Lesson 02 · 6 min read
Spanish Numbers 1 to 100
Numbers come up constantly — prices, phone numbers, addresses, times, and ages. Spanish numbers follow clear patterns, so once you know 1–20 and the tens, you can build every number up to 100.
1. One to twenty
These first twenty are worth memorizing individually, because after twenty the numbers become predictable.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| uno | 1 |
| dos | 2 |
| tres | 3 |
| cuatro | 4 |
| cinco | 5 |
| seis | 6 |
| siete | 7 |
| ocho | 8 |
| nueve | 9 |
| diez | 10 |
| once | 11 |
| doce | 12 |
| trece | 13 |
| catorce | 14 |
| quince | 15 |
| dieciséis | 16 |
| diecisiete | 17 |
| dieciocho | 18 |
| diecinueve | 19 |
| veinte | 20 |
2. The tens
To make numbers in between, join the ten and the unit with "y" — for example treinta y cuatro (34), sesenta y siete (67).
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| treinta | 30 |
| cuarenta | 40 |
| cincuenta | 50 |
| sesenta | 60 |
| setenta | 70 |
| ochenta | 80 |
| noventa | 90 |
| cien | 100 |
3. Numbers in a sentence
Numbers rarely appear alone. Prices, ages and quantities each have their own frame: age uses "tener" rather than "ser", so you say "tengo veinte años" — I have twenty years — not "soy veinte". Prices take "cuesta" for one item and "cuestan" for several. And "uno" shortens to "un" before a masculine noun: un libro, not uno libro.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Tengo veinticinco años. | I am twenty-five years old. |
| Cuesta cuarenta euros. | It costs forty euros. |
| Hay treinta estudiantes. | There are thirty students. |
4. Numbers you will actually have to say out loud
The numbers that cause trouble are not the big ones — they are sixteen through twenty-nine, where Spanish switches from two words to one. Dieciséis, diecisiete, veintiuno and veintidós are written as single words and carry accents that a lot of learners drop. From thirty upwards the pattern becomes regular and stays regular: treinta y uno, cuarenta y dos, and so on forever. Phone numbers are usually read in pairs rather than digit by digit, so 91 435 22 78 comes out as noventa y uno, cuatrocientos treinta y cinco, veintidós, setenta y ocho. Being asked to repeat a number more slowly is completely normal — 'más despacio, por favor' exists for exactly this.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| dieciséis | sixteen | Tengo dieciséis años. — I am sixteen. |
| veintiuno | twenty-one | Hay veintiuno en la clase. — There are twenty-one in the class. |
| un millón de | a million | Un millón de personas. — A million people. |
| la mitad | half | Solo quiero la mitad. — I only want half. |
| ¿Cuál es tu número? | What's your number? | ¿Cuál es tu número de teléfono? — What's your phone number? |
Common mistakes
Soy veinte años → Tengo veinte años
Spanish expresses age with tener — literally I have twenty years. Using ser here is one of the most recognisable beginner errors.
Tengo uno hermano → Tengo un hermano
Uno shortens to un directly before a masculine noun. It stays uno only when it stands alone: ¿Cuántos tienes? Uno.
cien y uno → ciento uno
Spanish does not put y between hundreds and the rest. The y appears only between tens and units — treinta y uno, but ciento uno and doscientos cinco.