The numeral cientois sometimes used as an alternative to centenar, for
example in reference to quantities of money, or in the singular in expres-
sions of rate:
Cobró cientos de euros esta semana.
He collected hundreds of euros this week.
500 pesos el ciento[LA]/centenar
500 pesos per hundred
Se ven centenares de delfines aquí.
Hundreds of dolphins are seen here.
Note: Cuarentenaalso means ‘quarantine’.
Multiple births are stated as follows: mellizos/as(or gemelos/as) ‘twins’, tri-
llizos/as‘triplets’, cuatrillizos/as‘quadruplets’, quintillizos/as‘quintuplets’,
sextillizos/as‘sextuplets’, septillizos/as‘septuplets’.
Spanish has no exact equivalent of the English ending ‘-fold’. Only the first
three of the following words are used regularly: múltiple‘multiple’, doble
‘double’, triple‘triple’, cuádruple/cuádruplo‘quadruple/fourfold’, quín-
tuple/quíntuplo‘quintuple/fivefold’, séxtuple/séxtuplo‘sextuple/sixfold’:
un examen de elección a multiple-choice examination
múltiple
aparcar en doble fila to double park (a car)
el triple salto the triple jump (athletics)
The general alternative is to use the pattern of cardinal number + veces
‘times’: La población es diez veces más que la de Inglaterra‘The popula-
tion is tenfold/ten times that of England’.
23.4.2
1111
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1011
1
12111
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
20111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
30111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
40
41111
Collective
and multiple
numerals
247
