15 Los números (numbers)
Visit los números: pronunciación to hear how numbers are pronounced in Spain.
(http://www.languageguide.org/spanish/numbers/)
Los números 0-100
| 0 cero | 7 siete | 14 catorce | 21 veintiuno | 60 sesenta |
| 1 uno | 8 ocho | 15 quince | 22 veintidós (etc.) | 70 setenta |
| 2 dos | 9 nueve | 16 dieciséis | 30 treinta | 80 ochenta |
| 3 tres | 10 diez | 17 diecisiete | 31 treinta y uno | 90 noventa |
| 4 cuatro | 11 once | 18 dieciocho | 32 treinta y dos (etc.) | 100 cien |
| 5 cinco | 12 doce | 19 diecinueve | 40 cuarenta | 101 ciento uno |
| 6 seis | 13 trece | 20 veinte | 50 cincuenta | 102 ciento dos |
Practice with numbers
Knowing numbers will allow you to communicate about prices, phone numbers, dates of the month and the existence and number of items.
1. How much does it cost?
To ask how much something costs, there are a couple of easy expressions we can use. Just keep in mind whether the item is singular or plural:
| ¿Cuánto cuesta? | How much does it cost? |
| ¿Cuánto es? | How much is it? |
| ¿Cuánto cuestan? | How much do they cost? |
To reply, one can simply respond with the number, or use the same verb from the question to make a full sentence:
| ¿Cuánto es el libro? | How much is the book? |
| Es treinta dólares. | It’s thirty dollars. |
| ¿Cuánto cuestan las sandalias? | How much do the sandals cost? |
| Cuestan quince dólares. | They cost fifteen dollars. |
2. What’s your phone number?
When asking for someone’s phone number, remember you’re talking to someone, so you want to ask the question appropriately using either the familiar “tú” form (friends, people of your age, or those younger than you) or in the formal “Ud.” form (those you don’t know well, bosses, those significantly older than you).
| ¿Cuál es tu número de teléfono? (familiar) | What’s your phone number? |
| ¿Cuál es su número de teléfono? (formal) | What’s your phone number? |
To give your phone number, it’s fine to use single digit numbers:
- Mi número es cuatro / nueve / uno / siete / cero / ocho / seis.
- My number is four / nine / one / seven / zero / eight / six.
However, it’s also helpful to know that native speakers will frequently give their numbers using double digits, so the same seven-digit phone number might be given like this:
- Mi número es cuatro / noventa y uno / setenta / ochenta y seis.
- My number is four / ninety one / seventy / eighty six.
3. What’s today’s date?
There are a couple of common ways to ask what the date is; sometimes “hoy” (today) is left unstated:
| ¿Cuál es la fecha (de hoy)? | What’s today’s date? |
| ¿Qué fecha es? | What’s the date? |
For the most part, Spanish uses cardinal numbers (two, three, four) to express dates instead of ordinal numbers (the second, the third, the fourth). The one exception is with the first of each month when Spanish does use the ordinal number “primero” = “first”.
Whereas in English it’s acceptable to say either of the following, Spanish uses only the equivalent structure of the second:
| Today is July fourth. | Hoy es el cuatro de julio. |
| Today is the fourth of July. | Hoy es el cuatro de julio. |
In Spanish the word “día” is masculine (it does end in “a”, but is irregular); this means the definite article that precedes it will always be masculine, or “el”:
- the + cardinal number + of + month
- el + número cardinal + de + mes
Compare the following (months are not capitalized in Spanish):
| El dos de agosto | The second of August (August second) |
| El veinticuatro de mayo | The twenty fourth of May (May twenty fourth) |
| El quince de noviembre | The fifteenth of November (November fifteenth) |
Again, the one exception is with the first of each month where “primero” is used:
| El primero de abril | The first of April (April first) |
| El primero de enero | The first of January (January first) |
4. How many are there?
To ask how many things or people there are, Spanish uses the verb “hay” (pronounced just like the word “eye” in English), which means both “there is” and “there are”. “Hay” is also used to ask questions. Recall that the question word “cuánto” must agree in gender and number with the noun that follows it:
| ¿Cuántos estudiantes hay en la clase? | How many students are in the class? |
| ¿Cuántas mujeres hay? | How many women are there? |
| ¿Cuánto tiempo hay? | How much time is there? |
To answer these questions, you can use the same verb “hay” to begin each response:
| Hay treinta estudiantes en la clase. | There are thirty students in the class. |
| Hay dieciocho mujeres. | There are eighteen women. |
To express “there isn’t”, “no” precedes “hay”:
| No hay mucho tiempo. | There isn’t much time. |
OJO: When the word “uno” (one) appears before a masculine, singular noun, the “o” drops off; and when it appears before a feminine, singular noun, the “o” changes to “a”:
| Solamente hay un libro en la mesa. | There’s only one book on the table. |
| Solamente hay una chica en el grupo. | There’s only one girl in the group. |