Los Números

Aprendimos los números hasta 100. We learned the numbers up to one hundred, so let's pick up there.

First of all, you use "cien" if there are exactly 100 of something--cien casas, 100 houses; cien estudiantes, 100 students.   If there are 101 or more, we use ciento. Ciento uno perros – 101 dogs. Ciento veinte casas – 120 houses.

Let's look at the numbers beyond 100. Escucha y observa:

Play 200	doscientos
Play 300	trescientos
Play 400	cuatrocientos
Play 500	quinientos
Play 600	seiscientos
Play 700	setecientos
Play 800	ochocientos
Play 900	novecientos
Play 1.000	mil
Play 2.000	dos mil

When speaking of "one thousand" something, we only say "mil" in Spanish. One thousand fifty dollars, mil cincuenta dólares. But 2009 – dos mil nueve. Ocho mil pesos – eight thousand pesos.

Some other important points:

Since the numbers are adjectives, the numbers from 200-900 do agree in gender with the nouns they modify:
200 casas: doscientas casas
500 maestras: quinientas maestras

The numbers beyond one thousand require the use of a period where we use a comma in English. For example, 1,584 in English would be written as 1.584 in Spanish.  In addition, where we use a decimal point in English (for example, 98.6), Spanish numbering requires the use of a comma (98,6).