Spanish ordinal numbers: 1st to 10th – Episode 36

Spanish ordinal numbers: 1st to 10th

Podcast episode 36 – SEE ALL EPISODES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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Hi, welcome back to Speak Spanish with Maria Fernandez. I’m Maria Fernandez, a native Spanish teacher and the author of courses like Learn Spanish At Your Own Pace, which you can find on Amazon .

Today we’re going to learn and practise more numbers.

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

Today’s question comes from John, one of my students. John sent me an email saying: “How about learning numbers like: first, second, third, and so on, on one of your podcast lessons?”

Numbers are one of those things that you cannot practise enough in a foreign language. They always come up when you least expect them, and they’re said so quickly by native speakers.

Spanish ordinal numbers: learn 1st to 10th

To help you master the numbers in no time, today we’re going to learn and practise numbers: first to tenth. Here are the ten numbers. Repeat after me:

primero, first
segundo, second
tercero, third
cuarto, fourth
quinto, fifth
sexto, sixth
séptimo, seventh
octavo, eighth
noveno, ninth
décimo, tenth

Let’s say them again.

Spanish ordinal numbers: tips

As you know, I’m very keen on finding similarities between words, so you can learn them more easily. Notice, for example, the similarity between:
• primero, first, primero, and the English word premier, as in premier division. Primero.
• segundo, and the English number second, which is what it means. Second.
• tercero, third, tercero, and the English word tertiary. Tercero.
• cuarto, fourth, cuarto, and the English word quarter. Cuarto.
• quinto, fifth, quinto, and the word quinta. The word comes from Spanish and Portuguese. It was originally a farm and house let out for a rent of one-fifth of its produce.
• Notice also the similarity between sexto and the English number sixth. Sexto.
• séptimo, seventh, séptimo, and the month of September. September was the seventh month in the early Roman calendar. Septiembre.
• octavo, eighth, octavo. Remember the word octopus. And notice also the similarity with the month of October. October was the eighth month in the early Roman calendar. Octavo.
• noveno, ninth, noveno, and the month of November. November was the ninth month in the early Roman calendar. Noveno
• And finally, décimo, tenth, décimo, and the month of December. December was the tenth month in the early Roman calendar.

So, the ten English words to remember are: premier, second, tertiary, quarter, quinta, sixth, September, October, November and December.

And the Spanish numbers are:

primero, first
segundo, second
tercero, third
cuarto, fourth
quinto, fifth
sexto, sixth
séptimo, seventh
octavo, eighth
noveno, ninth
décimo, tenth

Spanish ordinal numbers: listening drill

Let’s now do a listening drill. Which number is it?

cuarto, fourth
octavo, eighth
primero, first
séptimo, seventh
décimo, tenth
segundo, second
sexto, sixth
noveno, ninth
tercero, third
quinto, fifth

Spanish ordinal numbers: speaking drill

Let’s now do a speaking drill. Can you tell me these ten numbers in Spanish?

third, tercero
eighth, octavo
first, primero
seventh, séptimo
fourth, cuarto
tenth, décimo
sixth, sexto
second, segundo
ninth, noveno
fifth, quinto

Spanish ordinal numbers: let’s recap

To recap, let’s say those 10 numbers one last time:

primero, first
segundo, second
tercero, third
cuarto, fourth
quinto, fifth
sexto, sixth
séptimo, seventh
octavo, eighth
noveno, ninth
décimo, tenth

Have a look at
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