Did you know that there are feminine numbers in Spanish?

Doscientas, trescientas, cuatrocientas, quinientas, etc.

In Spanish, certain numerals are modified to agree in gender with the noun they accompany. This means that numerals use the masculine form when they come before a masculine noun, and use the feminine form when they come before a feminine noun. However, not all numbers have both masculine and feminine forms. Only numbers ending in -cientos, i.e. 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 600, 700, 800 and 900 have both forms. Therefore, if the number ends in -cientos, it changes and becomes -cientas before feminine nouns.

Here’s how it works:

Exercise for practicing masculine and feminine numbers

Gender concordance between numbers and nouns

Numbers ending in -cientos/-cientas

Numbers such as doscientos, trescientos, cuatrocientos, quinientos, etc., are masculine by default. However, if the noun they accompany is feminine, these numbers change their ending to -cientas. For example:

• Masculino:
  • Doscientos libros
  • Quinientos euros
  • Trescientos días
• Femenino:
  • Doscientas páginas
  • Cuatrocientas personas
  • Seiscientas flores

Numbers ending in uno/un/una

This agreement is also necessary when we speak of 1 uno/un/una, 21 veintiuno/veintiún/veintiuna, 31 treinta y uno/ún/una, etc.

If we talk about the number 1, it is more intuitive to do this matching:

• ¿Cuántos coches hay? – Hay uno.
• ¿Cuántos años tiene el niño? – Tiene un año.
• ¿Cuántas veces has estado en Paraguay? – Solo una.

However, when we talk about numbers like 21, 31, 41, or 21,000, even Spanish speakers get confused. In this article, the Fundación del Español Urgente FundéuRAE, explains exactly the rules for the correct use of these numbers in Spanish.

Here are some examples:

• Tengo veintiún años
• Ayer vinieron treinta y una personas
• ¿Cuántos días tiene el mes de octubre? – Tiene treinta y uno

It is common to hear in the media phrases such as «participaron treinta y un mujeres» ✘. However, the correct form is with the use of the number 1 in its feminine form: «participaron treinta y una mujeres»” ✔︎

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Oral Exercise

¿-cientos o -cientas?

Read the following sentences aloud

Attention to the number!
It can be masculine (ending in -cientos) or feminine (ending in -cientas) according to the agreement with the noun.