How to learn the numbers in Spanish

Once you've learned greetings and introductions in Spanish one subject that you'll find useful however new you are to the language are the numbers in Spanish. The reason they are so useful is that if you're in a Spanish speaking environment you'll find them is use every day around you. Just think of a shopping trip, for instance. The great thing is that because you'll encounter numbers frequently you'll really solidify your learning quickly, which means that you'll understand when they're spoken to you and you'll be able to remember how to say them without thinking.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. The first thing to do is learn the numbers from zero to 10. Spanish, like English, is quite repetitive in its numbering system, so by really memorizing these numbers you'll help yourself later on.
   
   0. cero
   1. uno
   2. dos
   3. tres
   4. cuatro
   5. cinco
   6. seis
   7. siete
   8. ocho
   9. nueve
   10. diez
2. Once you've committed the numbers from zero to ten to memory you can learn the remaining numbers up to twenty. Note that numbers ending in 1 follow the gender of the following noun;
   
   - if the noun is masculine uno shortens to un
   - if feminine uno becomes una.
   
   11. once
   12. doce
   13. trece
   14. catorce
   15. quince
   16. dieciséis
   17. diecisiete
   18. dieciocho
   19. diecinueve
   20. veinte
3. Now that you can count to twenty the next target is thirty. You'll notice that 21 to 29 consist of veinti plus the numbers 1-9 that you already learned, although note the accents that conserve the stress.
   
   21. veintiuno (veintiún/veintiuna)
   22. veintidós
   23. veintitrés
   24. veinticuatro
   25. veinticinco
   26. veintiséis
   27. veintisiete
   28. veintiocho
   29. veintinueve
   30. treinta
4. Now things start to get easy. The numbers 31 to 99 follow a pattern, which you should notice below:
   
   31. treinta y uno
   42. cuarenta y dos
   53. cincuenta y tres
   
   That's right, it is simple a question of the ten (thirty, forty, fifty etc) 'y' (which means 'and') followed by the unit. Now that you know that you can form any number up to 99 by learning the tens:
   
   40. Cuarenta
   50. Cincuenta
   60. Sesenta
   70. Setenta
   80. Ochenta
   90. Noventa
   99. Noventa y nueve
5. We're finally at one hundred! One thing to note is that the ending of the 100s always agrees with the gender of following noun, and so doscientos becomes doscientas in the feminine.
   
   100. Cien
   101. Ceinto uno
   102. Ceinto dos
   103. Ceinto tres
   110. Ciento diez
   200. Doscientos
   300. Trescientos
   400. Cuatrocientos
   500. Quinientos
   600. seiscientos
   700. setecientos
   800. ochocientos
   900. novecientos
   999. novecientos noventa y nueve
6. Now you've got that far we'll finish off with the thousands and higher:
   
   000. Mil
   2000. Dos mil
   3298. tres mil doscientos noventa y ocho
   10000. diez mil
   100000. cien mil
   1000000. un millón
   2000000. dos millones