Beyond 100, Spanish numbers introduce four new wrinkles: the hundreds agree in gender (doscientos vs doscientas), several of them are irregular (quinientos, setecientos, novecientos), mil is invariable when counting but pluralises as a noun (miles de), and the word billón is a false friend of English billion that means a thousand times more. Add in the European convention of comma-for-decimal and point-for-thousands, and you have a small set of high-leverage rules that determine how you write any large number.
This page covers it all — the full table of hundreds, the mil/miles distinction, millón and its de-construction, the false-friend trap with billón, and the punctuation conventions for large numbers.
The hundreds: 100–900
| Number | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | cien (ciento) | see cardinals 31–100 for the cien/ciento split |
| 200 | doscientos / doscientas | regular |
| 300 | trescientos / trescientas | regular |
| 400 | cuatrocientos / cuatrocientas | regular |
| 500 | quinientos / quinientas | irregular — not *cincocientos |
| 600 | seiscientos / seiscientas | regular |
| 700 | setecientos / setecientas | irregular — not *sietecientos |
| 800 | ochocientos / ochocientas | regular |
| 900 | novecientos / novecientas | irregular — not *nuevecientos |
The three irregular hundreds
The numbers 500, 700 and 900 depart from the regular pattern in different ways:
- quinientos (500) doesn't begin with cinco- at all. It descends from Latin quingenti and is a separate lexical item.
- setecientos (700) drops the -ie- diphthong from siete. Same loss as in setenta (70, not sietenta).
- novecientos (900) drops the -ue- diphthong from nueve. Same loss as in noventa (90, not nueventa).
These three forms are the most-failed numbers in Spanish as a second language. The good news: once you have quinientos, setecientos, novecientos internalised, the rest of the hundreds are mechanically derivable from the unit digits.
El edificio tiene quinientas habitaciones.
The building has five hundred rooms. — 'quinientas' agrees with 'habitaciones' (f.pl.).
Recorrimos setecientos kilómetros en un día.
We covered seven hundred kilometres in a day. — 'setecientos' agrees with 'kilómetros' (m.pl.).
El cuadro vale novecientos mil euros.
The painting is worth nine hundred thousand euros.
Gender agreement on the hundreds
Unlike the units (which don't change for gender except uno) and the tens (which never change), the hundreds agree in gender with the following noun. Doscientos coches but doscientas casas; quinientos libros but quinientas páginas.
Doscientos hombres y trescientas mujeres asistieron.
Two hundred men and three hundred women attended. — 'doscientos' m.pl., 'trescientas' f.pl.
El barco transporta novecientas toneladas de mercancía.
The ship carries nine hundred tonnes of cargo.
Mil: invariable when counting
The word mil ("thousand") behaves quite differently from the hundreds. When used in cardinal numbers, it never pluralises and never agrees in gender:
- dos mil (2,000) — not dos miles
- cinco mil (5,000) — not cinco miles
- treinta mil personas — not treinta miles
Cinco mil personas vinieron al concierto.
Five thousand people came to the concert.
El piso cuesta trescientos mil euros.
The apartment costs three hundred thousand euros.
Miles de — the noun usage
The plural miles does exist in Spanish — but only as a noun meaning "thousands of", used to express an indefinite large quantity. In this sense, miles takes de before the counted noun, just like English "thousands of X".
Miles de turistas visitan Madrid cada año.
Thousands of tourists visit Madrid every year. — 'miles de' = an indefinite multitude.
La manifestación reunió a miles de personas.
The demonstration brought together thousands of people.
The distinction is crisp:
- mil = the cardinal number 1,000 (or any multiple); counts a specific quantity.
- miles de = an indefinite quantity in the thousands; means roughly "lots of, in the thousands of".
You cannot say dos miles for 2,000 — dos mil is the only correct form. And you cannot say mil de personas for "a thousand people" — the de only appears in the indefinite miles de construction.
Mil personas vinieron, no diez mil.
A thousand people came, not ten thousand. — both 'mil' specific counts, no 'de'.
Tengo miles de cosas que hacer.
I have thousands of things to do. — 'miles de' indefinite.
Un millón / millones (de)
The word millón is grammatically a noun in Spanish, not a numeral. This means three things:
- It takes an article (un millón, not bare millón).
- It pluralises (dos millones, cinco millones, cien millones).
- It takes de before a counted noun — un millón de personas, not un millón personas.
Hay un millón de habitantes en la ciudad.
There are a million inhabitants in the city. — 'un millón de habitantes' with obligatory 'de'.
El gobierno invirtió tres millones de euros en el proyecto.
The government invested three million euros in the project. — plural 'millones'.
La empresa factura cien millones al año.
The company invoices a hundred million a year. — no 'de' here because no noun follows directly; 'al año' is a separate adverbial phrase.
The de rule in detail
The de drops when a more specific number intervenes between millón/millones and the noun:
Un millón de euros.
One million euros. — 'de' present.
Un millón doscientos mil euros.
One million two hundred thousand euros. — no 'de'; 'doscientos mil euros' is a complete noun phrase that 'un millón' now modifies as a quantifier.
The intuitive logic: un millón de personas means "a million of people" (partitive); but in un millón doscientos mil personas, the doscientos mil is itself the quantifier the noun belongs to, so the de would interrupt the relationship.
La población es de un millón quinientos mil habitantes.
The population is one million five hundred thousand inhabitants. — no 'de' because the more specific number follows directly.
Un millón vs uno millón: standard apocope
Just as uno apocopates to un before any masculine singular noun, it apocopates to un before millón (which is grammatically a masculine noun). Always say un millón, never uno millón.
Un millón de visitas al mes.
A million visits per month. — 'un' apocope; 'uno millón' is wrong.
This is the same logic as un libro, un coche, un año — millón is a noun, takes the article-style un. The apocopated form is also obligatory inside compound numbers: veintiún millones, treinta y un millones, etc.
La ciudad recibió treinta y un millones de visitantes.
The city received thirty-one million visitors. — apocope inside the compound number.
The big false friend: billón ≠ billion
This is the single most important false friend involving numbers, and it has caused real-world financial confusion.
| Word | Value | Equivalent in the other language |
|---|---|---|
| English billion | 10⁹ = 1,000,000,000 (one thousand million) | Spanish mil millones |
| Spanish billón | 10¹² = 1,000,000,000,000 (one million million) | English trillion |
| English trillion | 10¹² = 1,000,000,000,000 | Spanish billón |
The Spanish billón follows the long scale (the historical European system, where each new "-illion" multiplies by a million); English billion follows the short scale (where each new "-illion" multiplies by a thousand). These two systems coexist in modern usage, but Spanish overwhelmingly uses the long scale — billón in Spain and most of Latin America means 10¹², not 10⁹.
For English's "one billion (10⁹)", Spanish says mil millones.
El presupuesto del Estado supera los doscientos mil millones de euros.
The state budget exceeds two hundred billion euros. — English 'billion' = Spanish 'mil millones'. NEVER 'doscientos billones', which would be a thousand times larger.
La galaxia tiene unos cien mil millones de estrellas.
The galaxy has about a hundred billion stars. — again 'mil millones', not 'billones'.
El déficit asciende a un billón de euros.
The deficit amounts to one trillion euros. — Spanish 'billón' = English 'trillion' (10¹²).
Reading large compound numbers
Spanish reads large numbers by combining the pieces in descending order, with no connecting y between hundreds and tens — y only appears between the ten and the unit at the end.
2.347 → dos mil trescientos cuarenta y siete
2,347 → two thousand three hundred and forty-seven. — note: 'trescientos cuarenta', no 'y' between them.
158.290 → ciento cincuenta y ocho mil doscientos noventa
158,290 → one hundred and fifty-eight thousand two hundred and ninety.
1.250.000 → un millón doscientos cincuenta mil
1,250,000 → one million two hundred and fifty thousand.
3.500.000.000 → tres mil quinientos millones
3,500,000,000 → three billion five hundred million (English) = three thousand five hundred million (Spanish).
The y only appears once, between the last ten and the last unit. Everything else is just placed in sequence.
The European number-punctuation convention
Spain follows the European/continental convention for number punctuation, which is the opposite of English:
| Element | Spanish | English (US/UK) |
|---|---|---|
| thousands separator | punto (.) or thin space | comma (,) |
| decimal separator | coma (,) | point (.) |
| one thousand | 1.000 | 1,000 |
| pi | 3,14 | 3.14 |
| one and a half | 1,5 | 1.5 |
El IVA general es del 21%; el reducido, del 10%.
The standard VAT rate is 21%; the reduced rate is 10%. — percentages take 'del' (de + el) and a numeral; the % sign goes immediately after the number with no space.
El edificio mide 47,5 metros de alto.
The building is 47.5 metres tall. — comma for the decimal.
La empresa tiene 12.500 empleados.
The company has 12,500 employees. — point for the thousands.
Years: no separator at all
A four-digit year is written without any separator. 1492, not 1.492. This is the only exception to the thousands-point rule.
Cristóbal Colón llegó a América en 1492.
Christopher Columbus reached America in 1492. — no thousands separator.
La Constitución española se aprobó en 1978.
The Spanish Constitution was approved in 1978.
Para el año 2030, la ciudad tendrá 3,5 millones de habitantes.
By the year 2030, the city will have 3.5 million inhabitants. — '2030' bare; '3,5' with decimal comma.
Five-digit years (the rare case in historical or scientific contexts) do take the thousands separator: en el año 10.000 a.C. (in the year 10,000 BC).
Reading prices, distances, percentages
Cuesta 1.250 euros, no 1.250.000.
It costs 1,250 euros, not 1,250,000.
El kilo a 2,75 €.
The kilo at €2.75. — euro sign typically after the number in Spain.
La distancia es de unos 850 km.
The distance is about 850 km. — abbreviations stay singular.
El 78,5% de los encuestados está de acuerdo.
78.5% of those surveyed agree. — note 'el 78,5%' with definite article, a typical Spanish quirk.
Common Mistakes
❌ Tengo cincocientos libros.
Wrong — 500 is irregular: 'quinientos', not '*cincocientos'.
✅ Tengo quinientos libros.
I have five hundred books.
❌ Doscientos casas.
Wrong — the hundreds agree in gender. 'Casas' is feminine, so 'doscientas casas'.
✅ Doscientas casas.
Two hundred houses.
❌ Cinco miles de personas.
Wrong — 'mil' is invariable when counting. Use 'cinco mil personas' for a specific count; reserve 'miles de' for indefinite 'thousands of'.
✅ Cinco mil personas.
Five thousand people.
❌ Tengo un millón problemas.
Wrong — 'millón' is a noun and requires 'de' before another noun.
✅ Tengo un millón de problemas.
I have a million problems.
❌ El presupuesto es de un billón de euros (cuando se quería decir 10⁹).
A major false-friend error — Spanish 'billón' = 10¹² (trillion in English), not 10⁹. If you mean a US-style billion, use 'mil millones'.
✅ El presupuesto es de mil millones de euros.
The budget is a billion euros (10⁹).
❌ El precio es de 1,250 euros (cuando se quería decir mil doscientos cincuenta).
Wrong — in Spanish, that comma reads as a decimal: '1,250' means one euro and twenty-five cents. For one thousand two hundred and fifty euros, use a point: '1.250'.
✅ El precio es de 1.250 euros.
The price is 1,250 euros.
❌ En el año 1.492 Colón llegó a América.
Wrong — four-digit years take no thousands separator.
✅ En el año 1492 Colón llegó a América.
In the year 1492 Columbus reached America.
Key takeaways
- The hundreds agree in gender: doscientos coches, doscientas casas. This agreement persists even inside compound numbers.
- Three hundreds are irregular: quinientos (500), setecientos (700), novecientos (900).
- Mil is invariable when counting (dos mil, diez mil). The plural miles de is a separate noun usage meaning "thousands of" (indefinite).
- Millón / millones is a noun: takes un, pluralises, and requires de before the counted noun — except when a more specific number intervenes.
- Billón is a false friend: it means 10¹² (English trillion), not 10⁹. English "billion" = Spanish mil millones.
- Spain uses comma for decimals and point for thousands — the opposite of English. Four-digit years take no separator at all.
- Spanish reads compound numbers without y between hundreds and tens; y only appears between the final ten and unit.
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