Numbers and counting in Spanish
57 words Spanish words on the topic “numbers and counting”: uno — one, dos — two, tres — three, cuatro — four. 57 words can be played from recordings.
57 words on the topic
- unooneBefore a noun it drops the o: un café. The full uno survives only when counting
- dostwoNo gender forms: dos cafés and dos casas are exactly alike
- tresthreeThe root of trimestre — three months — and of triple
- cuatrofourThe cua- is pronounced KWAH, no w sound: KWAH-troh
- cincofiveThe c before i is a plain s in Latin America and the soft lisped th of Spain
- seissixThe ei stays one syllable: sayss. Sixteen is dieciséis, with the accent mark back
- sietesevenThe root of septiembre, once the seventh month. Don't confuse its start with siempre, 'always'
- ochoeightThe ch sounds like the ch in 'church': OH-choh. Eighteen is dieciocho, and no accent mark is needed
- nuevenineDon't confuse it with nuevo, 'new': the difference is one letter, and it doesn't carry well by ear
- dieztenThe z is a lisped th in Spain, a plain s in Latin America. The root of diciembre, once the tenth month
- onceelevenEleven and twelve are their own words in Spanish, not 'ten and one': once, doce. Careful: this once has nothing to do with English once
- docetwelveA dozen is una docena — the same root: una docena de huevos, a dozen eggs
- trecethirteenThe unlucky date in Spain is not Friday the thirteenth but Tuesday: martes trece
- catorcefourteenYou can hear cuatro inside it, though it's spelled ca-, with no u
- quincefifteenthe qu is just a hard k: KEEN-seh
- dieciséissixteenFrom sixteen on, Spanish adds: diez y seis fused into one word. The accent on é is a leftover from the stress in seis
- diecisieteseventeenDiez plus siete in one word, and no accent mark needed — the stress already falls where the rules want it
- dieciochoeighteenThe age of majority in Spain: at a los dieciocho you get a driver's license and the vote
- diecinuevenineteenThe last compound number: after twenty the pattern changes again — veintiuno is fused, but thirty-one is already three words: treinta y uno
- veintetwentyFrom twenty-one through twenty-nine the numbers are written as one word: veintiuno, veintidós, veintitrés — and only there
- treintathirtyFrom thirty on, tens join units with y: treinta y uno, treinta y dos — three words each
- cuarentafortyFrom cuatro, with the u kept and the o lost. La cuarentena — quarantine — is a forty-day isolation
- cincuentafiftyc before i is the soft th of Spain (plain s in Latin America): seen-KWEN-tah
- sesentasixtyFrom seis, but the i vanished: sesenta, not seisenta. Setenta does the same to siete
- setentaseventyFrom siete, which lost its i. Don't mix it up with sesenta — one letter separates them
- ochentaeightyFrom ocho. Los ochenta is the eighties, the decade
- noventaninetyFrom nueve, with the root regularized: nov-, as in noviembre
- cienone hundredExactly one hundred is cien; with anything added it becomes ciento: ciento uno, ciento veinte. From two hundred up the hundreds agree in gender: doscientas casas
- milone thousandNo article and no un: a thousand euros is mil euros. In the plural, miles de personas — thousands of people
- un millónone millionUnlike mil, it needs un and the preposition de before the thing counted: un millón de euros. The plural is dos millones
- cerozeroThe number and the score in a game: dos a cero. Bajo cero is below zero
- primerofirstBefore a masculine noun it drops the o: el primer día, but la primera vez. The same word already means 'first, at first' elsewhere in the course
- segundosecondThe same word is 'a second' of time: espera un segundo. This ordinal never shortens: el segundo día
- tercerothirdLike primero, it drops the o before a masculine noun: el tercer piso, but la tercera puerta
- últimolaststress on the first syllable: OOL-tee-moh
- cuántohow muchIn a question it carries the accent: ¿cuánto cuesta? Before a noun it agrees: ¿cuántos años?, ¿cuántas veces?
- el parpairA pair as in two of something: un par de zapatos, un par de días. A couple of people is another word, la pareja
- la unidaditem (per piece)On a price tag, dos euros la unidad is two euros apiece. In speech it's simpler: ¿cuántos quieres?
- el porcentajepercentageThe number itself is said differently: el veinte por ciento is twenty percent. El porcentaje is the share as a concept
- cadaeachInvariable for both gender and number: cada día, cada casa. Cada uno is 'each one' of a group of people
- doscientostwo hundredFrom two hundred up, hundreds agree in gender: doscientos euros, but doscientas casas
- trescientosthree hundredFrom tres, written as one word with no space — the numeral and 'hundred' fuse together
- cuatrocientosfour hundredThe root stays intact: cuatro plus cientos. The longest of the hundreds — six syllables
- quinientosfive hundredNot cincocientos: it has its own root, the one you see in the ordinal quinto. One of three irregular hundreds
- seiscientossix hundredFrom seis, unchanged. Sei- stays one syllable: say-SYEN-tohs
- setecientosseven hundredNot sietecientos: siete loses its i. The second irregular hundred, after quinientos
- ochocientoseight hundredFrom ocho, just as it is. The ch sounds like the ch in 'church': oh-choh-SYEN-tohs
- novecientosnine hundredNot nuevecientos: nueve drops its e. The third and last irregular hundred
- cuartofourthThe same word also means 'room' and 'quarter': el cuarto de baño is the bathroom, un cuarto de hora is a quarter of an hour
- quintofifthOnly the meaning of cinco survives: the root is the one in quinientos
- sextosixththe x reads as ks: SEKS-toh
- séptimoseventhThe accent marks stress on the third syllable from the end — a spot where Spanish wouldn't put it on its own
- octavoeighthThe root of the musical octave — the eighth step
- novenoninthFrom nueve, minus the diphthong: no-, not nue-. The same flattening as in novecientos
- décimotenthAlso a noun: un décimo is a tenth part — including a ticket share in the Christmas lottery
- centésimohundredthBookish: in speech you'd hear el número cien. But una centésima is a hundredth of a second on a stopwatch
- númeronumberAlso the number of a phone, a house, a shoe. A date as a number is another word, la fecha
How it sounds in a sentence
A word list is a blank. Conversation is made of sentences, and these are the ones the words fit into most often.
- Solo queda unoOnly one is left
- Somos dos, ¿hay mesa?There are two of us — is there a table?
- El autobús pasa cada tres minutosThe bus comes every three minutes
- Vivimos en el número cuatroWe live at number four
- Nos vemos a las cinco en la plazaSee you at five in the square
- Entre semana me levanto a las seisOn weekdays I get up at six
What is worth knowing about these words
uno — one. Before a noun it drops the o: un café. The full uno survives only when counting
dos — two. No gender forms: dos cafés and dos casas are exactly alike
tres — three. The root of trimestre — three months — and of triple
cuatro — four. The cua- is pronounced KWAH, no w sound: KWAH-troh
Test yourself
First by ear — the way you will meet the word in conversation. Click the speaker and pick the translation.
- What is this word?
It is uno — one.
- What is this word?
It is ocho — eight.
- What is this word?
It is quince — fifteen.
- What is this word?
It is cuarenta — forty.
- What is this word?
It is mil — one thousand.
Now the other way around: recall the spelling from the meaning. That is harder, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “one” in Spanish?
Before a noun it drops the o: un café. The full uno survives only when counting
- How do you say “eight” in Spanish?
The ch sounds like the ch in 'church': OH-choh. Eighteen is dieciocho, and no accent mark is needed
- How do you say “fifteen” in Spanish?
Spaniards often say fifteen days for 'two weeks': dentro de quince días
- How do you say “forty” in Spanish?
From cuatro, with the u kept and the o lost. La cuarentena — quarantine — is a forty-day isolation
- How do you say “one thousand” in Spanish?
No article and no un: a thousand euros is mil euros. In the plural, miles de personas — thousands of people
How to learn the set instead of just reading it
A price, the change, a house number, the time you agreed on, the floor. Numbers are the first thing you have to catch by ear — and the first thing people say fast.
A list is read in a minute and forgotten in a day. What works: hide the translation, try to recall, get it wrong — and come back to the same words tomorrow.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- This holds not only in experiments but in ordinary classrooms, with real students.checked many timesMawson & Kang, 2025, Behavioral Sciences 15(6):771 · 22 studies, d = 0.54 (confidence interval 0.31–0.77). The authors warn that individual studies disagree widely.
Frequently asked
How do you say “one” in Spanish?
«uno». Before a noun it drops the o: un café. The full uno survives only when counting. It is one of 57 words in the set “numbers and counting” — the rest are in the table above.
How many numbers do you need to start?
A dozen is enough. The set of 57 words on this page covers nearly every everyday case on the topic — but it is best taken a few at a time, not all at once.
Is there audio?
Yes, 57 words on this page can be played — click the speaker next to the word. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.