Learn Numbers in Spanish in the easiest way via Multibhashi

Spanish (Español or Castellano, ‘Castilian’) is a Romance language spoken in Europe’s the Iberian Peninsula. It is now a worldwide language with approximately 500 million native speakers, the majority of whom live in Spain and the Americas.

Multibhashi is a language learning app that has been developed in India to cater to the needs of language learners worldwide. Users can simply install the app and test their knowledge of a language by solving quizzes and puzzles that are uploaded on the app every day. It takes, indeed, just a small bit of your internet data.

Habits can be built in a little less than a month so the important thing is you are creating the habit of learning each day. If you don’t start forming a studying habit you will not be able to make sustainable progress.

Remember how to count to 10?

1 — uno

2 — dos

3 — tres

4 — cuatro

5 — cinco

6 — seis

7 — siete

8 — ocho

9 — nueve

10 — diez

And from 11-20?

11 — once

12 — doce

13 — trece

14 — catorce

15 — quince

16 — dieciséis

17 — diecisiete

18 — dieciocho

19 — diecinueve

20 — veinte

Once you get past 20, it’s easy to create more numbers. To make 44, for example, you take 40 (cuarenta) and 4 (cuatro) and add them together with an y in the middle. So you get cuarenta y cuatro. Easy!

You’ll also need to remember that numbers 21-29 are each just one word, and the y becomes i, so it’s veinticuatro as opposed to veinte y cuatro.

Other numbers you’ll need are:

30 — treinta

40 — cuarenta

50 — cincuenta

60 — sesenta

70 — setenta

80 — ochenta

90 — noventa

100 — cien

Once you get past 100, you can just keep going. If you’re saying a number that is one hundred and something, cien changes to ciento. Cien is just for flat 100. So, for example:

163 = ciento sesenta y tres

To get other values in the hundreds,

200 is 2 + 100 = doscientos

300 is 3 + 100 = trescientos

353 = trescientos cincuenta y tres

You’ll also need the word mil (1000) once you start counting higher and discussing years.

And that’s it! You know how to count. Now it’s time to move on to the juicier numbers stuff.

When you say the date in Spanish, you say the day (día) first, then the month (mes) and then the year (año)—the word for the year is not to be confused with ano, which is something quite different.

So for the 17th of June, 2015, you would say:

17 de junio, de 2015

In practice, you often miss the second de and just say:

17 de junio, 2015

If you want to add the day of the week, you’d add that first, so you’d say or write:

Jueves 17 de junio, 2015

But hang on a minute, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. What were the days of the week again? And how do you say the months? And why isn’t there a capital J in junio?

Let’s start with the days of the week, which are:

Monday — lunes 

Tuesday — martes

Wednesday — miércoles 

Thursday — jueves 

Friday — viernes 

Saturday — sábado 

Sunday — domingo 

Note that unlike in English, you don’t need a capital letter to write the days of the week.

The months follow the same rule, no capital letters here either. They are:

January — enero 

February — febrero 

March — marzo 

April — abril 

May — mayo 

June — junio 

July — julio 

August — agosto 

September — septiembre 

October — octubre 

November — noviembre 

December — diciembre 

The year is easy, once you know the numbers. Which luckily you do.

Note that in Spanish you don’t shorten the date like we would in English, so 2015 is not veinte, quince (twenty fifteen). The year is always said as a number, so 2015 is dos mil quince, and 1987 is mil novecientos ochenta y siete. It can be a bit of a mouthful, so keep practising.

The main difference between saying the date in English and in Spanish is that in English we use ordinal numbers for the date – it’s the 17th, 1st or 3rd of the month – whereas in Spanish you just say the number – 17, 1 or 3. This makes things easier, as long as you remember the rule.

To ask about the date say:

¿Cuál es la fecha? (What is the date?)

And answer by saying:

Es el 17 de junio, 2015. (It’s the 17th of July, 2015.)

Or whatever day it is. Don’t forget to add the “es el” at the beginning. The date is masculine, so it’s never “Es la 17 de junio.”

So now you know the date, but what about the time?

The time in Spanish is fairly similar to English but with a few slight differences that may lead you astray.

To ask what time it is, say:

“¿Qué hora es?” (What time is it?)

To answer, say:

“Son las ______” (It’s ______o’clock) — for example, “Son las cinco” (It’s five o’clock)

Note that when it’s one o’clock (1:00 p.m. or 1:00 a.m.), we use es instead of son, because una is singular. So, you would say:

“Es la una.” (It’s one o’clock)

Unlike the date, the time is always feminine, so it’s “es la una“ or “son las dos,” never “es el uno” or “son los dos.”

As you know the numbers 1-12, you can already say the time when it’s on the hour without a problem:

It’s 2 p.m. = Son las dos

It’s 4 p.m. = Son las cuatro

Note that if you want to distinguish between whether it’s a.m. or p.m., you can add de la tarde (p.m., afternoon) or de la noche (p.m., nighttime)—for example, “son las dos de la tarde” (it’s two in the afternoon)—or de la mañana (a.m.)— for example, “son las dos de la mañana” (it’s two in the morning).

You might also need:

Midday — Mediodia

Midnight — Medianoche 

Quarter past _____ — _____ y cuarto

Half past _____ — _____ y media

Quarter to _____ — _____ menos cuarto

Here are a few examples to get you started working with all these numbers:

It’s 5:15 (quarter past 5) — son las cinco y cuarto

It’s 5:30 (half past 5) — son las cinco y media

It’s 5:45 (quarter of six) — son las seis menos cuarto

Notice that to say 5:45, you can use cinco con cuarenta y cinco or you have to count backwards from 6 o’clock to say seis menos cuarto (quarter of six).

To talk about times that aren’t made up of quarters or halves, you just use the numbers we already know.

5:05 — cinco y cinco

5:20 — cinco y veinte

5:40 — seis menos veinte

5:50 — seis menos diez

Also note that many Spanish-speaking countries use the 24 hour clock, so they’re more likely to say “son las catorce” (it’s 14:00) than they are to say “son las dos de la tarde.” This can also differ between individuals within each country, just as it does in many English-speaking countries.

Good practice for telling the time can be found on websites like this one and this one.

The last thing to know before you have conquered everything about Spanish numbers, is how to make ordinal numbers—first, second, third, etc.

As mentioned earlier, we don’t use ordinal numbers for the date in Spanish. But you do need them to talk about floor numbers, directions and who has won competitions (she won first prize, for example).

The ordinal numbers in Spanish you’ll need to know are:

first — primer(o/a)

second — segundo(a)

third — tercer(o/a)

fourth — cuarto(a)

fifth — quinto(a)

sixth — sexto(a)

seventh — séptimo(a) 

eighth — octavo(a)

ninth — noveno(a)

tenth — décimo(a)

These words are adjectives (because they describe a noun), you have to make them masculine or feminine depending on what you’re talking about.

Ultimately, the best way is the one that you enjoy the most and can make consistent progress in. This article set out to provide a few best ways to learn Spanish. 

There’s an amazing new way to learn Spanish! Want to see what everyone’s talking about!