Comparative Grammar 1.4. Cardinal Numbers in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French

In this comparative grammar lesson of Romance languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, & French, we study cardinal numbers in each language.

Table of Contents

• List of Cardinal Numbers in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French
• “Un” vs “Uno” in Spanish & Italian
• Cardinal Numbers 21-99
• Comma vs Period
• Hundreds
• Thousands
• Millions & Billions
• Arithmetic Operations
• Level I – Basic

List of Cardinal Numbers in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French

“Un” vs “Uno” in Spanish & Italian

In Spanish and Italian, before a masculine noun, “uno” becomes “un,” for example:

You will encounter a similar dropping of the final “o” with a few other words in Spanish and Italian:

Cardinal Numbers 21-99

The numbers 21-99 are formed by contracting the combination of tens and units.

In Italian, the following two changes apply, if necessary:

1. The vowel at the end of the tens is dropped if the unit starts with a vowel (“uno” and “otto”). For example, “ventuno” (21), “trentotto” (38), “quarantuno” (41), “novantotto” (98), etc.
2. Numbers with “three” in their units are written with an acute accent on their endings., For example, “ventitré” (23), “trentatré” (33), “ottantatré” (83), etc.
3. In French, the number “soixante-dix” (70) is formed by combining “soixante” (60) and “dix” (10), and the number “quatre-vingts” (80) literally means “four-twenties,” i.e., 4 X 20.

Comma vs Period

We use a comma to separate decimals and a period to separate thousands in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French.

For instance, the number 2.155,25 in any of the four languages is equivalent to 2,155.25 in English.

Hundreds

In Spanish and Portuguese, to refer to the number 100 or thousand multiples of the number 100, we use “cien” and “cem,” respectively.

Otherwise, if preceded or followed by a number, “ciento(s)” in Spanish and “cento(s)” in Portuguese must be used instead:

In Spanish and Portuguese, the multiples of hundred (200-900) can have a masculine “-os” or a feminine “-as” ending depending on the nouns they describe, for example:

Thousands

The word for a thousand in Italian is “mille.”

To refer to multiples of a thousand, we use “mila” instead, e.g., “tremila” (3.000), “cinquemila” (5.000), etc.

The words “mil” in Spanish and Portuguese, and “mille” in French, remain the same in plural.

Millions & Billions

The words “million” and “billion” have plural forms in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French. Notice that a billion and a trillion are different in the four languages.

When describing items in millions or billions, one must add “de” in Spanish, Portuguese, and French, and “di” in Italian after “million” or “billion.” For example:

Arithmetic Operations

The basic arithmetic operations are as follows:

Next: Subject Personal Pronouns

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