1 to 10 in Spanish: Numbers, Pronunciation and Examples

1 to 10 in Spanish: the table

Spanish numbers are the same in every Spanish-speaking country. What changes between Spain and Latin America is one sound, the c before e or i and the letter z, which is covered in the pronunciation column.

How to pronounce them

• Vowels are short and pure. Spanish has five vowel sounds and they never drift the way English vowels do. The o in dos is a clean "oh", not "oh-w"; the e in tres is the e of "bet", not "bay".
• r in tres and cuatro is a single tap, like the tt in the American pronunciation of "butter". It is not the rolled rr and not the English r.
• v in nueve sounds like b. Spanish makes no difference between b and v. Nueve is "NWEH-beh".
• c in cinco and z in diez. In Latin America and the Canary Islands these are "s" (seseo). In most of Spain they are the "th" of "think" (distinción). Both are correct; pick the one that matches the Spanish you want to speak.
• Diphthongs stay in one syllable. Seis, siete, nueve and diez each have two vowels that glide together. Diez is one syllable, "dyess", not "dee-ez".
• Stress falls on the first syllable of every two-syllable number here: UNO, CUATRO, CINCO, SIETE, OCHO, NUEVE.

Uno, un or una?

The number one is the only one of the ten that changes form, and it changes according to the noun that follows it.

Un and una are also the words for "a" and "an", so "un café" means both "a coffee" and "one coffee". Spanish does not distinguish them, and nobody will be confused. The same rule applies to every number ending in one: veintiún libros (21 books), veintiuna casas (21 houses), treinta y un días (31 days).

The other nine numbers never change. Dos, tres and the rest stay the same before masculine, feminine, singular or plural nouns.

Example sentences

• Tengo dos hermanos. I have two brothers.
• Quiero un café, por favor. I want one coffee, please.
• Una mesa para cuatro. A table for four.
• Tengo una pregunta. I have one question.
• Somos seis. There are six of us.
• Vivo en el piso tres. I live on the third floor. (Spanish often uses the plain number where English uses "third".)
• Página ocho, por favor. Page eight, please.
• Mi número es tres, cinco, siete, dos, nueve, uno. My number is 3-5-7-2-9-1. (In Spain phone numbers are usually read in pairs: treinta y cinco, setenta y dos...)
• Cuesta diez euros. It costs ten euros.
• Hay cinco opciones. There are five options.

Numbers for time, age and prices

Telling the time. One o'clock is singular and feminine because hora (hour) is feminine: Es la una. Every other hour is plural: Son las dos, son las tres, son las diez. Minutes follow with y: son las cinco y diez (5:10). This is the most common place beginners use "uno" when they should use "una".

Age. Spanish "has" years rather than "being" them: Tengo diez años (I am ten years old), literally "I have ten years". ¿Cuántos años tienes? asks the question. Never say "soy diez".

Prices. ¿Cuánto cuesta? (How much does it cost?) or ¿Cuánto es? (How much is it?) The answer is the number plus the currency: Son ocho euros, son cinco pesos, son tres dólares.

Dates. Days of the month use the plain number: el dos de mayo (the 2nd of May), el diez de octubre. The only exception is the first, which uses the ordinal: el primero de enero (in Spain, el uno de enero is also common).

Spanish numbers 11 to 100

Eleven to fifteen are their own words. From sixteen on, the numbers are built from the tens and the units, first as single words (dieciséis, veintiuno) and then, from 31 upward, as three words joined by y.

Watch the accents on dieciséis, veintidós, veintitrés and veintiséis: they are written as one word and the accent keeps the stress where it belongs. The old spellings "diez y seis" and "veinte y uno" are understood but no longer standard.

First to tenth: the ordinals

Spanish uses ordinals far less than English. Beyond tenth, and often well before it, people just use the plain number (el piso doce, the twelfth floor). These ten are the ones you need.

Ordinals agree with the noun like adjectives (la primera vez, the first time), and primero and tercero drop the o before a masculine singular noun: el primer día (the first day), el tercer piso (the third floor).

Mistakes learners make

• "Uno café." Before a masculine noun it is un: un café. Before a feminine noun it is una: una cerveza.
• "Es la uno." One o'clock is es la una, feminine, and it is the only hour that takes es instead of son.
• Mixing up seis and siete. Seis (6) is one syllable, "sace". Siete (7) is two, "SYEH-teh". Say them as a pair until the difference is automatic.
• "Dies" for diez. The spelling is diez with a z, whatever your accent does with it. Dies (with an s) is not a Spanish word, and it is the most common misspelling in learner writing.
• Pronouncing nueve with an English v. It is "NWEH-beh". Spanish v and b are the same sound.
• "Soy diez años." Age uses tener: tengo diez años.
• Making numbers plural or feminine. Dos, tres and the rest never change. "Tres casas" is correct; "tresas casas" is not a thing. Only uno (and its compounds) and the hundreds from 200 up agree with the noun.

How to remember them

Spanish and English share Latin roots, and every one of these numbers has an English word hiding it:

• uno: unicycle, unique, union.
• dos: dual, duo, duet.
• tres: trio, triple, tricycle.
• cuatro: quartet, quarter.
• cinco: quintet, cinquefoil (five leaves).
• seis: sextet, sextuplets.
• siete: September, which was the seventh month of the old Roman year.
• ocho: octopus, octagon, October (the eighth month).
• nueve: November (the ninth month).
• diez: decimal, decade, December (the tenth month).

Then count out loud. Stairs, coins, the items in your shopping basket. Ten numbers said fifty times each is enough for them to come without thinking, and that is the goal: a number you have to think about is a number you will not use.

Also useful

• Basic Spanish words: the 100 words to learn alongside the numbers.
• Days of the week in Spanish: for dates and making plans.
• Spanish greetings: what to say before you order dos cafés.
• Common Spanish phrases: full sentences for travel and everyday talk.