Would you like to learn how to write and read any Spanish number that comes to your mind? You’ve come to the right place!
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!)
Spanish numbers: translator
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:
The rules: 1-1000
Main numbers in Spanish: units and tens
First of all, here are the Spanish numbers from 0 to 9:
| 0 | cero |
| 1 | uno |
| 2 | dos |
| 3 | tres |
| 4 | cuatro |
| 5 | cinco |
| 6 | seis |
| 7 | siete |
| 8 | ocho |
| 9 | nueve |
Make sure you memorized them all (you’ll find some mnemonic aids below).
You are watching: How to spell 44 in spanish
Now, let’s see the tens, from 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? Wrong! Actually, you 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: 1-30
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 from 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 |
| 1000000 | 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 |
| 222000 | 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 |
| 999888 | novecientos noventa y nueve mil ochocientos ochenta y ocho |
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).
| 1000000 | un millón |
| 2000000 | dos millones |
| 100000100 | 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:
| 1000000 (106) | un millón |
| 1000000000 (109) | mil millones (or un millardo) |
| 1000000000000 (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 999000000000 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:
| 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 any of our quizzes 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.
| 8,212 | 8212 |
| 2,000,000 | 2000000 |
| 57,235.12 | 57235,12 |
Real examples of sentences with Spanish numbers
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 some cases, it is correct to mix digits and letters to express a number, like in 400 millones (400000000) or 2,5 billones (2500000000000).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).See more: How Much Does A Male African Lion Weigh T & Height Of Lions, Southwest African Lion Facts: Animals Of Africa
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”.