Learn how to talk about percentages in Spanish
In Spanish, we express the percentage of a number with the "%" symbol and when we write it out as words we write and say "por ciento".
Have a look at the following examples:
Some things to consider:
When referring to a number above 10, it is recommended to write the numeral in digits (rather than writing it out as words), i.e. el 15 por ciento, el 90 por ciento (i.e. preferable to writing el quince por ciento, el noventa por ciento...)
We can also use "por cien", but only when we are talking about the totality, i.e. 100%, for example:
Spanish needs the article el or un before the percentage when we are talking about "a percentage of something". Be careful not to omit it in Spanish as you sometimes do in English:
However, you don't always need the articles though in certain phrases where you are not expressing a percentage of something. For example:
Also bear in mind that in Spanish it's recommended to leave a space between the numeral and the "%" symbol, for example:
el 40 %
is preferred to:
el 40%
Remember to always write "por ciento" and "por cien" separately, not as a single word "porciento", "porcien".
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