Learn Spanish (Latin America): Hay cuatrocientos animales en el zoológico. - There are four hundred animals in the zoo.

It is simply made by combining cuatro (four) and cientos (hundreds) into one word. Most hundreds follow this exact pattern, like doscientos (200) and trescientos (300).

Does the number cuatrocientos change based on the word it describes?

Yes, it does! Starting at 200, the hundreds change to match the gender of the noun they are counting. Here it is cuatrocientos because the word animales is masculine. If you were counting feminine things, like frogs (ranas), you would say cuatrocientas ranas.

Since we are saying "there are", why don't we use a plural form of hay?

In Spanish, the word hay is very flexible and means both "there is" and "there are". You use exactly the same word whether you are talking about one animal or four hundred of them!

How do you make words like animal plural in Spanish?

Because animal ends in a consonant (the letter L), you add -es to the end to make it plural, giving us animales. If a word ends in a vowel, you usually just add an -s.