noventa y nueve
/nobenta i nwebe/from spelling rules
The English phrase "ninety nine" is translated into Spanish as noventa y nueve.
noventa y nueve is the number that comes after ninety-eight and before one hundred.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of noventa (ninety), y (and) and nueve (nine).
How does it change in a sentence?
Unlike English, which uses a hyphen for compound numbers like "ninety-nine", Spanish uses the conjunction y (and) to join the tens and the units.
Did you know?
- Because nueve comes from the Latin 'novem', it is a distant linguistic relative of the English word 'November'.
- Spanish only uses the conjunction y for numbers between 31 and 99. Numbers like 29 (veintinueve) are written as a single word without 'and'.
- The word nueve shares a common ancestor with the English word 'nine', both descending from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₁néwn̥.
Examples in context
- El genio es uno por ciento de inspiración y noventa y nueve por ciento de transpiración.Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.Tatoeba #1508342 by marcelostockle, translation #278964 by CK
- El noventa y nueve siempre me hace reír.Ninety-nine always makes me laugh.Tatoeba #859677 by sarostegui, translation #36531 by Eldad
- ¿Cuánto cuesta todo esto?How much does all this cost?
- Tengo noventa y nueve canicas.I have ninety-nine marbles.
Example conversation
Alejandro and María are playing a board game.
- Alejandro¿Cuántas fichas te quedan?How many pieces do you have left?
- MaríaMe quedan noventa y nueve.I have ninety-nine left.
- Alejandro¡Eso es un número muy alto!That is a very high number!
- MaríaSí, pero voy a perder pronto.Yes, but I am going to lose soon.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries noventa, nueve, y, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
