Spanish numbers 1 to 100: count with confidence

The first twenty numbers — uno, dos, tres all the way to veinte — are single words you simply learn one by one. They are the building blocks: once you know them, almost everything up to a hundred falls into place. (Zero, for the record, is cero.)

After that you only need the tens — treinta (30), cuarenta (40), cincuenta (50) and so on up to cien (100) — plus one small pattern with the word y (“and”). Below is the full 1–100 table with audio, and the sections then cover the twenties, the tens, the y pattern, and the little shifts in un, una and cien vs ciento.

1 to 20: the building blocks

There is no shortcut for the first fifteen — uno to quince are each their own word and worth memorizing. From sixteen, a pattern appears: dieciséis (16), diecisiete (17), dieciocho (18) and diecinueve (19) are literally “ten-and-six” written as one word, with veinte rounding off at 20. These twenty numbers are the foundation for everything from prices to telling time in Spanish.

Tengo dos hermanos y tres primos.
I have two brothers and three cousins.

Hay quince personas en la sala.
There are fifteen people in the room.

The twenties: one word

The numbers 21–29 are written as a single word, not three. Watch the accents on veintidós, veintitrés and veintiséis — they are easy to forget.

This one-word spelling only happens in the twenties; from 31 onward the numbers split into three words again.

Mi hermano tiene veintidós años.
My brother is twenty-two years old.

En la clase hay veintiséis estudiantes.
There are twenty-six students in the class.

Tens and the y pattern

The tens follow their own short list, and you will reuse them constantly.

From 31 to 99, build the number with three words: the ten, then y (“and”), then the unit — treinta y uno (31), cuarenta y dos (42), noventa y nueve (99). The y sits only between the tens and the units; it never appears after a hundred, so 101 is ciento uno, never “cien y uno”.

Treinta y uno, cuarenta y dos, noventa y nueve.
Thirty-one, forty-two, ninety-nine.

Mi abuela tiene ochenta y cinco años.
My grandmother is eighty-five years old.

Un, una and cien vs ciento

When a number sits right before a noun, two of them change shape. Uno becomes un before a masculine noun and una before a feminine noun, and veintiuno loses its o to become veintiún. The same happens inside the bigger numbers: treinta y un libros, treinta y una casas.

Compré un libro y una revista.
I bought a book and a magazine.

Hay veintiún coches en el aparcamiento.
There are twenty-one cars in the parking lot.

En la calle hay treinta y una casas.
There are thirty-one houses on the street.

For a hundred, use cien for exactly 100, including right before a noun: cien euros, cien personas. From 101 upward it switches to ciento: ciento uno, ciento cincuenta. So say ciento uno, not “cien y uno”.

El billete cuesta cien euros.
The ticket costs one hundred euros.

Ciento cincuenta personas vinieron a la fiesta.
One hundred fifty people came to the party.

Common mistakes

Writing the twenties as three words

The twenties are spelled as a single word. Splitting them into three, as English might tempt you to, is a spelling error.

veinte y uno → veintiuno
twenty-one — the y pattern only starts at 31 (treinta y uno).

Saying “cien y uno”

After a hundred there is no y, and 100 itself shifts from cien to ciento before a smaller number.

cien y uno → ciento uno
one hundred and one — y joins only tens and units, never the hundred.

Not shortening uno before a noun

Uno is the counting form; directly before a noun it drops to un or una.

uno libro → un libro
a book — masculine nouns take un, feminine nouns take una (una mesa).

Forgetting the accents

Some twenties carry a written accent, and leaving it off is a real mistake.

veintidos → veintidós
twenty-two — the same accent appears on veintitrés and veintiséis.

In Fluera you drill numbers by ear in short everyday sentences — saying your age, a price, a phone number — so veintidós and treinta y uno come out instantly instead of being counted up in your head. Try it when you practice Spanish and turn the list into numbers you can say out loud.

Practice