Math - Counting in the Millions

QUICK OVERVIEW

As you may recall with the hundreds, beginning with number 101, cien became cientos. In addition the 'y' is never used immediately after cientos. To say 600 in Spanish you would say seiscientos. There was no separation between the number of hundreds. When you got to the thousands a separation was added between the number and the thousands. However, as with cientos, with mil a 'y' is never used immediately after it. However, to say 6,000 the number is separated from mil so that 6,000 became seis mil. To say one thousand you simply say mil. You do not use the number 1 before it.

THE MILLIONS

Now we are moving on to the millions. A million in Spanish is the word 'millón'. Note that when saying a hundred you simply say cien and when you say a thousand you simply say mil but when you say a million you always need to say 'un millón'. (You won’t get to count in the billions in this Spanish Medium Review series but if you did, it has the same rules as the millions. In other words, to say a billion you would say un billón. The un must always be used with billón.) Please make note of the accent mark in each of these numbers vocabulary words.

When you have more than one million (or one billion), millón (billón) must be made plural. Following the rules of making a word plural, if an accent mark appears in the last syllable it is dropped when the word is made plural. Therefore, millón becomes millones (billones). Five million is then said as 'cinco millones' in Spanish. All the other rules that apply to numbers in the ones, hundred and thousand apply in the millions (and billions). So, now let’s see how much of this you understand.

As in the quiz on Counting in the Thousands, you will be given 5 numbers stated in English and you must find the right Spanish number to match them. Next, you will be shown 5 Spanish numbers and you will need to match them with the correct English number. You must always pay close attention to spelling, the order of the numbers and the rules that apply. So, if you think you are ready, then let’s start counting in the millions!