uno y medio
/uno i medjo/from spelling rules
The English phrase "one and a half" is translated into Spanish as uno y medio.
Meaning: one and a half (num)
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of uno (one), y (and) and medio (half).
How does it change in a sentence?
The phrase changes gender to match the noun it modifies, using una y media for feminine nouns.
Did you know?
- The word medio is a direct borrow from Latin rather than an evolved word, because its natural evolution would have sounded too much like the Spanish verb mear, which means 'to piss'.
- In Spanish, the word medio is used to describe a spiritual 'medium' who speaks to the dead, a meaning completely unrelated to the mathematical 'half'.
- When telling time, una y media specifically means 'half past one', reflecting how the phrase is used as a standard shorthand for the clock.
Examples in context
- La conferencia comenzará a la una y mediaThe conference will start at one-thirty
- Estoy esperando desde la una y media. ¡Apúrate!I have been waiting since one-thirty. Hurry up!
Example conversation
Daniel and Sofía are talking about a movie's length.
- DanielSofía, ¿cuánto dura la película?Sofía, how long is the movie?
- SofíaDura uno y medio horas, Daniel.It lasts one and a half hours, Daniel.
- DanielEs un tiempo perfecto.That is a perfect amount of time.
- SofíaSí, no es muy larga.Yes, it is not very long.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “one and a half” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries medio, uno, y, CC BY-SA 4.0.
