The Numbers 1 to 10 in Spanish (pt. 1) – Lesson 12

Numbers in Spanish: part 1

Numbers are something you’ll use all the time: prices, phone numbers, times, ages. In this blue vocabulary lesson we start with the basics: the numbers 0 to 10, and four super useful words: first, second, third and last.

The numbers topic has 5 parts in this course, and this is part 1. You’ve probably heard uno, dos, tres before, but let’s make sure you know them perfectly, with the right pronunciation.

Spanish numbers 0 to 10

Number	Spanish	Sounds like
0	cero	SEH-ro (Latin America) / THEH-ro (Spain)
1	uno	OO-no
2	dos	dohs
3	tres	trehs
4	cuatro	KWAH-tro
5	cinco	SEEN-ko
6	seis	sayss
7	siete	see-EH-teh
8	ocho	OH-cho
9	nueve	NWEH-beh
10	diez	dee-ESS (Latin America) / dee-ETH (Spain)

Say each number out loud a few times. Then try counting from 0 to 10 without looking!

Tips to remember the numbers

Cero: with a c, not a z

Zero in Spanish is almost the same as in English, but it’s written with a c: cero. Remember the alphabet lesson? The c before an e sounds like an s (or a “th” in Spain).

Uno: “oo”, not “you”

It’s not “YOU-no”. Spanish vowels always have the same sound (see lesson 5), so the u sounds like “oo”: OO-no.

Ocho: think of an octopus

An octopus has eight arms. Ocho and octopus both come from the same old word for eight, so that’s an easy way to remember it.

Nueve vs nuevo

Careful with nueve (nine): it ends in an e. Nuevo, with an o, means “new”. So really pronounce that last e!

First, second, third and last

Next to normal numbers, there are ordinal numbers: they tell you the order of something. Here are the most common ones:

Just like we saw in lesson 6, they change with the noun: -o for masculine nouns, -a for feminine nouns.

Primer and tercer

Here’s a little extra rule: right before a masculine noun, primero and tercero drop their -o:

But you say la primera vez (the first time), because vez is feminine.

Último: watch the accent

The accent on the ú shows where to put the stress: ÚL-ti-mo, not ul-TI-mo. We’ll dive deeper into accents (in Spanish: tildes) in a separate lesson.

Recap: numbers part 1

Spanish	English
cero	0
uno	1
dos	2
tres	3
cuatro	4
■■■■■■■■	■■■■■■■■
■■■■■■■■	■■■■■■■■
■■■■■■■■	■■■■■■■■

+ 10 more words & phrases

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Practice: say it in Spanish

Say the answer out loud, then click to check.

1. What’s 7 in Spanish?

siete

2. What’s 4 in Spanish?

cuatro

3. What’s 9 in Spanish?

nueve (not nuevo: that means “new”)

4. What’s 0 in Spanish?

cero

5. What’s five plus five?

diez

6. What’s three plus three?

seis

7. How do you say “the first day”?

el primer día

8. How do you say “the last pizza”?

la última pizza

Quiz: numbers 0 to 10

10 questions. ¡Vamos!

Frequently asked questions

Why does uno sometimes become un?

When you count, you say uno. But right before a masculine noun it becomes un: un café (one coffee / a coffee). Before a feminine noun it’s una: una pizza. We’ll see this again in later lessons.

How do you pronounce cero and diez in Spain?

In most of Spain, the c in cero and the z in diez sound like the English “th”: “THEH-ro”, “dee-ETH”. In Latin America (and parts of southern Spain), they sound like an s. Both are correct!

Before you go to the next lesson

Make sure you can count from 0 to 10 without looking before you move on. We’ll build on these in the next parts of the numbers series, all the way up to the bigger numbers. Grab the free reference sheet below, and ¡hasta la próxima!