You already know how to count and you already know what red is. All that is new here are the words — and the five sounds from the last room say every one of them. Twenty-four cards, a quiz in three tiers and four workshop activities cover cero to veinte, the colors, and the one place Spanish puts a word where English would not.
You already know how to count. You just need the words.
Five dots. You can already count them — you have been able to since you were three. The counting is not the new part. Only the words are.
Numbers and colors are the easiest things you will ever learn in a second language, because you are not learning the IDEA — you already have three, and you already have red. You are only learning what to call them. That is why this room comes second: it is a whole topic where nothing is new except the words, and the five sounds you learned last time already say all of them.
Two things people get wrong
⚠️People often think…
Every number from eleven to twenty is a brand-new word you have to memorize.
Only five of them are: once, doce, trece, catorce, quince. After that Spanish stops inventing and starts building. Dieciséis is diez y seis — ten and six — pushed into one word. Diecisiete is diez y siete. So do diecinueve yourself: diez y nueve. Five words to learn and four you can work out.
Sixteen to nineteen are built, not invented. diez + the number.
⚠️People often think…
The color word goes in front of the thing, the way it does in English: a red house is ‘roja casa’.
In Spanish the color comes AFTER the thing. La casa roja — the house red. El gato negro — the cat black. It sounds backwards the first ten times and then it stops sounding like anything. Say the thing, then say what color it is.
Thing first, color second. La casa roja.
Say how many, and what color
1Watch one
There are four black cats. Say it in Spanish.
Start with how many. Four is cuatro.
Then the thing. Cats is gatos.
The color comes last, not first. Black is negro.
There is more than one cat, so the color picks up an -s too: negros.
cuatro gatos negros. ✓ How many, what it is, what color — in that order, every time.
2Do one with me
Build the number seventeen, one piece at a time.
Ten in Spanish is
Seven in Spanish is
Push them together and seventeen is
💬One sentence, then you move on
Why are numbers an easier thing to learn than almost any other Spanish words?
3Try one
Two blue books. Write it in Spanish — three words, in the Spanish order. (Book is libro.)
I want a hint first
Say it in this order: how many · what they are · what color. Blue is azul, and more than one is azules.
💬Last one — then you’re done here
English says ‘two blue books’. Spanish says ‘dos libros azules’. What moved?
Where this goes
Where this lives
Your age, your phone number, the score of a game, how many people are coming, what color shirt you want. Numbers and colors are the two things people ask about all day long, in any language.
What this feeds
Next room: el and la — the little word that walks in front of every naming word in Spanish, and why you learn it stuck to the word instead of on its own.
Count how many windows are in the room you are sitting in, in Spanish. Then say what color the walls are.
One card at a time — tap “Show me” to check yourself, then Next. Start at Foundation; when those feel easy, climb.
Helpful Hints
🧭 The unit in one line
cero to quince are words you learn → dieciséis to diecinueve are diez + the number → above twenty it is a ten-word + y + the digit → colors come AFTER the thing → colors ending in -o change, the rest do not.
How many · what it is · what color. In that order, every time.
🔑 The one idea
You are not learning to count — you learned that years ago. You are learning what to call the counting you already do. That is why this whole room can be finished in a week: there is no new idea anywhere in it, only new words for ideas you have had since you were three. The one genuinely new thing is where Spanish puts the color, and that is a matter of order, not of meaning.
⚠️ Traps to avoid
tres is three; trece is thirteen; treinta is thirty. One extra syllable each time, and three different numbers.
Only once, doce, trece, catorce and quince have to be memorized. Sixteen to nineteen are built from diez.
Above twenty-nine the y is written separately: cuarenta y dos, not cuarentaidos.
The color goes after the thing: la casa roja, never roja casa.
A color ending in -o changes to match: el gato negro, la gata negra. Verde, azul, gris and café do not.
amarillo has a ll, so it is ah-mah-REE-yoh, never ah-mah-REEL-loh.
Tengo siete años needs the ñ. Without it the word is a different one entirely.
📐 Building any number under a hundred
Range
How it works
Example
Comes out as
0–15
learn each word
11
once
16–19
diez + the number, joined
16
dieciséis
20–29
veinti + the number, joined
22
veintidós
30–99
ten-word + y + digit
38
treinta y ocho
100
its own word
100
cien
🎯 How you will be asked
“Count from one to twenty.” — out loud, without stopping.
“What is seventeen in Spanish?” — build it, do not hunt for it.
“¿De qué color es?” — answer with es and the color.
“Say two blue books in Spanish.” — number, thing, color.
“¿Cuántos años tienes?” — answer with Tengo … años.
✅ Before the test, can you…
Count from cero to veinte out loud without looking?
Name eight colors in Spanish?
Build dieciséis, diecisiete, dieciocho and diecinueve from diez?
Say four black cats in Spanish, in the Spanish order?
Say which colors change their ending and which never do?
Give your own age starting with Tengo?
📚 Go to the sources
These open another website and need the internet. Look up a color word in the first two and press the speaker, so you hear the ll and the j said by a real voice rather than guessing at them.
Look back at anything you missed — the hint that appeared is exactly what to reread tonight.
How sure did you feel?
Workshop
Sort ten colors by whether their ending moves, put nine numbers in order, label three groups of shapes with how many there are, then explain how you can say a Spanish number nobody ever taught you.
Your practice never leaves this device. There is no account and no sign-in. Your work is saved in this browser only, and you can erase it whenever you want.
Your practice record — saved on this device
This is your record of the module on screen — it stays here and goes nowhere. Independent means you got it right on the first tap; supported means you got it after the explain-and-retry, or marked ‘I had it’ on a revealed answer. Both count, and neither is a grade. If your teacher asks, copy the row or show them this screen.
Date
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Topic
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Level
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Independent
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Supported
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Hints used
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Cards studied
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Lab
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Traps met
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Explained in own words
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Confidence
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The answer key is for a teacher: it prints only from here, for the unit on screen. Print the study packet prints the study pages and a blank quiz — never the answers.