Los números y la hora
Spanish numbers ask almost nothing of you: no cases, hardly any agreement to worry about, and only a handful of shapes to memorize before the rest builds itself. The three things worth learning properly are that 16 through 29 are written as a single word, that from 31 up the tens and the units are joined by y, and that uno shrinks to un or una in front of a noun. Once you can count, the clock comes almost free — with one twist. Spanish says the hour in the plural, Son las tres, except at one o'clock, where it goes singular: Es la una. And across Latin America there is a second, very common way to say the minutes before the hour that Spain does not use: diez para las ocho.
0–15 — the ones you memorize
cero, uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez, once, doce, trece, catorce, quince. Sixteen words and there is no pattern hiding in them — say them out loud until they arrive without thinking, because everything above 15 is built out of these. One of them changes shape: uno is the number you count with, but in front of a noun it drops its ending and takes the gender of what follows — un libro, una mesa. You say Tengo uno on its own, and Tengo un hermano when the noun shows up. Remember too that c before e and i is an /s/ here: cero and cinco start with the same sound as sí, and the c you hear in the middle of doce and quince is that same sound.
16–29 — one word each
dieciséis, diecisiete, dieciocho, diecinueve, then veinte, veintiuno, veintidós, veintitrés, veinticuatro, veinticinco, veintiséis, veintisiete, veintiocho, veintinueve. These were once three words — ten and six, twenty and two — and they got glued together centuries ago. The glue leaves two marks. First, the accent: dieciséis, veintidós, veintitrés and veintiséis carry one, because the stress lands on the last syllable. Second, veintiuno behaves like uno and shortens in front of a noun, picking up a written accent as it does: veintiún años, veintiún pesos, but veintiuna sillas, which needs none. Writing diez y seis or veinte y dos is a beginner's tell — from 16 to 29 it is always one word.
30–99 — tens, then y, then units
The tens are treinta, cuarenta, cincuenta, sesenta, setenta, ochenta, noventa. Above 30 the gluing stops and the numbers split back into three separate words with y in the middle: treinta y uno, cuarenta y siete, sesenta y cinco, noventa y nueve. The y is not optional and it never appears anywhere else in a number — you say ciento treinta, with no y between the hundred and the ten, and treinta y dos with one. The uno rule keeps working all the way up: cuarenta y un pesos, cuarenta y una personas. Watch sesenta against setenta when you listen; one letter separates 60 from 70 and it goes by fast.
Hundreds, thousands and prices
Exactly one hundred is cien. Everything from 101 to 199 uses ciento: ciento uno, ciento veinte, ciento cincuenta. So cien pesos is a round hundred and ciento veinte pesos is 120 — the same word, one syllable longer, the moment another number follows it. From 200 up the hundreds agree in gender like adjectives: doscientos pesos but doscientas personas. Three of them are irregular and worth drilling: 500 is quinientos, 700 is setecientos, 900 is novecientos — never cincocientos. A thousand is mil, with no un in front of it: mil pesos, dos mil, quince mil. A million does take one and drags a de behind it: un millón de pesos. Prices are read straight out: doce pesos, quince soles, dos mil quinientos pesos. One thing to notice on a price tag — Mexico, Colombia, Peru and most of Central America and the Caribbean write $1,250.50, while Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay swap the two marks and write $1.250,50.
¿Qué hora es? — son las, es la
The question is singular, as if asking which hour it is: ¿Qué hora es? In Mexico and Colombia you will hear it just as often in the plural, ¿Qué horas son?, which is perfectly good spoken Spanish. The answer, though, is nearly always plural, because you are counting hours: Son las dos, Son las siete, Son las once. The las is there because hora is feminine and invisible in the sentence — you are really saying 'it is two of the hours'. One o'clock is the exception in both halves: Es la una, singular verb and singular article. Add en punto for 'on the dot': Es la una en punto, Son las nueve en punto.
Minutes: y, menos, and para
For minutes after the hour, add y and the number: Son las tres y diez, Son las ocho y veinte. A quarter past is y cuarto and half past is y media — Son las tres y cuarto, Son las tres y media. Note that it is media, agreeing with the hidden feminine hora, not medio. For minutes before the hour there are two ways, and Latin America leans hard on the second. The first is menos, which everybody understands: Son las tres menos cuarto is 2:45. The second counts down to the hour with para: un cuarto para las tres, diez para las ocho, or with a verb in front, Faltan diez para las ocho. From Mexico to Peru that para version is what you will hear most; the Southern Cone tends to keep menos. Both are correct — learn to say one and to recognize the other.
Which part of the day
Spanish has no a.m. and p.m. in speech, so you name the stretch of day: de la mañana until noon, de la tarde through the afternoon and early evening, de la noche once it is dark. Las ocho de la mañana is 8 a.m., las nueve de la noche is 9 p.m. Noon and midnight get their own words: el mediodía and la medianoche. When you are talking about the morning in general rather than pinning a time to it, Latin America says en la mañana and en la tarde — Trabajo en la mañana, Nos vemos en la tarde. Timetables, plane tickets and TV listings switch to the 24-hour clock and read it plainly: El vuelo sale a las quince treinta.
a las… — making plans, and giving your age
To pin an event to a time, use a: ¿A qué hora?, A las siete, A la una. Softening it is normal and very common — a eso de las siete is 'around seven', and ahorita is its own answer to 'when', meaning right now, in a few minutes, or a comfortably vague later, depending on the country and the tone of voice. Ahorita vengo from a shopkeeper can be thirty seconds or twenty minutes. Numbers also carry your age, and Spanish uses tener, not ser: Tengo veintiún años, Mi hermano tiene quince años. You ask a friend ¿Cuántos años tienes?, and someone you are addressing as usted gets the gentler ¿Qué edad tiene? Two more verbs finish the set: costar, which changes its stem in the third person — cuesta, cuestan — and regular terminar, for when things end: La clase termina a las nueve y media.
