Ways to say it
| Spanish | IPA | Note |
|---|---|---|
| mil millones | /ˌmil miˈʝones/ | masculine, plural |
| billón | /biˈʝon/ | US, masculine |
In Spanish, the term for a thousand million (1,000,000,000) is mil millones. This refers to a milliard.
Which one should you use?
In standard Spanish, billón refers to a million million (1,000,000,000,000) rather than a thousand million. While billón is sometimes used in contexts influenced by US English to mean 1,000,000,000, this is technically incorrect in standard Spanish.
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
Mil millones is a formal term for billion that translates to a thousand millions.
Is it said differently in some regions?
In Spain, mil millones is the most common term for a billion.
How does it change in a sentence?
When using mil millones as a noun phrase followed by a noun, you must include the preposition de, as in mil millones de personas.
How do you pronounce it?
/ˌmil miˈʝones/
What mistakes should you avoid?
English speakers often mistakenly use un billón to mean 1,000,000,000, but in Spanish this actually means 1,000,000,000,000.
Did you know?
- If you are reading a Spanish news report about a debt of un billón of pesos, you are actually looking at a number a thousand times larger than an English speaker would expect: one trillion.
- The word mil is a distant linguistic relative of the English word 'mile', as both originate from the Latin word for a thousand, mīlle.
- In Spanish, while mil millones is the standard way to say a billion, the word billón remains legally and officially defined as a million million in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
Examples in context
- Ya somos siete mil millones.We're already 7 billion.This sentence uses mil millones to express a total number of people.Tatoeba #6143964 by Shishir, translation #2884513 by mervert1
- Mil millones de personas hablan inglés.One billion people speak English.This sentence uses mil millones to describe a number of people.Tatoeba #1810577 by Shishir, translation #73452 by CN
- Mil millones de personas hablan el idioma inglés.A billion people speak the English language.Tatoeba #10952086 by Seael, translation #7859748 by corvard
- El proyecto de inversión requiere una inversión de mil millones de dólares.The investment project requires a billion-dollar investment.
- El premio gordo de la lotería asciende a mil millones de pesos.The lottery jackpot amounts to a billion pesos.
- 20 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Alejandro and María are discussing the company's annual revenue.
- MaríaLa empresa ganó mil millones este año.The company earned one billion this year.
- Alejandro¿Realmente ganamos mil millones?Did we really earn one billion?
- MaríaSí, es una cifra impresionante.Yes, it is an impressive figure.
- Alejandro¡Eso es una gran noticia para nosotros!That is great news for us!
Sources
- Wiktionary, “billion” translations and entries mil millones, billón, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries billón, mil, mil millones, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
