Learn Spanish: Numbers 1–20

Learning to count is one of the most essential building blocks in your Spanish language journey. This lesson covers the foundational numbers from one to twenty, which you will use daily for everything from checking prices and telling time to sharing your age or phone number. Mastering these twenty terms ensures you can navigate basic interactions with confidence, whether you are shopping at a local market or introducing yourself to new people. Understanding these basics is the first step toward handling more complex mathematical concepts and larger figures in the future.

As you study this list, look for specific patterns in how the words are constructed. The numbers one through fifteen are unique, individual words such as Once (on-seh) for eleven and Quince (keen-seh) for fifteen. However, once you reach sixteen, a predictable pattern emerges. The numbers sixteen through nineteen are compound words that combine the word for ten, Diez (dyehs), with the single digit. For example, eighteen is expressed as Dieciocho (dye-see-oh-cho) and nineteen is Diecinueve (dye-see-nweh-beh). You will also notice that several numbers end in a soft vowel sound, such as Siete (syeh-teh) for seven and Veinte (bayn-teh) for twenty. Paying close attention to these phonetic endings will help you develop a more natural accent. While Uno (oo-no) is the standard form for counting, remember that it is the only number in this set that may change its form based on the gender of the noun it precedes.