1. Home
  2. Education
  3. Spanish Language
That's About Right!
Expressing Approximation with Numbers
 More of This Feature
• Printer-friendly version of this lesson
 
 Related Resources
• Counting: the Cardinal Numbers
• Prepositions: An Introduction
 
I might weigh 92 kilograms and you might earn $7.43 an hour, but if we were conversing we'd probably be talking about weighing about 90 kilograms or earning almost $7.50 an hour. Such uses of approximations can come in handy in everyday speech, since we often think in round figures.

Here are some of the common ways of expressing approximations in Spanish. Although English equivalents are listed, keep in mind that nearly all of these terms except for casi/"almost" are synonymous, so when translating to English you should translate on the basis of context and meaning rather than always using the word listed as the equivalent.

Spanish

Meaning or English equivalent

Example

aproximadamente

approximately

El diccionario ofrece traducciones de aproximadamente 5.500 términos. The dictionary provides translations of approximately 5,500 terms.

como (more common in Latin America)

about

Estuve malo como cuatro meses. I was sick for about four months.

más o menos

more or less

He perdido, más o menos, seis kilos y en muy poco tiempo. I have lost more or less six kilograms and in very little time.

a eso de (used most commonly with times)

about

A eso de las 16:00 la clínica estará abierta. At about 4 p.m. the clinic will be open.

casi

almost

Casi 3 de cada 100 emails enviados en España este año contenía virus. Almost 3 out of each 100 email letters sent in Spain this year included a virus.

cerca de

close to

México tiene cerca de cinco millones de ciberusuarios. Mexico has close to five million cyber-users.

alrededor de

around

Alrededor de una docena de referencias citadas en el trabajo no aparecen en la bibliografía. Around a dozen references cited in the work don't appear in the bibliography.

unos, unas

some

Costó unos 5.000 pesos. It cost some 5,000 pesos.

o así

or so

Has jugado al juego "teléfono"? Reúnes una docena de gente o así en un círculo y la primera persona le susurra un mensaje al segundo. Have you played the game "telephone"? You bring together a dozen people or so and the first person whisphers a message to the second.

Subscribe to the Newsletter
Name
Email

Explore Spanish Language

More from About.com

  1. Home
  2. Education
  3. Spanish Language
  4. Spanish Vocabulary
  5. Approximations - Learn Spanish Language

©2008 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.