nueve
“nueve” — nine in Spanish. Numeral, level A1, topic — numbers and counting. Don't confuse it with nuevo, 'new': the difference is one letter, and it doesn't carry well by ear. In a live sentence: “El tren sale a las nueve y media” — The train leaves at half past nine. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 57 words in the set “numbers and counting” in the Spanish course.
In short
| Written in Spanish | nueve |
| Translation | nine |
| Part of speech | numeral |
| Level | A1 |
- nuevenine
Why it looks that way
Don't confuse it with nuevo, 'new': the difference is one letter, and it doesn't carry well by ear
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- El tren sale a las nueve y mediaThe train leaves at half past nine
Nearby words: numbers and counting
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.
- 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
- 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
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “numbers and counting”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “nine” in Spanish?
Don't confuse it with nuevo, 'new': the difference is one letter, and it doesn't carry well by ear
- How do you say “seven” in Spanish?
The root of septiembre, once the seventh month. Don't confuse its start with siempre, 'always'
- How do you say “three” in Spanish?
The root of trimestre — three months — and of triple
- How do you say “eleven” in Spanish?
Eleven and twelve are their own words in Spanish, not 'ten and one': once, doce. Careful: this once has nothing to do with English once
- How do you say “six” in Spanish?
The ei stays one syllable: sayss. Sixteen is dieciséis, with the accent mark back
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- 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.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “nine” in Spanish?
«nueve». In a live sentence: “El tren sale a las nueve y media” — The train leaves at half past nine. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Numeral, level A1, from the set “numbers and counting”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Don't confuse it with nuevo, 'new': the difference is one letter, and it doesn't carry well by ear. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.