Math Expressions and Measurements | Spanish (Latin America) Grammar

Once you can count, you can do math — and in Spanish that means learning a handful of short, memorable words for the four operations, plus the constructions used for measurements, prices, and rough quantities.

The four operations

Operation	Spanish word	Symbol
plus	más	+
minus	menos	−
times	por	×
divided by	entre / dividido entre	÷
equals	es / son / igual a	=

Notice that the word for "times" is por — the same preposition you use for "by" in other contexts. And "divided by" in Latin America is usually just entre (literally "between"), though dividido entre and dividido por are also correct.

Reading equations

Spanish uses the verb ser to express "equals." If the result is 1, use es; for any other result, use the plural son. You can also say es igual a.

Equation	Spanish
2 + 2 = 4	Dos más dos son cuatro.
10 − 7 = 3	Diez menos siete son tres.
5 × 6 = 30	Cinco por seis son treinta.
20 ÷ 4 = 5	Veinte entre cuatro son cinco.
1 + 0 = 1	Uno más cero es uno.

Dos más dos son cuatro.

Two plus two is four.

Diez por diez son cien.

Ten times ten is one hundred.

Quince entre tres son cinco.

Fifteen divided by three is five.

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In casual speech, some Spanish speakers use es even when the result is plural: Dos más dos es cuatro. It's not strictly standard, but you'll hear it often and nobody will correct you. In school settings and formal writing, stick to son.

Measurements: length, weight, volume

Latin America uses the metric system, so the units you'll encounter are meters, kilometers, grams, kilograms, and liters. Nothing tricky here — just the words.

Unit	Spanish	Abbreviation
millimeter	milímetro	mm
centimeter	centímetro	cm
meter	metro	m
kilometer	kilómetro	km
gram	gramo	g
kilogram	kilogramo / kilo	kg
liter	litro	L

In everyday speech, kilogramo is nearly always shortened to kilo. You buy un kilo de manzanas at the market, not un kilogramo.

La casa está a dos kilómetros del centro.

The house is two kilometers from downtown.

Quiero medio kilo de queso, por favor.

I would like half a kilo of cheese, please.

Note the use of medio here — for a refresher on how medio and mitad differ, see Fractions, Multiples, and Percentages.

Prices

To talk about how much something costs, Spanish uses the verbs costar or valer. The price itself is always given in cardinal numbers.

Spanish	English
¿Cuánto cuesta?	How much does it cost?
¿Cuánto vale?	How much is it worth?
Cuesta cinco pesos.	It costs five pesos.
Salen a diez cada uno.	They come out to ten each.

Esta camisa cuesta trescientos cincuenta pesos.

This shirt costs three hundred fifty pesos.

¿Cuánto cuestan los boletos? —Ochenta pesos cada uno.

—How much are the tickets? —Eighty pesos each.

Currency names vary by country: pesos (Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, etc.), soles (Peru), quetzales (Guatemala), dólares (Ecuador, Panama, El Salvador). Whichever unit, the grammar is the same.

Approximate quantities

Spanish has several quick ways to say "about" or "roughly" — a major part of everyday conversation.

Spanish	Meaning
unos / unas + number	about, some
como + number	like, around
más o menos	more or less
aproximadamente	approximately
casi + number	nearly

The form unos / unas is the most common and agrees in gender with the noun it counts.

Hay unas treinta personas en la fila.

There are about thirty people in line.

El viaje dura como dos horas, más o menos.

The trip lasts around two hours, more or less.

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Don't confuse unos the approximator with unos the indefinite plural article. In context they're easy to tell apart: unos libros = "some books," unos veinte libros = "about twenty books." The number right after is the giveaway.

Counting people and groups

To say "the X of us/them," Spanish uses los / las plus the cardinal number. This construction is very common when grouping people.

Los cinco llegamos juntos al aeropuerto.

The five of us arrived at the airport together.

The feminine las appears when every member of the group is feminine: las tres somos hermanas ("the three of us are sisters").

Putting it together

With basic arithmetic, measurements, prices, and approximations, you have the toolkit for nearly any quantitative everyday conversation — splitting a bill, weighing produce, estimating a drive, reading a recipe. Practice reading numbers out loud and slotting them into these patterns.

For the large numbers you'll meet in population, distance, and price figures, review Cardinal Numbers 100 and Beyond. For parts and proportions, head back to Fractions, Multiples, and Percentages.