How to master the Spanish numbers fast & easily – Episode 011

How to master the Spanish numbers fast & easily

Podcast episode 11 – SEE ALL EPISODES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

---

Today’s question comes from Samantha, one of my newsletter subscribers.

She asks: “How can I master the Spanish numbers. Native speakers always say them so fast.”

And Samantha is right. The numbers are always said very fast by native Spanish speakers. So, what’s the easiest way to learn them?

See also: Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses.

How to master the Spanish numbers

The easiest, the absolute easiest way of learning the Spanish numbers is with good speaking and listening drills.

In future episodes of this podcast, I’ll give you some great speaking and listening drills to master the numbers. But today we’re going to focus on some points that’ll help you in the learning process.

The first issue that I want to focus on is the pronunciation. In order for people to understand the numbers that you’re saying, you need to be saying them correctly.

Saying the numbers correctly, pronouncing the numbers correctly is absolutely essential if you want people to understand you.

Also, the better you say the numbers, the easier you’ll find it to understand them when other people say them.

How to master the Spanish numbers – Pronunciation tip

So, which sounds exactly do you need to focus on? Without any questions, the five vowels: a – e – i – o – u

Notice, for example, how I say these numbers: dos, cuatro, siete, quince.

Are you saying them like that?: dos, cuatro, siete, quince.

Notice how clearly I’m saying the vowels: dos, cuatro, siete, quince.

Also, notice that you can never drop the last E in numbers like: siete, nueve, trece, veinte.

If you drop the last E in those numbers, native speakers will never understand what you’re saying.

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

How to master the Spanish numbers – Pronunciation tip

Another pronunciation point is: the diphthongs. That’s two vowels together. In numbers like: seis, veinte, treinta, cien.

Notice how I say the two sounds: seis, veinte, treinta, cien.

The vowels E and I are both said. The vowel E is always longer than the I, but the I is still there: seis, veinte, treinta, cien.

So, watch out for the diphthongs in your numbers.

How to master the Spanish numbers – Similarities

Another important point when it comes to learning the numbers well and fast, is to notice the difference between numbers that look very similar:

sesenta – setenta (60 – 70)

dos – doce (2 – 12)

tres – trece (3 – 13)

Watch out for those numbers that you could mistake for another one.

A good trick to learn the Spanish numbers quickly is to find similarities between them.

What do I mean by that? For example, notice the similarities between:

dos (2) – doscientos (200)

And you can find plenty of similarities between Spanish numbers. Here’re some of them:

tres – treinta – trescientos (3 – 30 -300)

cuatro – cuarenta – cuatrocientos (4 – 40 – 400)

seis – dieciséis – sesenta – seiscientos (6 – 16 – 60 – 600)

siete – setenta – setecientos (7 – 70 – 700)

ocho – ochenta – ochocientos (8 – 80 – 800)

nueve – noventa – novecientos (9 – 90 – 900)

And so on.

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

Go through the Spanish numbers and try to find similarities between them. You’ll notice how much easier it is to learn Spanish words when you can find similarities between them.

How to master the Spanish numbers – Similarities with English

And finally, there’s another trick that I really like. And it’s to find similarities between the Spanish numbers and some English words. Here’re some of them.

Number 1, uno, and the English word: unity

uno – unity

And here are a few others:

dos (2) – duo, duet

tres (3) – triangle

cuatro (4) – quadruple

ocho (8) – octopus

Remember that the animal has eight arms, that’s why it’s called ‘octopus’.

doce (12) – dozen

And finally cien (100) – century.

These tips should all help you learn the Spanish numbers faster.

You can find those tips applied to the number lessons in my Spanish video course. That’s a course with plenty real of conversations and role playing exercises. It also has pronunciation practice, and vocabulary flashcards where you can learn new words really easily, including the numbers.

Find out more about my Spanish courses.