “Hardly a soul attended the funeral”.
• ¡Choca esos cinco! — “Let’s shake on it!”
• Se quedó allí más chulo que un ocho. — “He stood there prouder than a peacock” (arrogant, show-off).
• Se mantuvo en sus trece todo el rato. — “He stuck to his guns all the time”.
• ¡Le voy a cantar las cuarenta! — “I’ll tell him a few home truths!”
• Ese tipo de cosas me ponen a cien. — “This sort of thing drives me up the wall” (make sb. angry, or very excited).
• Ayer estuvo allí el ciento y la madre. — “The world and its wife was there yesterday”.
• Esa es la pregunta del millón. — “That’s the million-dollar question”.

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Test Your Knowledge. Take the Spanish Numbers Quiz

References

If you can read Spanish, in these articles you’ll find more in-depth information about the Spanish numbers:

• The General article by the RAE’s Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas about números (numbers).
• Specific article of the DPD about cardinales (cardinal numbers).
• Very in-depth article about La Numeración (PDF, 172 KB), by the Spanish linguist and writer José Martínez de Sousa. Somewhat outdated, compared to the DPD, but still useful.

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