Practical Spanish, Ep. 3
Numbers, Counting, and Basic Math
What’s below are the resources and transcript to the newest episode of my podcast, Practical Spanish, available on Spotify (coming to other platforms in the future). In this podcast, I aim to make Spanish grammar, vocabulary, and other learning topics as accessible as possible to students like me.
I hope you find this useful and if you do, please consider contributing at my Buy Me A Coffee page. The coffee is just a name. It’s really about helping me keep this ad free. Thank you!
Transcript
Hello everyone and welcome to Practical Spanish. My name is Zakary and today we’re going to learn a bit about Numbers and Counting, with a little bit about basic math!
Now, before we get into it, I want to explain how I categorize things a bit. I try to follow the CEFR, which is Europes scale of language proficiency. This episode falls into the most basic level, A1. Now, I strongly recommend immersing in a new language as early as possible, but I understand and sympathize with how hard that is in the beginning.
That’s why all my A1 episodes will be in English and uploaded separately in Spanish. A2 and above will be all in Spanish, with key words repeated in English, to challenge you and I and push ourselves even further.
Don’t forget to check the description for resources, key terms, and other helpful things.
With that, let’s go!
First, some ideas of how you can better learn this or any topic. I recommend that you implement this in your daily life. Use the words that you learn whenever you can to keep them on your mind and eventually they will become so familiar that you don’t have to try.
Also, don’t underestimate the power of narration. Not everyone has a language partner and not everyone makes a good language partner. I know I’m not a good language partner. That doesn’t mean that you can’t speak. Mental narration is better than none, but even if it’s under your breath, actually making the physical sounds will be the best form of practice in lieu of more tense output.
Use these words in writing where possible as well. Start making your to do lists and grocery lists in Spanish and use these numbers and other words that you learn. Use journal prompts and challenge yourself to convey a certain point or address a certain personal matter to yourself in writing. And it’s best to write these by hand. It demands a more conscious effort in creating the words that typing just doesn’t offer.
Now, los números.
The Numbers
Number is masculine in Spanish, which makes it el número. From zero to ten is simple and perhaps you already know it! Cero, uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez. The only number that ever changes is uno and that only changes when you’re not using it as a number. Don’t worry, this is the only special case.
Uno is the number one, but it is also the indefinite article in Spanish, what we call in English “a” or “an”. When you’re using the article, it changes with gender and quantity. I’ll cover articles more in depth in another episode, but for now I just wanted to make you aware. Here, it is uno and only uno, and it means the number one.
From eleven to nineteen is unique to other tens. You’ll see what I mean in a moment. Once, doce, trece, catorce, quince, dieciséis, diecisiete, dieciocho, diecinueve. Eleven to fifteen is unique, then from sixteen to nineteen is basically ten-six, ten-seven, and so on. Easy!
Twenty and above follows that easy pattern. Veinte, veintiuno, veintidós, veintitres and so on. Be careful of that vowel change. Veinte is twenty and the rest of the twenties start with veinti-. The same pattern applies to thirty, forty, and so on.
30+
Speaking of thirty, forty, and so on. Twenty to ninety from lowest to highest is as follows. Veinte, treinta, cuarenta, cincuenta, sesenta, setenta, ochenta, noventa. These sets of ten follow a different numbering pattern than fifteen to nineteen, as well as the twenties.. Cuarenta y uno is forty one. Ochenta y nueve is eighty one. For thirty to ninety nine, it always follow the tens and one format. Cincuenta y cinco. Setenta y ocho.
Hundreds
The hundreds only has one exception, but first, the rule. The rule is ciento. One hundred is ciento, two hundred is doscientos, notice it’s plural, three hundred is trescientos. Five hundred is the exception; quinientos. Why it’s like that, I don’t know. But no matter how big the number, these hundreds will always appear in the same way.
Thousands
What probably means the most to you is one and two thousand due to dates. One thousand is mil and two thousand is dos mil. Notice how thousand is not made plural just like in English. All the way up, it follows the same format. Cuatro mil is four thousand. Diez mil is ten thousand. Ciento treinta y dos mil is one hundred thirty two thousand. You can start to see how these all easily combine into lengthy written and spoken numbers in a predictable manner. Just like in English.
Milli, Billi, Trilli
Million and above follows a predictable structure as far as romance languages are concerned. So, if you’re learning French, for example, you’re in luck. One million is un millón, one billion is mil millones (notice how million is pluralized), and one trillion is un billón. This might be confusing at first, but have patience with yourself. You{re not the only one that’s having a hard time with this, if you are.
Ordinal Numbers
Ordinal numbers are used to organize your counting by place in a given order. Let me make that make sense. First, second, and third. I might be overly thorough here, but I’m going through first to tenth. In order, it is primero, segundo, tercero, cuarto, quinto, sexto, séptimo, octavo, noveno, décimo. When using ordinal numbers, they come before the noun being referenced. El primero corredor. La quinta pieza. Cada séptima foto.
Positives and Negatives
This is also very easy in Spanish. It’s an adjective, just like in English, that comes after the number, as you would regularly expect in Spanish. They’re even very close to the English spelling and pronunciation. Positivo y negativo. A couple examples: siete negativo y cinco positivo.
Basic Math
Matemático básico, basic math. Addition is la suma, subtraction is la resta, multiplication is la multiplicación, and division is la división. Listen to the examples and see if you can tell how they are used.
Suma (Addition):
- “Once más seis igual a diecisiete.” (11 + 6 = 17)
- “Quince más cuatro igual a diecinueve.” (15 + 4 = 19)
Resta (Subtraction):
- “Dieciséis menos cinco igual a once.” (16–5 = 11)
- “Diecisiete menos ocho igual a nueve.” (17–8 = 9)
Multiplicación (Multiplication):
- “Catorce multiplicado por tres es cuarenta y dos.” (14 × 3 = 42)
- “Dieciocho multiplicado por dos es treinta y seis.” (18 × 2 = 36)
División (Division):
- “Veinte dividido por cuatro es cinco.” (20 ÷ 4 = 5)
- “Diecinueve dividido por nueve es dos con residuo uno.” (19 ÷ 9 = 2 con residuo 1)
Wrap-Up
There was a lot covered here today, so be sure to go through and pick out what you’d like to practice first. Remember that the more you learn, the easier this will get and the less you’ll have to work to get these to stick. Use them in exercises and applications that mean something to you to make it a lot easier.
I hope you got something out of today’s episode. Thank you so much for listening!
Before you go, I’d appreciate one more moment of your time. If you found value in today’s episode, please subscribe, share the show, and give me your feedback. Your support keeps this content ad-free and helps expand this into new languages. If you’d like to contribute, visit Buy Me A Coffee — it’s not about the coffee, but about making it easier for me to create and share with you. Thanks for listening, and I hope to have you in the next episode!
Key words and phrases
The number El número
0 Cero
1 Uno
2 Dos
3 Tres
4 Cuatro
5 Cinco
6 Seis
7 Siete
8 Ocho
9 Nueve
10 Diez
11 Once
12 Doce
13 Trece
14 Catorce
15 Quince
16 Dieciséis
17 Diecisiete
18 Dieciocho
19 Diecinueve
20 Veinte
30 Treinta
40 Cuarenta
50 Cincuenta
60 Sesenta
70 Setenta
80 Ochenta
90 Noventa
100 Cien
101 Ciento uno
500 Quinientos
999 Novecientos noventa y nueve
1000 Mil
One million Un millón
Billion Mil millones
Trillion Billón
First (1st) Primero
Second (2nd) Segundo
Third (3rd) Tercero
Fourth (4th) Cuarto
Fifth (5th) Quinto
Sixth (6th) Sexto
Seventh (7th) Séptimo
Eighth (8th) Octavo
Ninth (9th) Noveno
Tenth (10th) Décimo
Negative number Número negativo
Positive number Número positivo
Addition (+) Suma
Subtraction (-) Resta
Multiplication (×) Multiplicación
Division (÷) División
