Numbers and counting in Spanish
57 words in Spanish 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 of the dieci- numbers. Twenty-one to twenty-nine are also written as one word — veintiuno — 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
- 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 and cientos: hundreds are written as one word with no space — trescientos, not tres cientos
- cuatrocientosfour hundredThe root stays intact: cuatro plus cientos. Four syllables: cua-tro-cien-tos
- 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
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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.
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.
- Study spread over days wins 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?
The whole set on this page is 57 words, but there is no need to start with all of it: the words you will need in the next few days are enough. Take them a few at a time — five to seven new ones per session.
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.