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Let’s learn how to count to fifteen in Spanish! We’ll learn the Spanish words for eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen, and we’ll get lots of practice using all of our numbers in real-life Spanish sentences.
Once, doce, trece…
Intro: Join us on a rigorous, step-by-step journey to fluency. I’m Timothy and this is LearnCraft Spanish.
Let’s learn the Spanish words for the numbers 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15. We’ll get a bunch of practice using these as well as all our numbers from one to ten, and while we do we’ll also keep practicing our new verbs, Morir and Entender.
To begin with, the number for eleven is once. This is spelled o-n-c-e. It’s *kind* of like saying “one” with a “ce” at the end. Once. For example:
You have to pass by ten or eleven houses.
Hay que pasar por diez u once casas.
And then the words for “twelve” and “thirteen” are doce and trece. So once again, each of these has a “ce” at the end, spelled c-e. So for example, let’s say someone is counting from nine to thirteen. It would sound like this:
Nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen.
Nueve, diez, once, doce, trece.
Let’s go ahead and get a bunch of practice with these new numbers.
I didn’t say three, I said thirteen.
No dije tres, dije trece.
It’s twelve o'clock, and I’ve been here since six.
Son las doce en punto y he estado aquí desde las seis.
We understand that you want four cars, but we only have two.
Entendemos que quieres cuatro coches, pero solo tenemos dos.
When I die, I want you to have all my eleven dogs.
Cuando yo muera, quiero que tengas todos mis once perros.
If you give me two more, I’ll have twelve.
Si me das dos más, tendré doce.
You didn’t understand, I said one, not five.
No entendiste, dije uno, no cinco.
Thirteen minus one equals twelve.
Trece menos uno es igual a doce.
Eleven people and I were in the air.
Once personas y yo estábamos en el aire.
The dog didn’t die when he was eight years old, he died when he was ten.
El perro no murió cuando tenía ocho años, murió cuando tenía diez.
Seven plus three is not eleven, it’s ten.
Siete más tres no son once, son diez.
I understand that he has nine games, but we need at least thirteen.
Entiendo que tiene nueve juegos, pero necesitamos al menos trece.
All right, so the words once, doce, and trece are very clearly derived from uno, dos, and tres. But the words for fourteen and fifteen are a bit trickier. The word for fourteen is catorce. This is very different from cuatro. Catorce is spelled c-a-t-o-r-c-e. So, both cuatro and catorce do start with a hard C, and both have a T and an R in there somewhere. But when you compare the core of these two words they’re quite different. Cuatro has a stress on “cuat”, and catorce has a stress on “tor”. So for example:
Four plus ten is fourteen.
Cuatro más diez son catorce.
Let’s go ahead and get some practice with catorce.
She must understand that I’m fourteen years old now.
Debe entender que tengo catorce años ahora.
She wants me to understand that there are twelve or thirteen.
Quiere que yo entienda que hay doce o trece.
You said four and I understood fourteen.
Dijiste cuatro y entendí catorce.
I’ll see you at eleven and I’ll see him at four.
Te veré a las once y lo veré a las cuatro.
I don’t want him to die, he’s only fourteen years old.
No quiero que él muera, solo tiene catorce años.
The word for “fifteen” is quince. This word is extremely different from the word for five, which is cinco. So quince is spelled q-u-i-n-c-e. For example:
Ten plus five is fifteen.
Diez más cinco son quince.
Notice that this word ends with c-e, just like all of our other numbers from eleven to fifteen.
Here’s another example:
Five times three is fifteen.
Cinco por tres son quince.
OK so in that example we used the word for “times”, which is por. Obviously we’ve already learned a lot of uses for the preposition por, and this is yet another meaning; you can use it for multiplication. We’ll get more practice with this later in the episode. For now, let’s go ahead and practice quince.
Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.
Once, doce, trece, catorce, quince.
I was fifteen years old in that picture.
Yo tenía quince años en esa foto.
If you give me five more, I’ll have fifteen.
Si me das cinco más, tendré quince.
Please don’t die! You have twelve people here with you!
¡Por favor no mueras! ¡Tienes a doce personas aquí contigo!
If you give me three more, I’ll have fourteen, because now I have eleven.
Si me das tres más, tendré catorce, porque ahora tengo once.
Seven times two equals fourteen.
Siete por dos es igual a catorce.
Let’s learn one more use of numbers that we haven’t practiced yet. To talk about a day of the month, you actually use the article el and then the number. So for example:
She comes on the twelfth and leaves on the fourteenth.
Viene el doce y se va el catorce.
Literally “she comes the twelve and leaves the fourteen”.
Try it yourself with this next example:
He said he would be here either the thirteenth or the fifteenth of this month.
Dijo que estaría aquí o el trece o el quince de este mes.
To wrap up, let’s get some comprehension practice with our new numbers. In general, it can take a long time to learn to identify numbers when you hear them on the fly, so I’m going to present some sentences in Spanish first, and you should try to identify what is being said and predict the English before you hear it.
Si me das dos, tendré once.
If you give me two, I’ll have eleven.
El tren va a estar aquí a las doce en punto.
The train is going to be here at twelve o’clock.
Cuatro por tres es igual a doce.
Four times three equals twelve.
Hay quince personas ahí, pero no mueren.
There are fifteen people there, but they don’t die.
Mis cinco amigos y yo vamos a estar ahí a las once.
My five friends and I are going to be there at eleven.
El número trece es mi número de la suerte.
The number thirteen is my lucky number.
Había entendido que tenía que estar ahí el trece, no el catorce.
I had understood that I had to be there on the thirteenth, not on the fourteenth.
Ella viene el catorce de este mes y él viene el quince.
She is coming on the fourteenth this month and he is coming on the fifteenth.
For more practice with any of this, feel free to dig deeper at LCSPodcast.com/143. Or if you’re ready, let’s go on to today’s final quiz. In this first example, you’ll use the verb Venir to say that a number comes after another number. Try to guess the Spanish.
They don’t understand that eleven comes after ten.
No entienden que once viene después de diez.
Ten plus two equals twelve.
Diez más dos es igual a doce.
On the twelfth and the fourteenth of this month there will be a game.
El doce y el catorce de este mes habrá un juego.
Don’t worry, you don’t die in the game with twelve lives, you die with seven.
No te preocupes, no mueres en el juego con doce vidas, mueres con siete.
You have to understand that we only have four boats.
Tienes que entender que solo tenemos cuatro barcos.
I understood that five times three equals fifteen.
Entendí que cinco por tres es igual a quince.
He understood the movie after six times.
Entendió la película después de seis veces.
If he dies on the plane, he’ll leave nine children.
Si muere en el avión, dejará a nueve hijos.
Four times two equals eight.
Cuatro por dos es igual a ocho.
He is dying to have all fifteen.
Se está muriendo por tener todos los quince.
Do you understand that thirteen are better than eleven?
¿Entiendes que trece son mejores que once?
I don’t want to die with only one car.
No quiero morir con solo un coche.
All thirteen phones died yesterday.
Todos los trece teléfonos murieron ayer.
I’ll give you a car when you are fifteen.
Te daré un coche cuando tengas quince años.
I don’t want you to die, you have fourteen dogs.
No quiero que mueras, tienes catorce perros.
She doesn’t understand that fourteen is a lot more than five.
No entiende que catorce es mucho más que cinco.
If I die, I want her to understand that everything is ok.
Si me muero, quiero que ella entienda que todo está bien.
I haven’t died, so give me those two.
No he muerto, entonces dame esos dos.
Three times one is still three.
Tres por uno aún son tres.
I’ll be there at eleven o’clock.
Estaré ahí a las once en punto.
For more practice with all of this, go to LCSPodcast.com/143.
In tomorrow’s episode, we’ll learn some new nouns, including the words for “order”, “dream”, and “curse”.
This show is brought to you by LearnCraftSpanish.com. The Spanish voice in this episode was our coach Michael Agudelo. Our music was performed by the Seattle Marimba Quartet, and I’m Timothy, encouraging you to do the hard work of learning Spanish. Acquiring a second language is one of the most fulfilling things you can do, so start your fluency journey today at LCSPodcast.com.
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