The Spanish numbers from zero to ten are cero, uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez. Learn those ten first and everything above them falls into a pattern: the teens and twenties are written as single words, the tens above twenty all end in -enta, and from thirty up you simply join the parts with y. Here is the full count to one hundred, with audio, and the handful of rules that trip up beginners.
Counting from 0 to 100
Learn zero through ten cold first, because every higher number is built out of them. Tap the play button on any row to hear it.
| Spanish | English | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| cero | zero | Zero degrees outside. |
| uno | one | I have one ticket. |
| dos | two | Two coffees, please. |
| tres | three | Three children play in the park. |
| cuatro | four | Four seasons in a year. |
| cinco | five | Five o'clock in the afternoon. |
| seis | six | Six days a week. |
| siete | seven | Seven days in a week. |
| ocho | eight | Eight hours of sleep. |
| nueve | nine | Nine in the morning. |
| diez | ten | Ten minutes more. |
| once | eleven | Eleven students in class. |
| doce | twelve | Twelve months in a year. |
| trece | thirteen | Thirteen is unlucky for some. |
| catorce | fourteen | Fourteen years old. |
| quince | fifteen | Fifteen minutes. |
| dieciséis | sixteen | Sixteen euros. |
| diecisiete | seventeen | Seventeen at the party. |
| dieciocho | eighteen | Eighteen and free. |
| diecinueve | nineteen | Nineteen ninety-nine. |
| veinte | twenty | Twenty euros, please. |
| treinta | thirty | Thirty minutes left. |
| cuarenta | forty | Forty years old. |
| cincuenta | fifty | Fifty euros, please. |
| sesenta | sixty | Sixty seconds in a minute. |
| setenta | seventy | Seventy kilometers per hour. |
| ochenta | eighty | He is eighty years old. |
| noventa | ninety | Ninety percent. |
| cien | hundred | A hundred dollars. |
| mil | thousand | A thousand thanks. |
The teens and twenties run together as one word
From sixteen, Spanish stops writing numbers as separate words and joins them. Dieciséis is literally diez y seis (ten and six) collapsed into a single word, and the pattern holds through diecinueve. The twenties do the same, often with a written accent: veintiuno, veintidós, veintitrés. From thirty onward the words separate again and you link them with y, so it is treinta y uno, cuarenta y dos, and noventa y nueve.
Why uno becomes un and una
The number one changes shape depending on what it counts. On its own you say uno, but in front of a masculine noun it drops its final o: un libro (one book), un café (one coffee). In front of a feminine noun it becomes una: una mesa, una cerveza. The same shift happens inside bigger numbers, so twenty-one books is veintiún libros, with an accent on the u.
cien or ciento?
One hundred is cien when it stands alone or sits directly in front of a noun: cien euros, cien personas, even cien mil (a hundred thousand). Add a smaller number after it and it turns into ciento: ciento uno (101), ciento cincuenta (150). From two hundred up, the hundreds also agree with gender, so you get doscientos libros but doscientas mesas.
Where you will actually use them
The fastest way to lock numbers in is to meet them where they already live: read prices aloud in the shop, say the time when you glance at your phone, count the stairs in Spanish out of habit. They repeat on their own all day, so a few seconds of attention each time beats a long drill. The stubborn ones tend to be the teens and the round tens, so give dieciséis and setenta a little extra.
Common questions
How do you count to ten in Spanish?
Zero to ten is cero, uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez. These ten are worth knowing cold, because every larger number in Spanish is built out of them.
Why is sixteen one word (dieciséis) but thirty-one is three words (treinta y uno)?
Spanish writes the numbers from sixteen to twenty-nine as single words, contracting the older diez y seis and veinte y uno into dieciséis and veintiuno. From thirty up it keeps the parts separate and joins them with y, so thirty-one is treinta y uno.
When do you use cien instead of ciento?
Use cien for exactly one hundred and directly before a noun or before mil, as in cien euros or cien mil. Use ciento when a smaller number follows, as in ciento uno (101) or ciento cincuenta (150).
Do Spanish numbers change with gender?
A few do. Uno becomes un before a masculine noun and una before a feminine one, and the hundreds agree from two hundred up: doscientos with masculine nouns, doscientas with feminine ones. The numbers in between, like cuarenta and setenta, stay the same for both.
