Lesson 3: Core Vocabulary — Numbers, Family, Food, School

Time to stock your mental shelves. This lesson is a vocabulary powerhouse — numbers you will use every day, the family words you need to talk about yourself, food words for markets and menus, and school words for the classroom — plus the two grammar habits that hold them together: noun gender and plural formation. By the end you will count to a million, describe your family, name a meal, and hold your own in a classroom.

Numbers: count on them

Patterns to notice: numbers 16–29 fuse into one word (*dieciséis*, *veintidós*); from 31 upward, use *treinta y uno*, *cuarenta y cinco*. *Cien* is used alone and before nouns (*cien libros*); *ciento* inside larger numbers (*ciento veinte*). *Uno* shortens to un before a masculine noun (*un libro*) and becomes una before a feminine one (*una casa*). Numbers 200–900 agree in gender: *doscientas mujeres* (200 women).

Family words

To say you *have* them, use tengo: *Tengo dos hermanos y una hermana.* Ages also use *tener*: *Mi hermana tiene quince años* — My sister is fifteen years old (literally "has fifteen years"). Never use *ser* for age.

Food and school essentials

Gender and plurals: the two habits

Most nouns ending in -o are masculine (el libro), most ending in -a are feminine (la casa). Famous exceptions: *el día* (day), *el mapa* (map), *el problema* (problem), *la mano* (hand), *la foto* (photo), *la moto* (motorbike). Nouns ending in -e or a consonant must be learned with their article — always learn "el/la + word" as one chunk. Plurals: add -s after a vowel (*libros*), -es after a consonant (*papeles*), and words ending in -z change z→c (*luz → luces*). Adjectives must agree: *los libros rojos*, *las casas rojas*.

Example sentences

• Tengo veintitrés años. — I am twenty-three years old.
• Hay treinta y un alumnos en mi clase. — There are thirty-one students in my class.
• Mi abuela tiene ochenta años. — My grandmother is eighty years old.
• Compramos doscientos gramos de queso. — We buy two hundred grams of cheese.
• El agua está fría. — The water is cold. (agua is feminine: note *fría* and the article *el* is used only for pronunciation before stressed a- words)
• Mi padre es profesor y mi madre es médica. — My father is a teacher and my mother is a doctor.
• Hay tres huevos y un litro de leche. — There are three eggs and a litre of milk.
• ¿Cuántos hermanos tienes? — How many brothers and sisters do you have?

Dialogue: at the market

Vendedora: Buenos días. ¿Qué desea? Cliente: Querría un kilo de manzanas y medio kilo de naranjas, por favor. Vendedora: Muy bien. ¿Algo más? Cliente: Sí, doscientos gramos de queso y una docena de huevos. Vendedora: Aquí tiene. Son siete euros con cuarenta. Cliente: ¿Tiene pan fresco? Vendedora: Sí, el pan llega a las nueve. Hoy ya no queda. Cliente: No pasa nada. Muchas gracias.

Comprehension questions: 1. What four things does the customer ask for? 2. How much does she pay? 3. Why can't she buy bread?

Answer key: 1. A kilo of apples, half a kilo of oranges, 200 grams of cheese, a dozen eggs. 2. €7.40. 3. The bread arrives at nine and today's has run out (*ya no queda*).

Pronunciation notes: this lesson's sounds

• quince, cincuenta, cien — the c before e/i is an "s" in Latin America and a "th" in most of Spain: KEEN-seh, seen-KWEHN-tah.
• huevo starts with a silent h and a "weh" glide: WEH-voh.
• veintiuno is one flowing word with stress on the *u*: veh-een-tee-OO-noh. Practise 16–29 as single ribbons of sound.

Common mistakes (wrong → right)

• ✗ *Soy quince años* → ✓ Tengo quince años — age uses *tener*.
• ✗ *La mapa es grande* → ✓ El mapa es grande — -ma words of Greek origin (mapa, problema, día family exceptions) are often masculine; learn each noun with its article.
• ✗ *Veinte y dos alumnos* → ✓ Veintidós alumnos — 21–29 are single fused words.
• ✗ *Unas problemas* → ✓ Unos problemas — *problema* is masculine despite the -a.

Exam Experience

Reading comprehension. Read the text and answer in English. *En mi familia somos cinco: mi padre, mi madre, mis dos hermanas y yo. Mi hermana mayor se llama Paula y tiene diecisiete años. La pequeña, Nuria, tiene nueve. Mi padre es profesor de matemáticas y mi madre trabaja en un hospital. Los domingos comemos juntos: siempre hay pan, ensalada y pollo o pescado.* 1. How many people are in the family, and who are they? (2 marks) 2. What are the sisters' names and ages? (1 mark) 3. What do the parents do, and what happens on Sundays? (1 mark) Answer key: 1. Five — father, mother, two sisters and the writer. 2. Paula, 17; Nuria, 9. 3. Father teaches maths; mother works in a hospital; on Sundays they eat together (bread, salad, chicken or fish).

Multiple choice. 1. "There are 200 students" is: a) Hay doscientos estudiantes b) Hay doscientas estudiantes c) Hay dos cientos estudiantes. Answer: a — *estudiantes* here is masculine/plural generic, and 200 is one word. 2. Which sentence is correct? a) Mi madre tiene cuarenta años b) Mi madre es cuarenta años c) Mi madre está cuarenta. Answer: a — age always takes tener. 3. El ___ es masculino: a) mano b) problema c) foto. Answer: b — problema is masculine; mano and foto are feminine.

Guided writing task. Write 45–55 words about your family and a typical family meal: include at least three family members with ages, and four food words with quantities. Model answer: *En mi familia somos cuatro. Mi madre tiene cuarenta y dos años y mi padre tiene cuarenta y cinco. Mi hermano pequeño tiene once años. Los sábados comemos en casa de mi abuela. Hay siempre pan fresco, una ensalada grande, pollo con arroz y, de postre, fruta. Mi abuela compra dos kilos de naranjas en el mercado.* Marking notes: content marks for family details + meal; language marks for *tener* + ages, article/gender accuracy (*la ensalada, el pan*), and fused numbers (*cuarenta y dos* is correct above 30; *veintidós* would be required for 22). Quantities must agree in gender where applicable (*doscientos gramos*, not *doscientas gramos*).

Going further: more numbers, more family

Cardinal numbers are only half the story. Spanish daily life also runs on ordinals for floors, dates and order:

Use them like this: el primer piso (the first floor — note *primero* drops its -o before a masculine noun: *el primer día*), la segunda planta, el tercer hijo. The date uses cardinals after the first: *el uno de mayo*, but *el dos de mayo*, *el tres de mayo*. Dates and days you will need immediately: lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes, sábado, domingo (Monday–Sunday — days are masculine and not capitalised; *el lunes* = on Monday, *los lunes* = on Mondays), and the months: enero, febrero, marzo, abril, mayo, junio, julio, agosto, septiembre, octubre, noviembre, diciembre. Extended family completes the picture: el suegro/la suegra (father-/mother-in-law), el cuñado/la cuñada (brother-/sister-in-law), el sobrino/la sobrina (nephew/niece), el esposo/la esposa (husband/wife — more formal than marido/mujer), el novio/la novia (boyfriend/girlfriend — and also bridegroom/bride!), soltero/a (single), casado/a (married), divorciado/a (divorced), viudo/a (widowed). Four sentences to try: Mi primo mayor tiene veintinueve años. (My oldest cousin is 29.) La primera clase es el lunes. (The first class is on Monday.) Mi cuñada es de Perú. (My sister-in-law is from Peru.) En agosto cumplo años. (My birthday is in August — *cumplir años* is the idiom: "to complete years".)

Workshop: numbers at work

Numbers become real when money and time push them around. Practise these aloud: €15,50 — *quince euros con cincuenta*; 36,5 °C — *treinta y seis coma cinco grados* (Spanish uses a comma for the decimal point and says *coma*); el 10 % — *el diez por ciento*; 3,5 kg — *tres kilos y medio*. Fractions appear as medio kilo (half a kilo), un cuarto de hora (a quarter of an hour) and tres cuartos (three quarters). A family-flavoured mini-text to translate numbers from: *Los García salen de vacaciones el veintidós de julio. Viajan cuatro personas: los dos padres y los dos hijos. El mayor tiene diecinueve años y la menor, catorce. El viaje dura seis horas y el hotel está a trescientos metros de la playa. Han reservado dos habitaciones por cinco noches: ciento veinte euros por noche y habitación.* Read it again and answer: How many travel? How old are the children? How far is the hotel from the beach, and what will the rooms cost in total? (Answers: four; 19 and 14; 300 metres; 2 rooms × 5 nights × €120 = €1,200 — *mil doscientos euros*.)