The Spanish Numerical System

From all aspects, the Spanish language is a truly powerful language. You see and hear Spanish-language newscasts, television shows, music, and movies, apart from the numbers spanish-language newspapers and books (especially those by Paulo Coelho and Gabriel Garcia Marquez) you read. The numbers, Spanish being the second most widely-used language in the world with over 350 million speakers, should provide you with an inkling of just how alive and colorful this Romance language is.

Numbers Booboos

There are people, however, who unwittingly desecrate this powerful language. Any Spanish number is now fair prey to men who have no business displaying wrong interpretations of the said numbers. Spanish, and any language for that matter, certainly deserve a better treatment.

A popular example of this is Chad Johnson of the National Football League. The words “ocho cinco” are written above the numeral 85 of his jersey. Had he known better, he will realize that “ochenta y cinco” is the accurate interpretation of 85.

Another usual error of people who try to use the Spanish language is in writing dates. It’s important to remember the difference in the way it is expressed: US dates are written as month/date/year while Spanish dates are written as date-month-year. However, if dates are spelled out in words and numbers, the following format is correct: 14 de augusto 2008. One significant thing to remember is that in Spanish, the first letters of the months are not capitalized.

How to Refrain from Committing These Blunders

Since practice makes perfect, it’s best that you test your knowledge on the spanish number system. If you have already learned them by heart, you’ll have no problems in reciting them in proper order.

Advantages of Knowing

If you work in large companies, you’ll encounter shipping documents that have both English and Spanish details. You may also be faced with communication gaps when you have to make or take orders by phone or email. Thus, it’s to your advantage if you know the right numbers as Spanish has an almost completely different number system from English.

It is also to your benefit when ordering out. Mexican food is popular in the US and many diners catering to your Mexican tastes speak little or no English at all. You do not want to end up ordering more or paying more simply because of your incorrect Spanish numbers. In this scenario, it is certainly better to learn how to count from one to one hundred (in Spanish, that is) than to pay one hundred dollars more.

If you happen to live in Miami or Los Angeles, definitely you must have bumped into Spanish-speaking individuals whose English needs a little work. Or, if they happen to speak English, they would still prefer to utilize their mother tongue. If you do know how to count numbers in spanish, you’ll have no issues getting around town.

Overall, knowing your Spanish language lets you learn the language altogether more swiftly. Do you know that Spanish numbers can function as pronouns, too? However, this is only true with cardinal and ordinal numbers that stand for a number and a noun that is omitted or implied. At first, this concept seems confusing but as you go deeper with your Spanish lessons, you’ll find out that this makes perfect sense.

Así pues, ahora comience sus lecciones españolas y aumente su número de amigos y de negocio.

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