Breakdown of El chico tiene veintiún años.
el chico
the boy
tener
to have
el año
the year
veintiuno
twenty-one
Questions & Answers about El chico tiene veintiún años.
Why does the sentence use veintiún instead of veintiuno?
Why does veintiún have an accent mark?
Dropping the -o changes the spelling, but Spanish wants to keep the spoken emphasis on that final syllable. To ensure you still stress that part of the word when speaking, a written accent mark is added to the ú.
Why is 21 written as one single word here?
In Spanish, all numbers from 21 to 29 are written as a single combined word (for example, veinte plus uno becomes veintiuno). It is only from 31 upwards that they are split into separate words linked by y (and), like treinta y uno.