Room or Number

Question

Durante mi estancia en un hotel español siempre di mi número de habitación (515) como quinientos y quince pero ahora me pregunto si debería haber sido quinientas y quince. ¿Nos referimos a la habitación (femenina) o solamente el número (masculino)?

During my stay at a Spanish hotel I always gave my room number (515) as quinientos y quince. Now I am wondering if it should have been quinientas y quince. Do we refer to the room (feminine), or only the number (masculine)?

Answer 1

I don't think that the room number is an adjective modifying "habitación" or anything else. I think that it is, in essence, the name of the room. It doesn't need to agree with anything.

Good point, it would be habitación número....- so it would be masculine. It would only be feminine if you said something like hay quinientas habitaciones en el hotel. :) - bosquederoble, Aug 23, 2015

Answer 2

¿Me da LA (llave de la habitación ) QUINIENTOS QUINCE.?.

.or ¿Me da LA (llave de lahabitación ) 5, 1, 5?.

¿Me da LA ( llave de la habitación ) QUINIENTOS y QUINCE toallas( for example).?

Answer 3

This is a really good question and it's got me (and obviously everybody else) thinking. I've never even thought of this before. I suppose I've always used the masculine and haven't noticed anybody giving me funny looks ( but that might be more to do with the kindness of the Spanish people rather than my ability with their language).

No, it clearly would be masculine, you would use feminine to refer to the number of rooms and masculine to the number of the room. The question that remains is how to read the number, as hundreds, one digit then the two, or one digit at a time. :) - bosquederoble, Aug 23, 2015

I suppose it comes down to personal preference. I would read 515 as quinientos y quince. - tomasdeAlba, Aug 23, 2015

.. and that's how I say my room number when in hotels, is what I meant. - tomasdeAlba, Aug 23, 2015

There is not normally a y between quinientos and quince, unless you say something like quinientos y quince son quinientos quince, in my experience. :) - bosquederoble, Aug 23, 2015

Yes, I can never quite remember where the y comes in with Spanish numbers. - tomasdeAlba, Aug 23, 2015

Thanks bosquederoble I see it now, the y is not used to separate hundreds and tens - tomasdeAlba, Aug 23, 2015

Yes, only the tens from the ones. :) - bosquederoble, Aug 23, 2015

But you can add any numbers using y- uno y uno son dos. So it is not impossible to connect them that way if the context is right. - bosquederoble, Aug 23, 2015

Answer 4

Aunque hay quinientas quince habitaciones, el número de la habitación sería "número quinientos quince", o como dijo Bosquederoble, cinco quince. Eso diría yo, pero tal vez alguien más tiene mejor idea.

Ha, it looks like I missed the flood of answers by a couple minutes as I wrote mine. - Kiwaiano, Aug 23, 2015

I would vote for yours as the best. - Daniela2041, Aug 23, 2015

Daniela, do you prefer quinientos quince, cinco quince, or cinco uno cinco? - bosquederoble, Aug 23, 2015

Answer 5

I would vote for masculine either on basis it is the name of the room or it is implied that it is the number of the room. I would have said quinientos etc but that is because when talking about years unlike English they say the whole number eg nineteen hundred and eighty four. But of course they will equally understand single digits.

Answer 6

Interesting question, and I would love to hear native opinions on what is most natural.

I think for the a vs. o you could choose either depending on whether you have coalesced it into habitación or it is still vague. But that is just my opinion.

Corrected after the answer by jtaniel- see my comment:

Good point, it would be habitación número....- so it would be masculine. It would only be feminine if you said something like hay quinientas habitaciones en el hotel.

In Mexico they have always understood whatever I say, but looked at me more oddly when I used cientos- and I rapidly learned to say the equivalent of cinco quince, which did not get the odd looks.

I mean really, would you say I am in room five hundred and fifteen in English- or five fifteen.

So just look at these as vague thoughts.

Answer 7

Quinientos y quince is correct. Here in Baja the only thing not spoken in true numbers are phone number and there are various ways of saying them.

612-122-1415 for example would seis, doce, doce, dos, catorce, quince. Or. seiscientos doce, doce con dos, catorce, quince., etc

The doce con dos stems from more than a decade ago when all La Paz number started with 121 or 122 and the first two digits were not given. For example the above number would be 2-14-15. when more prefixes were added it became normal to give prefix with the third number.

In Mexico city all numbers are given as 8 digits. The last digit of the area code and the number and are given in pairs 55-25-35-45.

But a room number, money, number of things are always given in correct numbers.