15.2 GRAMÁTICA / GRAMMAR

NÚMEROS CARDINALES HASTA 1 000 000 000 / CARDINAL NUMBERS FROM 1 TO A BILLION

Hundreds (doscientos, trescientos, cuatrocientos…) possess gender.

• Trescientos chicos – trescientas chicas.

Careful with the word quinientos (500)! It’s nothing like cinco (5).

Y is only used between tens and units:

• 10246 = Diez mil doscientos cuarenta y seis.

Remember that between 20 and 30 y is not used:

• Veintiuno, veintidós, veintitrés…

The word millón is a noun and as such takes an article and changes into plural.

• Un millón – dos millones.

In Spanish, 1 000 000 000 is called mil millones.

NÚMEROS ORDINALES / ORDINAL NUMBERS

Ordinal numbers are used with the definite article:

• El segundo piso.
• La primera vez.

The words primero and tercero (masculine, singular) lose the –o before a noun:

• Estoy en el primer piso
• Hoy es el tercer día.

In the plural form, however, the –o remains.

• Los primeros días del mes.

And if no noun comes after, the –o remains as well.

• Estoy en el primer piso.
• Estoy en el primero.

In Spanish, ordinals greater than 10 are rarely used. Typically, people say:

• En el primer piso, en el segundo piso, en el décimo piso; pero: en el piso once, en el piso doce…

VERBOS CON ALTERNANCIA E – I / VERBS THAT CHANGE E TO I

Some verbs require changing the –e– of the infinitive to –i– when the stress falls on the first syllable:

As you can see, this change does not occur in the 1st or 2nd person plural.
Other verbs that behave in this way include: servir, seguir, repetir and vestir.

	Now check to see that you’ve learned the expressions in this section well by completing the exercises.