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Let’s learn how to count to twenty-nine in Spanish! We’ll learn the Spanish words for twenty-one, twenty-two, and so on, and we’ll get lots of practice using all of our numbers in real-life Spanish sentences.
Es el número veintiuno.
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Today we’re going to learn the numbers twenty-one through twenty-nine and get lots of practice both using them and comprehending numbers when we hear them. We’ll also continue practicing our new verbs, Tratar and Acabar.
To say “twenty one” in Spanish, you basically say “twenty and one”, which would be veinte y uno. But Spanish actually turns this into one combined word, veintiuno. The E at the end of veinte disappears, and the Y for “and’” is replaced with the letter I. So this is spelled v-e-i-n-t-i-u-n-o. Veintiuno. So for example:
It’s number twenty-one.
Es el número veintiuno.
The unexpected thing about this number is that it actually changes based on the gender of what you’re describing. Remember that in general, numbers in Spanish don’t change based on the gender of what they describe; for example, we say cuatro chicos and cuatro chicas. The most notable exception is the number one: We say una chica.
The same thing happens with veintiuno; to say “twenty-one houses”, you actually say veintiuna casas. (Note that you don’t say “veintiunas”; there’s never an S at the end. It’s veintiuna.) So for example:
Are there twenty houses or twenty-one?
¿Hay veinte casas o veintiuna?
If we change this to “places”, which is masculine, we’ll use the regular old veintiuno. Try it yourself in this example:
Are there twenty places or twenty-one?
¿Hay veinte lugares o veintiuno?
But also remember that when uno occurs right before a masculine noun, it drops the O. For example, we don’t say uno chico, we say un chico. The same thing happens with veintiuno; to say “twenty-one boys”, you say veintiún chicos. This is spelled with no O at the end and with an accent mark over the letter U. Veintiún.
Let’s practice veintiuno, veintiuna, and veintiún.
I don’t know if there are twenty-one people there.
No sé si hay veintiuna personas ahí.
Have you gone to twenty-one places?
¿Has ido a veintiún lugares?
They told me that there were many boys, but I only saw twenty-one.
Me dijeron que había muchos chicos, pero solo vi a veintiuno.
Are you trying to have twenty-one books? Why do you want twenty-one?
¿Tratas de tener veintiún libros? ¿Por qué quieres veintiuno?
I’ve finished the twenty-one movies you like.
He acabado las veintiuna películas que te gustan.
All right, the rest of the numbers from twenty-two to twenty-nine are actually very easy to learn. They all start with veinti, and then end with the basic number, and it’s all one word. So we have veintiuno, veintidós, veintitrés, veinticuatro, veinticinco, veintiséis, veintisiete, veintiocho, and veintinueve. None of these numbers change based on the gender of the noun they’re describing. So for example:
There are twenty-four or twenty-five things here.
Hay veinticuatro o veinticinco cosas aquí.
Let’s get some practice with all our new numbers.
They have to finish the twenty-nine books.
Tienen que acabar los veintinueve libros.
How many are there? I don’t know if there are twenty-one or twenty-eight.
¿Cuántos hay? No sé si hay veintiuno o veintiocho.
I want him to try to talk to the twenty-five boys.
Quiero que trate de hablar con los veinticinco chicos.
There are twenty-one places like that near here.
Hay veintiún lugares así cerca de aquí.
I think she’s twenty-two or twenty-four years old.
Creo que ella tiene veintidós o veinticuatro años.
I don’t think she’s twenty-six.
No creo que tenga veintiséis.
I’ve gone to the countryside between twenty-three and twenty-seven times.
He ido al campo entre veintitrés y veintisiete veces.
I tried to talk to the twenty-one people that have just arrived.
Traté de hablar con las veintiuna personas que acaban de llegar.
All right, next we’re going to do another quiz, but this time I’m going to mix in some of our other numbers from one to twenty. So you’ll have to work hard not to confuse, for example, dos, doce, and veintidós. Try to predict the Spanish before you hear it.
They finished the twenty-one books in just two days.
Acabaron los veintiún libros en solo dos días.
They told her she needed to have nine, not twenty-one.
Le dijeron que tenía que tener nueve, no veintiuno.
We’ll talk to the five women who are there.
Hablaremos con las cinco mujeres que están ahí.
I’m trying to have ten or twelve because you only have three.
Trato de tener diez o doce porque tú solo tienes tres.
The teenage boys are between fifteen and eighteen years old.
Los muchachos tienen entre quince y dieciocho años.
Their kids are seven, seventeen, and twenty-three years old.
Sus hijos tienen siete, diecisiete y veintitrés años.
He tried to give us twenty-five things, but he only gave us twenty-four.
Trató de darnos veinticinco cosas, pero solo nos dio veinticuatro.
She has just talked with the twenty-one people who looked at the sky.
Acaba de hablar con las veintiuna personas que miraban el cielo.
All right, before we go on to our final quiz, we’re going to do some comprehension work. We’ve generally found comprehending numbers to be a particularly difficult skill in learning a second language, so listen closely and see if you can accurately understand the number, and also the meaning of the entire sentence, before we present the English.
Hay veintiuna mujeres, ni veinte ni diecinueve.
There are twenty-one women, neither twenty nor nineteen.
No sabemos si él tiene veintiséis, veintisiete o veintiocho años.
We don’t know if he’s twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight years old.
Los niños de esta clase tienen ocho, once y trece años.
The kids in this class are eight, eleven, and thirteen years old.
No quieres que se acabe nada, pero todavía hay catorce.
You don’t want anything to run out, but there are still fourteen.
Esa persona tenía veintiún o veintidós años, no dieciséis.
That person was twenty-one or twenty-two years old, not sixteen.
Queremos que los trate mejor, solo tiene cuatro años.
We want him to treat them better, they are only four years old.
Acabo de ir a la oficina, pero hoy ya fui seis veces.
I’ve just gone to the office, but today I already went six times.
Trataba de decirle que vi veintiuno de esos, pero él vio veintinueve.
I was trying to tell him I saw twenty-one of those, but he saw twenty-nine.
For more practice with any of this, feel free to dig deeper with the free materials here. Or if you’re ready, let’s go on to today’s final quiz.
There are twenty-six women at the party, not twenty-one.
Hay veintiséis mujeres en la fiesta, no veintiuna.
The story is about nine people who are twenty-five years old.
La historia se trata de nueve personas que tienen veinticinco años.
Yesterday eleven people came, but today twenty-seven came.
Ayer vinieron once personas, pero hoy vinieron veintisiete.
He finished the twenty movies, but he only had to watch fifteen.
Acabó las veinte películas, pero solo tenía que ver quince.
We’re trying to talk with ten people, not with twenty-eight.
Estamos tratando de hablar con diez personas, no con veintiocho.
Those twenty-one men are between eighteen and twenty-three years old.
Esos veintiún hombres tienen entre dieciocho y veintitrés años.
You have to try to talk to your six siblings.
Tienes que tratar de hablar con tus seis hermanos.
I’ve tried talking to the twenty-two-year-old dude.
He tratado de hablar con el tipo de veintidós años.
That will run out soon.
Eso se acabará pronto.
When I was a kid(m), I used to try to have fourteen.
Cuando era niño, trataba de tener catorce.
My parents only used to give me thirteen.
Mis padres solo me daban trece.
There are three or four bathrooms in that house.
Hay tres o cuatro baños en esa casa.
They’re trying to have seventeen of those.
Tratan de tener diecisiete de esos.
We tried to have twenty-nine.
Tratamos de tener veintinueve.
There were only five or seven people, but supposedly twelve were going to come.
Había solo cinco o siete personas, pero se suponía que iban a venir doce.
He's trying to see those twenty-four buildings.
Él trata de ver esos veinticuatro edificios.
He has only seen twenty-one.
Solo ha visto veintiuno.
You just talked to the sixteen- and nineteen-year-old boys.
Acabas de hablar con los chicos de dieciséis y diecinueve años.
In that bedroom I saw only twenty-one, but I’ll try to see more.
En esa habitación vi solo veintiuno, pero trataré de ver más.
There are twenty-one women, but we just talked to only two.
Hay veintiuna mujeres, pero acabamos de hablar solo con dos.
Try to go eight times! We also are trying to do the same.
¡Trata de ir ocho veces! Nosotros también tratamos de hacer lo mismo.
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This show is brought to you by LearnCraftSpanish.com. Our music was provided 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 using our free course — join here.
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