This is lesson 8 in Crashed Culture’s Spanish Grammar Series.

Cardinal numbers in Spanish

We’ve been through a lot up to here, so let’s take a break with cardinal numbers in Spanish. They’re simple; no particularly weird rules or exceptions or any of that nonsense.

I mean, okay, there are a couple tiny little rules, but nothing like ser and estar like in the last lesson! I’ll show you what I mean.

Zero to ten

First, zero to ten:

*If you’ll notice, uno looks a lot like un/una, our indefinite articles. Good eye! When we’re using the word uno by itself, as just the number one, it’s just uno. However, if you’re using it to describe a thing (one girl, one dog, etc.), uno becomes our indefinite article: una chica, un perro, etc.

See? Nothing super crazy. And don’t worry, nobody expecting you to learn these just by looking at them. As always, I’ve got flashcards for you at the end!

Eleven to nineteen

Next batch! These next numbers are low-key, too. Just get a hold of the pattern, and we’re set:

As you can see, I highlighted the pattern you need to be aware of. Just like we have the ‘teens, Spanish has the…dieci’s I guess? You catch my drift. Moving on!

Twenty to thirty

Starting with twenty, we’re faced with another pattern. But still, nothing so ridiculous like some of these other concepts.

Again, check out that pattern: take the e, switch it to an i, and stick the second number at the end. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. One more pattern!

Thirty-one to forty-one

Thirty-one starts off the pattern that we follow for the rest of our numbers:

And once we have that down, it applies to all the other tens:

One hundred and up

Almost there, guys! Let’s go up to hundreds.

Then, when you plug them all together, it should like this:

Yup, we do not put a ‘y’ between hundreds and tens places. They’re friends, they stay together.

Then, if we want to go even further, just stick the word mil in.

Two more notes on cardinal numbers in Spanish

Phew! Okay. Once we get past allllll that, there’s two more notes for you to keep in mind:

1. Hundreds should always match the gender of your nouns
   For example: doscientas mesas, cuatrocientas chicas, trescientos chicos
2. Instead of commas, stick to periods
   For example: 3.964, 754.880.590

Other than that….I know that these numbers a lot. They’re not complicated or difficult to understand, but there is some memorization for you to do!