6.1 Cardinal Numbers (0–1,000), Telling Time, Calendar & Weather

6.1 Cardinal Numbers (0–1,000), Telling Time, Calendar & Weather

Numerical literacy, temporal precision, and meteorological comprehension constitute the functional bedrock of the DELE A1 Breakthrough level. In the examination, these lexical domains appear continuously across multiple communicative tasks. In Comprensión de lectura (Reading Comprehension), you must decipher store opening hours, flight timetables, restaurant lunch menus, and date-stamped event posters. In Comprensión auditiva (Listening Comprehension), short dialogues, messages and the final conversation contain times, days, prices and numbers, and a Tarea 4 gap can depend on one of them. In Expresión e interacción orales (Speaking), you state your age in Tarea 1 and may describe your weekly timetable in Tarea 2.

Mastering these core systems eliminates hesitation, allowing you to secure quick, dependable points throughout the test.

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Cardinal Numbers from 0 to 1,000 (Los números cardinales)

Spanish numbers follow predictable structural patterns, but specific orthographic shifts, written accent rules, and gender agreements require deliberate study.

Numbers 0 to 30: Single-Word Construction

Numbers from 0 to 30 are written as a single contiguous word. Notice that numbers 16 through 29 were historically written as three words (diez y seis, veinte y uno), but standard modern Spanish mandates single-word orthography.

Tens from 30 to 90 and the "Y" Rule (31–99)

The tens proceed in regular ten-unit steps:

• 30: treinta
• 40: cuarenta
• 50: cincuenta
• 60: sesenta
• 70: setenta
• 80: ochenta
• 90: noventa

For numbers between 31 and 99, Spanish applies the three-word construction: [Decena] + y + [Unidad].

• 31: treinta y uno (treinta y un libros / treinta y una alumnas)
• 45: cuarenta y cinco
• 58: cincuenta y ocho
• 64: sesenta y cuatro
• 72: setenta y dos
• 87: ochenta y siete
• 99: noventa y nueve

The Universal Conjunction Rule: The conjunction y is used exclusively between tens and units (from 31 to 99). It is never inserted between hundreds and tens or between thousands and hundreds:

• 105: ciento cinco (NOT ciento y cinco)
• 142: ciento cuarenta y dos (tens and units take y, but hundred and tens do not)
• 350: trescientos cincuenta (NOT trescientos y cincuenta)

Hundreds (100 to 900) & 1,000: Gender Agreement

The number 100 has two distinct forms:

• cien: Used when the count is exactly 100, or immediately preceding a noun: cien euros, cien páginas, cien personas.
• ciento: Used whenever 100 is followed by any additional number from 1 to 99: ciento uno, ciento quince, ciento ochenta.

From 200 to 900, the hundreds must agree in gender with the noun they modify:

Note the irregular roots for 500 (quinientos, not cincocientos), 700 (setecientos, not sietecientos), and 900 (novecientos, not nuevecientos). The number mil (1,000) is invariable and never pluralized when counting (dos mil, cinco mil).

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Telling Time in Spanish (La hora)

Telling time requires knowing how to ask the question, how to select between singular and plural verbs, and how to express fractions of an hour.

Formulating Time Questions

There are two primary questions to distinguish:

1. Asking the current time:
   • ¿Qué hora es? (What time is it?)
   • ¿Tiene hora, por favor? (Do you have the time, please? — polite formula used in public)
2. Asking the time of a scheduled event:
   • ¿A qué hora...? (At what time...?)
   • ¿A qué hora sale el tren? (At what time does the train leave?)
   • ¿A qué hora abre el museo? (At what time does the museum open?)

Expressing the Current Hour (Es la vs. Son las)

Spanish uses the verb ser to state time. The grammatical agreement depends directly on whether the hour is singular or plural:

• Singular (1:00 to 1:59): Use Es la una (because la una refers to la una en punto or la hora una).
  • 1:00 -> Es la una en punto.
  • 1:15 -> Es la una y cuarto.
  • 1:30 -> Es la una y media.
• Plural (2:00 to 12:59): Use Son las... followed by the cardinal number.
  • 2:00 -> Son las dos en punto.
  • 8:00 -> Son las ocho.
  • 11:00 -> Son las once.

When specifying the scheduled time of an event, replace es la / son las with the preposition a:

• La clase empieza a la una. (The class begins at one.)
• El concierto termina a las diez. (The concert ends at ten.)

Minutes Past and Minutes Before the Hour

Spanish divides the clock face into two halves:

1. Past the hour (:01 to :30): State the hour, add y, and state the minutes:
   • :05 -> Son las cuatro y cinco. (4:05)
   • :10 -> Son las siete y diez. (7:10)
   • :15 -> Son las dos y cuarto. (2:15 — quarter past)
   • :20 -> Son las cinco y veinte. (5:20)
   • :30 -> Son las nueve y media. (9:30 — half past)
2. To the next hour (:31 to :59): Advance to the upcoming hour, add menos, and state the minutes remaining:
   • :35 -> Son las seis menos veinticinco. (5:35 — twenty-five to six)
   • :40 -> Son las ocho menos veinte. (7:40 — twenty to eight)
   • :45 -> Son las diez menos cuarto. (9:45 — quarter to ten)
   • :50 -> Son las once menos diez. (10:50 — ten to eleven)
   • :55 -> Son las tres menos cinco. (2:55 — five to three)

Parts of the Day: De la vs. Por la

To specify morning, afternoon, or evening:

• When a specific clock time is stated, use de la mañana, de la tarde, or de la noche:
  • El vuelo despega a las siete de la mañana. (7:00 a.m.)
  • La reunión es a las cuatro de la tarde. (4:00 p.m.)
  • Cenamos a las nueve y media de la noche. (9:30 p.m.)
  • Aterrizó a las tres de la madrugada. (3:00 a.m. early morning)
• When speaking generally without an exact clock time, use por la mañana, por la tarde, or por la noche:
  • Estudio español por la mañana. (I study Spanish in the morning.)
  • Hago deporte por la tarde. (I exercise in the afternoon.)

The 24-Hour Digital Clock

In official public timetables throughout Spain and Latin America (airports, RENFE train stations, bus terminals, hospital consultations, opening notices), the 24-hour clock is standard:

• 14:30 -> las catorce treinta (or spoken colloquially: las dos y media de la tarde)
• 18:45 -> las dieciocho cuarenta y cinco (colloquially: las siete menos cuarto de la tarde)
• 22:00 -> las veintidós horas (colloquially: las diez de la noche)

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The Calendar: Days, Months, Seasons & Dates

Calendar vocabulary is tested extensively when booking hotel accommodations, planning trips, or completing registration forms.

Days of the Week (Los días de la semana)

The seven days are:

• lunes (Monday)
• martes (Tuesday)
• miércoles (Wednesday — written accent on e)
• jueves (Thursday)
• viernes (Friday)
• sábado (Saturday — written accent on a)
• domingo (Sunday)

Three Essential Grammatical Rules:

1. Always masculine: el lunes, el jueves, los domingos.
2. Never capitalized: In Spanish, days of the week are written in lowercase (hoy es martes), unless beginning a sentence.
3. Expressing 'On': Spanish uses the definite article el (for single specific occurrences) or los (for recurring habits), never the preposition 'en':
   • El lunes voy al médico. (On Monday I am going to the doctor.)
   • Los sábados juego al tenis. (On Saturdays I play tennis.)
   • Incorrect: *En lunes voy al médico.

Notice that lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, and viernes end in -s in both singular and plural (el lunes -> los lunes). Only sábado and domingo add -s to form the plural (el sábado -> los sábados, el domingo -> los domingos).

Months of the Year (Los meses del año)

All twelve months are masculine and written in lowercase:

• enero (January)
• febrero (February)
• marzo (March)
• abril (April)
• mayo (May)
• junio (June)
• julio (July)
• agosto (August)
• septiembre (September)
• octubre (October)
• noviembre (November)
• diciembre (December)

To state that an event happens in a given month, use the preposition en:

• Mi examen DELE es en mayo. (My DELE exam is in May.)
• Nos vamos de vacaciones en agosto. (We go on vacation in August.)

The Four Seasons (Las cuatro estaciones)

• la primavera (Spring — the only feminine season)
• el verano (Summer)
• el otoño (Autumn / Fall)
• el invierno (Winter)

Example: En verano hace mucho calor en Sevilla. (In summer it is very hot in Seville.)

Formatting and Expressing Full Dates

The standard formula for stating dates in Spanish is:

$\text{[Día de la semana]} + \text{[,]} + \text{[el]} + \text{[Número]} + \text{[de]} + \text{[Mes]} + \text{[de / del]} + \text{[Año]}$

• Hoy es viernes, 12 de octubre de 2026.
• Nací el 24 de marzo de 1998.
• For the first day of any month, use either el primero or el uno: el primero de mayo / el uno de mayo.

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Weather Expressions (El tiempo atmosférico)

Meteorological conditions in Spanish are expressed through three distinct verbal structures: hacer, haber, and defective verbs.

Weather with the Impersonal Verb Hacer

Use the third-person singular form hace followed by a noun to describe ambient thermal and physical sensations:

• Hace frío: It is cold
• Hace calor: It is hot
• Hace sol: It is sunny
• Hace viento: It is windy
• Hace buen tiempo: The weather is pleasant / good
• Hace mal tiempo: The weather is bad
• Hace fresco: It is brisk / cool

To intensify these expressions, use the adjective mucho / mucha (never the adverb muy), because the complement is a noun:

• Hoy hace mucho frío. (Today it is very cold. — NOT *hace muy frío)
• Hace mucho calor en la playa. (It is very hot on the beach.)
• Hace mucho viento cerca del mar. (It is very windy near the sea.)

Weather with Hay (Impersonal Haber)

Use hay (there is / there are) with visible atmospheric phenomena:

• Hay niebla: It is foggy (There is fog)
• Hay tormenta: There is a storm
• Hay nubes: It is cloudy (There are clouds)
• Hay humedad: It is humid

Defective Weather Verbs

Two fundamental stem-changing verbs describe precipitation. Because they are impersonal, they are conjugated only in the third-person singular:

• Llover (o -> ue):
  • Llueve frecuentemente en el norte. (It rains frequently in the north.)
  • Está lloviendo ahora mismo. (It is raining right now.)
  • Associated noun: la lluvia (the rain).
• Nevar (e -> ie):
  • Nieva en las montañas durante el invierno. (It snows in the mountains during the winter.)
  • Está nevando. (It is snowing.)
  • Associated noun: la nieve (the snow).

Weather with Estar

Use estar with adjectives describing sky and atmospheric states:

• Está nublado: It is overcast / cloudy
• Está despejado: It is clear (clear skies)
• Está soleado: It is sunny

Understanding these weather expressions enables you to interpret listening tracks where scheduled outdoor excursions, sports matches, or walking tours are modified due to inclement weather.