Quick answer
¿Cuánto cuesta? Doce euros con cincuenta.
How much is it? Twelve euros fifty. Prices and phone numbers are the two places you will need numbers on day one.
The words of this lesson
One to thirty: learn the lumps
One to fifteen are separate words you simply memorise: uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez, once, doce, trece, catorce, quince. From sixteen the pattern starts: dieciséis, diecisiete, dieciocho, diecinueve — ten and six, ten and seven. The twenties keep going as one word: veintiuno, veintidós, veintitrés.
Thirty-one upwards: add "y"
From thirty on, Spanish writes the tens and the units as three words joined by y: treinta y uno, cuarenta y cinco, sesenta y ocho, noventa y nueve. The tens are treinta, cuarenta, cincuenta, sesenta, setenta, ochenta, noventa. One hundred exactly is cien; anything above it becomes ciento, as in ciento dos.
Uno shortens to un before a masculine noun and becomes una before a feminine one: treinta y un euros, treinta y una personas.
Prices and phone numbers
Ask with ¿cuánto cuesta? for one item and ¿cuánto cuestan? for several. A price with cents is read with con: tres euros con veinte. Phone numbers are usually given in pairs — 655 12 34 89 becomes seis, cincuenta y cinco, doce, treinta y cuatro, ochenta y nueve — so knowing the two-digit numbers matters more than knowing the digits alone.
Where you are matters
Spain uses euros and says <span class="es-inline">dos euros con cincuenta</span>, while much of Latin America counts in pesos and often says the currency only once, as in <span class="es-inline">cincuenta pesos</span>.
Memory trick
The break is at thirty: below it the number is one word, from treinta y uno upwards it is three.
A short dialogue
Typical mistakes
veinte y dos
veintidós
The twenties are written as a single word; the y form only starts at thirty-one.
Tengo treinta y uno años.
Tengo treinta y un años.
Before a masculine noun uno drops its final o, so it becomes un años... in the fixed phrase treinta y un años.
Cuesta cien y cinco euros.
Cuesta ciento cinco euros.
Above one hundred the word becomes ciento and no y is used between hundreds and units.
Practice
Practise these numbers
0/8 matched — tap a Spanish word, then its translation
Check yourself
How do you write 22 in Spanish?