Today listening to radio found a simple matter that I had not known. I
heard the word 'cienta'. Checking the dictionary later I found that
ciento means 'hundred'. I'm wondering if numbers also have gender
designation. That one would say 'cienta casas' instead of 'ciento
casas', meaning 'a hundred houses'.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Patrice

Hi patrice29:

Thanks for the interesting question!

You would think that there would be a simple answer for whether in
Spanish cardinal numbers agree in gender with the noun they are
modifying ... but the answer is anything but simple! While most other
Spanish adjectives agree with the gender of their nouns, not always so
with numbers.

100, which is cien or ciento in Spanish, is one of the majority of
numbers that do *not* change with the gender of the noun. However,
two-hundred (doscientos/doscientas) does. So, you would say "ciento
casas" but you would also say "doscientas casas".

The following website gives a very nice listing of the cardinal
numbers and which ones do and don't changed based on gender:

Counting: The Cardinal Numbers
URL: http://spanish.about.com/cs/forbeginners/a/cardinalnum_beg.htm
Quote: "Those that are in italics are forms that change according to
gender, while the non-italic forms are fixed."

So, from that list, the cardinal numbers that change their genders are:

* 1. uno 
* 21. veintiuno 
* 31. treinta y uno 
* etc.
* 101. ciento uno 
* 121. ciento veintiuno 
* etc.
* 200. doscientos 
* 201. doscientos uno

Confusing enough for you? These additional websites provide some more explanations:

Adjectives in Spanish 
URL: http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/courses/ADJECT.HTM
Quote: "Numbers ending in ?one? have feminine singular forms when used
with feminine nouns: veintiuna mujeres, cincuenta y una pesetas."

Lesson 10 - Possessives; Numbers
URL: http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/deisenbe/readsp/Lesson_10_-_Possessives_and_Numbers.htm
Quote: "Most numbers do not have genders, even though they end in o. 
Cuatro, cinco, ocho, and ciento are invariable, and refer to either
male or female.
Cuatro hombres, cuatro mujeres. Cien gallos (roosters), cien gallinas (hens). 
Son cuatro. ("They are four" or "there are four of them." One does not
have the gender information one has with other adjectives, such as "Es
nuevo," in which the item referred to must be masculine.)
Uno and numbers ending in uno, such as veintiuno, do have a female gender."

However, keep in mind that *all* ordinal numbers (first, second,
third, etc.) *do* have a male and female version.

Another interesting fact about the number ciento is that it loses the
final "to" before a masculine singular noun:

"Some numbers lose a final vowel before a masculine singular noun (the
same process as with bueno-buen):
uno > un (and all numbers ending in uno) 
ciento > cien "
From: http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/deisenbe/readsp/Lesson_10_-_Possessives_and_Numbers.htm

I hope that my explanation and the pages I have referred you to make
things more clear for you.

Search Strategy (on Google):

* "learning spanish" numbers
* spanish veintiuno veintiuna
* spanish veintiuno ciento

websearcher

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Request for Answer Clarification by patrice29-ga on 12 Apr 2005 06:18 PDT

I'm not sure I understand you. Is it that you said, of the following numbers:

10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900

Actually I'm not sure what you said. Let me ask a question. Of the
numbers above, which would change with gender and which would not? I
understand that two hundred changes, but what about three hundred,
four hundred?

Thanks,
Patrice

---

Clarification of Answer by websearcher-ga on 12 Apr 2005 06:42 PDT

Hi patrice29:

Sorry for any confusion. Of the numbers you listed only:

200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900

would change with gender. The others would not. 

Hope this helps. 

websearcher

---

Clarification of Answer by websearcher-ga on 12 Apr 2005 10:20 PDT

hi patrice29:

Thanks for the generous rating, comments, and tip. 

"sienta" is the Present Tense Subjunctive form of the verb "sentir"
and goes with yo, él, ella, and Usted.

The Spanish verb: "sentir"
URL: http://www.spanishcourses.info/SpanishVerbs/sentir_conjugate_552_EN.asp

To learn more about the Present Subjunctive tense, see:

The Present Subjunctive
URL: http://www.drlemon.net/Grammar/Subjunctive/subjunctive.html

I hope this helps.

websearcher

Yes, now I got it. Much thanks!
However it seems the word I heard, as mentioned in by a commenter,
could also have been 'sienta' but at least I now know to listen for a
number first to help indicate which.

Sienta however is a subjunctive tense of sentir. Would you write a word on that.
Would sienta mean 'I may feel' like doing something, or 'that may be
what what I feel (think) about that subject?

Wow these tenses get difficult to cope with.

Thanks, Patrice

Could the heard word "cienta" actually was SIENTA related to the verb
sentir (to feel)?

"ciento casas" or "cienta casas"?  as far as I know the sentence is
gramatically incorrect.  Probably you mean "cien casas" in which case
it means "one hundred houses".  Also you can say "cientos de casas"
which means "hundreds of houses"

Examples:
Este vecindario tiene aproximadamente cien casas (this neighborhoor
has approximately one hundred houses)
Hay cientos de casas en este vecindario (there are hundreds of houses
in this neighborhood)

"ciento casas" "cienta casas"? that is WRONG in any context;
doscientas casas, doscientos animales, doscientas personas,
trescientas personas, cuatroscientas personas, those are OK.

cien animales, cientos de animales
cien casas, cientos de casas
cien preguntas, cientos de preguntas


Regards