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La clase tiene diecisiete chicos y veintisiete chicas.

La clase tiene diecisiete chicos y veintisiete chicas.
The class has seventeen boys and twenty-seven girls.
From Lesson 52:Numbers 16 to 31 (dieciséis, veinte…)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about La clase tiene diecisiete chicos y veintisiete chicas.

How do you form numbers like diecisiete (17) and veintisiete (27)?
They are combinations of smaller numbers! Diecisiete comes from diez y siete (ten and seven), and veintisiete comes from veinte y siete (twenty and seven). In Spanish, numbers from 16 to 29 are combined into a single word.
Why is it spelled veintisiete with an i in the middle instead of an e or a y?
When combining veinte (20) with another number, the ending -e changes to an -i, and the word y (and) disappears. So, veinte + y + siete becomes the single word veintisiete. The teens follow a similar pattern where diez becomes dieci- (like in diecisiete).
Since chicas is feminine, shouldn't veintisiete change to match its gender?
No, numbers like diecisiete and veintisiete never change to match the gender of the noun. Only the number uno (1) and numbers ending in -uno (like 21, veintiuno) change based on gender. So it stays exactly the same for both masculine chicos and feminine chicas.
Why does the sentence use La clase?
Words ending in -e do not follow a strict gender rule like words ending in -o or -a. The word clase is a feminine noun, so it must be paired with the feminine article la.
Why do we use the singular verb tiene (has) if there are so many students?
The verb matches the subject of the sentence, which is la clase (the class). Even though a class contains many people, the word clase is singular, so it uses the singular he, she, or it form of the verb tener.

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