Numbers 21–100 and Ages

You already know numbers 0–20. Now we extend to 100, which unlocks something much more useful than counting: talking about age. In Spanish, tener años – literally "to have years" – is how every native speaker says how old they are, and it's one of the first questions you'll get asked at any social gathering.

The Tens

The decades from 30 to 90 follow a clean pattern. Once you know the word for each ten, the rest is just addition.

Number	Spanish	Pronounced
20	veinte	BAYN-teh
30	treinta	TREYN-tah
40	cuarenta	kwah-REN-tah
50	cincuenta	thin-KWEN-tah
60	sesenta	seh-SEN-tah
70	setenta	seh-TEN-tah
80	ochenta	oh-CHEN-tah
90	noventa	noh-BEN-tah
100	cien	thee-EN

Notice the Castilian "th" sound in cincuenta (50) and cien (100) – the c before i or e is theta, just like you learned in the alphabet lesson.

Building the Numbers In Between

For numbers 31–99 (skipping the twenties for a moment), Spanish uses the formula:

ten + y + unit

That's y as in "and." So:

• 31 = treinta y uno → treinta y uno
• 47 = cuarenta y siete
• 62 = sesenta y dos
• 88 = ochenta y ocho
• 99 = noventa y nueve

The numbers stay separate words. Read them out loud the way they look – "cuarenta y siete" – and you'll be understood everywhere.

The Twenties Are Special

The 20s are the one decade where the words fuse together. Spanish writes them as a single word, with no y:

• 21 = veintiuno
• 22 = veintidós
• 23 = veintitrés
• 24 = veinticuatro
• 25 = veinticinco
• 26 = veintiséis
• 27 = veintisiete
• 28 = veintiocho
• 29 = veintinueve

You can think of "veinti-" as a special prefix that absorbs the unit. The accents on veintidós, veintitrés, veintiséis are mandatory – they mark where the stress goes.

There's also a small twist with veintiuno before a masculine noun: it drops to veintiún. So "twenty-one years old" is veintiún años, not "veintiuno años."

Cien vs. Ciento

For exactly 100, Spanish uses cien: cien años, cien euros, cien personas. As soon as you go above 100 (101, 150, etc.), you switch to ciento: ciento uno, ciento cincuenta. We won't dive into 100+ in this lesson, but it's good to know that cien is the form you use for round 100.

Talking About Age With "Tener"

Here's the key idea: in Spanish, you don't be a certain age – you have years. The verb is tener (you'll get the full conjugation in the next lesson, but you already know tengo, tienes, tiene).

The pattern is:

subject + tener + number + años

• ¿Cuántos años tienes? – How old are you? (informal)
• ¿Cuántos años tiene? – How old is he/she? or formal "you"
• Tengo veintinueve años. – I'm twenty-nine.
• Tiene cuarenta años. – He's / she's forty.
• Mi abuela tiene setenta y ocho años. – My grandmother is seventy-eight.
• Mis hermanos tienen veintiún años. – My brothers are twenty-one.

Forgetting the word años is the most common mistake. Saying "Tengo treinta" sounds incomplete – like saying "I'm thirty" without finishing the sentence. Always include años.

To say someone is older or younger, you can add mayor (older) or menor (younger):

• Mi hermana mayor tiene treinta y cinco años. – My older sister is 35.
• Soy menor que mi primo. – I'm younger than my cousin.

Practice

Words to Remember

Spanish	English
veintiuno	21
treinta	30
treinta y uno	31
cuarenta	40
cincuenta	50
sesenta	60
setenta	70
ochenta	80
noventa	90
cien	100
año	year
años	years
edad	age
cumpleaños	birthday
mayor	older
menor	younger
¿cuántos años?	how many years (how old)
tener años	to be (years) old

Conversation

Asking about siblings

Iker: ¿Cuántos años tiene tu hermana? How old is your sister?

Nuria: Tiene treinta y dos. ¿Y tu hermano? She's thirty-two. And your brother?

Iker: Diecinueve. Yo tengo veintiocho. Nineteen. I'm twenty-eight.

Talking about parents

María: ¿Y tus padres, cuántos años tienen? And your parents, how old are they?

Diego: Mi padre tiene cincuenta y cinco. Mi madre, cincuenta y tres. My father is fifty-five. My mother, fifty-three.

María: Son jóvenes todavía. They're still young.

Planning a birthday

Pablo: Mi abuela cumple noventa este año. My grandmother turns ninety this year.

Lucía: ¡Qué guay! ¿Hacéis una fiesta? How cool! Are you throwing a party?

Pablo: Sí, una fiesta enorme con toda la familia. Yes, a huge party with the whole family.