numbers in English new

NUMBERS IN ENGLISH

The cardinal numbers (one, two, three, etc.) are adjectives referring to quantity, and the ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.) refer to distribution.

Number	Cardinal	Ordinal
1	one	first
2	two	second
3	three	third
4	four	fourth
5	five	fifth
6	six	sixth
7	seven	seventh
8	eight	eighth
9	nine	ninth
10	ten	tenth
11	eleven	eleventh
12	twelve	twelfth
13	thirteen	thirteenth
14	fourteen	fourteenth
15	fifteen	fifteenth
16	sixteen	sixteenth
17	seventeen	seventeenth
18	eighteen	eighteenth
19	nineteen	nineteenth
20	twenty	twentieth
21	twenty-one	twenty-first
22	twenty-two	twenty-second
23	twenty-three	twenty-third
24	twenty-four	twenty-fourth
25	twenty-five	twenty-fifth
26	twenty-six	twenty-sixth
27	twenty-seven	twenty-seventh
28	twenty-eight	twenty-eighth
29	twenty-nine	twenty-ninth
30	thirty	thirtieth
31	thirty-one	thirty-first
40	forty	fortieth
50	fifty	fiftieth
60	sixty	sixtieth
70	seventy	seventieth
80	eighty	eightieth
90	ninety	ninetieth
100	one hundred	hundredth
500	five hundred	five hundredth
1,000	one thousand	thousandth
1,500	one thousand five hundred, or fifteen hundred	one thousand five hundredth
100,000	one hundred thousand	hundred thousandth
1,000,000	one million	millionth

EXAMPLES

• There are twenty-five people in the room.
• He was the fourteenth person to win the award.
• Six hundred thousand people were left homeless after the earthquake.
• I must have asked you twenty times to be quiet.
• He went to Israel for the third time this year.

READING DECIMALS

Read decimals aloud in English by pronouncing the decimal point as "point", then read each digit individually. Money is not read this way.

Written	Said
0.5	point five
0.25	point two five
0.73	point seven three
0.05	point zero five
0.6529	point six five two nine
2.95	two point nine five

READING FRACTIONS

Read fractions using the cardinal number for the numerator and the ordinal number for the denominator, making the ordinal number plural if the numerator is larger than 1. This applies to all numbers except for the number 2, which is read "half" when it is the denominator, and "halves" if there is more than one.

Written	Said
1/3	one third
3/4	three fourths
5/6	five sixths
1/2	one half
3/2	three halves

PRONOUNCING PERCENTAGES

Percentages are easy to read aloud in English. Just say the number and then add the word "percent".

Written	Pronounced
5%	five percent
25%	twenty-five percent
36.25%	thirty-six point two five percent
100%	one hundred percent
400%	four hundred percent

READING SUMS OF MONEY

To read a sum of money, first read the whole number, then add the currency name. If there is a decimal, follow with the decimal pronounced as a whole number, and if coinage has a name in the currency, add that word at the end. Note that normal decimals are not read in this way. These rules only apply to currency.

Written	Spoken
25$	twenty-five dollars
52€	fifty-two euros
140₤	one hundred and forty pounds
$43.25	forty-three dollars and twenty-five cents (shortened to "forty-three twenty-five"  in everyday speech)
€12.66	twelve euros sixty-six
₤10.50	ten pounds fifty

PRONOUNCING MEASUREMENTS

Just read out the number, followed by the unit of measurement, which will often be abbreviated in the written form.

Written	Spoken
60m	sixty meters
25km/h	twenty-five kilometers per hour
11ft	eleven feet
2L	two liters
3tbsp	three tablespoons
1tsp	one teaspoon

PRONOUNCING YEARS

Reading years in English is relatively complicated. In general, when the year is a four digit number, read the first two digits as a whole number, then the second two digits as another whole number. There are a few exceptions to this rule. Years that are within the first 100 years of a new millenium can be read as whole numbers even though they have four digits, or they can be read as two two-digit numbers. Millennia are always read as whole numbers because they would be difficult to pronounce otherwise. New centuries are read as whole numbers of hundreds. We do not use the word "thousand", at least not for reading years within the past 1000 years.

Years that have just three digits can be read as a three digit number, or as a one digit number followed by a two-digit number. Years that are a two digit number are read as a whole number. You can precede any year by the words "the year" to make your meaning clear, and this is common for two and three digit years. Years before the year 0 are followed by BC, pronounced as two letters of the alphabet.

Interestingly, these rules apply to reading street addresses as well.

Written	Spoken
2014	twenty fourteen or two thousand fourteen
2008	two thousand eight
2000	two thousand
1944	nineteen forty-four
1908	nineteen o eight
1900	nineteen hundred
1600	sixteen hundred
1256	twelve fifty-six
1006	ten o six
866	eight hundred sixty-six or eight sixty-six
25	twenty-five
3000 BC	three thousand BC
3250 BC	thirty two fifty BC

HOW TO SAY 0

There are several ways to pronounce the number 0, used in different contexts. Unfortunately, usage varies between different English-speaking countries. These pronunciations apply to American English.

Pronunciation	Usage
zero	Used to read the number by itself, in reading decimals, percentages, and phone numbers, and in some fixed expressions.
o (the letter name)	Used to read years, addresses, times and temperatures
nil	Used to report sports scores
nought	Not used in the USA

EXAMPLES

Written	Said
3.04+2.02=5.06	Three point zero four plus two point zero two makes  five point zero six.
There is a 0% chance of rain.	There is a zero percent chance of rain.
The temperature is -20⁰C.	The temperature is twenty degrees below zero.
You can reach me at 0171 390 1062.	You can reach me at zero one seven one,  three nine zero, one zero six two
I live at 4604 Smith Street.	I live at forty-six o four Smith Street
He became king in 1409.	He became king in fourteen o nine.
I waited until 4:05.	I waited until four o five.
The score was 4-0.	The score was four nil.

Writing and Saying
Large Numbers (#1)

We don't normally write numbers with words, but it's possible to do this--and of course this will show how we say the numbers. In writing large numbers, American English uses a comma ( , ) to separate thousands, millions, etc. American English also uses a hyphen ( - ) to separate "tens" words (twenty, fifty, etc.) and "ones" words (one, three, six, etc.) Examples: Group 1 written said 1,011 one thousand eleven 21,011 twenty-one thousand eleven 721,011 seven hundred twenty-one thousand eleven Group 2 written said 1,256,721 one million two hundred fifty-six thousand seven hundred twenty-one 31,256,721 thirty-one million two hundred fifty-six thousand seven hundred twenty-one 631,256,721 six hundred thirty-one million two hundred fifty-six thousand seven hundred twenty-one Group 3 written said 1,492,638,526 one billion four hundred ninety-two million six hundred thirty-eight thousand five hundred twenty-six 41,492,638,526 forty-one billion four hundred ninety-two million six hundred thirty-eight thousand five hundred twenty-six 941,492,638,526 nine hundred forty-one billion four hundred ninety-two million six hundred thirty-eight thousand five hundred twenty-six __________________________________________________ Special Notes: 1. In American English, the order of large numbers is thousand, million, billion, trillion, etc. (1,000; 1,000,000; 1,000,000,000; 1,000,000,000,000; etc.) In American English a thousand million is a billion, but in British English, a thousand million is a milliard. 2. When saying large numbers, do not make thousand, million, billion, trillion, etc. plural. Not this: *twenty thousands dollars; *five millions people But this: twenty thousand dollars; five million people 3. In American English, use commas to separate thousands, millions, etc. Not this: *21.011 *31.256.721 *941.492.638.526 But this: 21,011 31,256,721 941,492,638,526 4. People often say "a" instead of "one" before hundred, thousand, etc. and they often add "and" before the last number: a hundred and twenty-one a thousand and eleven / etc.

Saying large numbers in English

We use different words to describe numbers depending on how many digits (numbers) they contain. We can also refer to the number of digits for simple generalisations. For example, 10,000 is five digits, so we refer to it as in the tens of thousands, but we may also call it a five figure number.

These are some of the ways we can describe numbers. Individual numbers will be called by their name, for instance 4 is four, 13,425 is thirteen thousand four hundred and 25. But they can also be grouped or generalised in a variety of ways. For instance 4 is also a single figure (or digit) number, and 13,425 is in the tens of thousands. The following table shows how we can describe some groups of numbers as they increase in size:

	Name
13-19	teen
10	ten
100	hundred
1000	thousand
10,000	ten thousand
100,000	hundred thousand
1,000,000	million
1,000,000,000	billion
1,000,000,000,000	quadrillion

In the past, there was a distinction between the American billion (1,000,000,000) and the British or European billion (1,000,000,000,000 – now the quadrillion), but in modern use the vast majority of the English speaking world has adopted the American version.

Saying a large number

We say large numbers by listing the numbers in order of size, biggest first. When reading a single number, all the number labels should be singular, for example 10,400 is ten thousand four hundred and not ten thousands four hundreds.

We describe three digit numbers in hundreds, then tens. Generally, in British English we usually connect large numbers with double or single digit figures with and, but in American English and is not used. Note that hundreds, thousands and millions are not connected to each other with and, though.

For example:

§  345 is three hundred and forty-five (three hundred forty five in American).

§  59,321 is fifty nine thousand, three hundred and twenty one. (not fifty nine thousand and three hundred…)

You can then describe large numbers with a series of different figures, grouping numbers in hundreds and tens, starting with the biggest number. So we describe hundreds/tens of millions, then thousands, then hundreds:

§  1,345,612 = one million, three hundred and forty five thousand, six hundred and twelve

§  153,200 = one hundred and fifty three thousand, two hundred

In the…

When we want to say where a number generally lies, in the above groups, we can say it is in the… For example, 14 is in the teens, 325 is in the hundreds. For tens and hundreds of larger numbers (thousands, millions), we say in the tens (or hundreds) of…So: hundreds of thousands and tens of millions.

Hundreds and thousands

Often it is easier to describe four figure numbers in hundreds instead of thousands. This is perfectly acceptable. For example, 1500 might be described as fifteen hundred, instead of one thousand five hundred (or one and a half thousand), because it is simpler to say.

Numbers as adjectives

All of these numbers can be referred to by the number of figures they contain, with plurals, for instance a number is in single figures (3), double figures (20) or quadruple figures (1,000). However, when we use the figure size of the number to describe a noun (such as a salary, price or to refer to a number itself) we simply use number + figure + noun. For example, a six-figure salary, a four-figure discount.

Alternative names for number groups

There are many informal alternative names for groups of numbers that can be used to simplify names. Beware you may not always be understood using these.

	singular	example plural
12	dozen	24 = 2 dozen
20	score	80 = 4 score
100	century	300 = centuries
1,000	grand, k

Naming large numbers exercise

Practise reading these numbers out loud:

1.     4,567

2.     367

3.     98,745

4.     120,005

5.     5,000

6.     34,230

7.     873,120

8.     10,043

9.     7,340,200

10.    54,500

11.    24

12.    4,567,090

13.    67,000

14.    92,000,031

15.    1,000,010,000,023

Suggested Answers

1.     4,567 – four thousand, five hundred and sixty-seven

2.     342 – three hundred and forty-two

3.     98,745 – ninety-eight thousand, seven hundred and forty-five

4.     120,005 – one hundred and twenty thousand and five

5.     5,000 – five thousand, or five k, g or grand

6.     34,230 – thirty four thousand, two hundred and thirty

7.     873,120 – eight hundred and seventy three thousand, one hundred and twenty

8.     10,043 – ten thousand and forty three

9.     7,340,200 – seven million, three hundred and forty thousand, two hundred

10.    5,500 – five thousand, five hundred or fifty-five hundred

11.    24 – two dozen

12.    4,567,090 – four million, five hundred and sixty seven thousand and ninety

13.    67,000 – sixty seven thousand, sixty seven k, grand or g

14.    92,000,031 – ninety two million and thirty one

15.    1,000,010,000,023 – one quadrillion, ten million and twenty three

Hi,
could you tell me how to read the following numbers:

107
170
1007
1070
1700
1701
17587

One/a hundred and seven
One/a hundred and seventy
One/a thousand (and) seven
One/a thousand (and) seventy
One thousand seven hundred, or seventeen hundred
One thousand seven hundred and one
Seventeen thousand five hundred and eighty-seven

Expressing numbers in English can be confusing to both students and those listening. Make sure you understand how to express numbers in spoken English by following these rules.

Below you will find numbers written out in order to help students learn the correct grouping in English. Generally speaking, numbers larger than nine should always be expressed by numbers in written English, while numbers under 10 should be written out:

• I have 15 clients in New York.
• He ate three cookies.
• She has 240 contacts on her mailing list.

How to Say Numbers from One to 100

Say individual numbers between one and twenty. After that, use the tens (twenty, thirty, etc.) followed by the numbers one through nine:

• 7 - seven
• 19 - nineteen
• 32 - thirty-two
• 89 - eighty-nine

When expressing large numbers (more than one hundred), read in groups of hundreds. The order is as follows: billion, million, thousand, hundred. Notice that hundred, thousand, etc. is NOT followed by an "s:"

• 200 is two hundred NOT two hundreds

How to Say Numbers in the Hundreds

Say numbers in the hundreds by beginning with numerals one through nine followed by "hundred". Finish by saying the last two digits:

• 350 – three hundred fifty
• 425 – four hundred twenty-five
• 873 - eight hundred seventy-three
• 112 - one hundred twelve

NOTE: British English takes "and" following "hundred." American English omits "and:"

How to Say Numbers in the Thousands

The next group is the thousands. Say a number up to 999 followed by "thousand." Finish by reading the hundreds when applicable:

• 15,560 – fifteen thousand five hundred sixty
• 786,450 – seven hundred six thousand four hundred fifty
• 342,713 - three hundred forty-two thousand seven hundred thirteen

• 569,045 - five hundred sixty-nine thousand forty-five

How to Say Numbers in the Millions

For millions, say a number up to 999 followed by "million." Finish by saying first the thousands and then the hundreds when applicable:

• 2,450,000 – two million four hundred fifty thousand
• 27,805,234 - twenty-seven million eight hundred five thousands two hundred thirty-four
• 934,700,000 – nine hundred thirty-four million seven hundred thousand
• 589,432,420 - five hundred eighty-nine million four hundred thirty-two thousand four hundred twenty

For even larger numbers, first use billions and then trillions in a similar manner to millions:

• 23,870,550,000 - twenty-three billion eight hundred seventy million five hundred fifty thousand
• 12,600,450,345,000 - twelve trillion six hundred billion four hundred fifty million three hundred forty-five thousand

Large numbers are often rounded to the next biggest or next smallest number to make things easier. For example, 345,987,650 is rounded to 350,000,000.

How to Say Numbers With Decimals

Speak decimals as the number followed by "point." Next, say each number beyond the point individually:

• 2.36 - two point three six
• 14.82 - fourteen point eight two
• 9.7841 -nine point seven eight four one

• 3.14159 - three point one four one five nine (that's Pi!)

How to Say Percentages

Say percentages as the number followed by "percent:"

• 37% - thirty-seven percent
• 12% - twelve percent
• 87% - eighty-seven percent
• 3% - three percent

How to Talk About Fractions

Say the top number as a cardinal number, followed by the ordinal number + "s:"

• 3/8 - three-eighths
• 5/16 - five-sixteenths
• 7/8 - seven-eighths
• 1/32 - one thirty-second

Exceptions to this rule are:

• 1/4, 3/4 - one-quarter, three quarters
• 1/3, 2/3 - one third, two-thirds
• 1/2 - one-half

Read numbers together with fractions by first stating the number followed by "and" and then the fraction:

• 4 7/8 - four and seven-eighths
• 23 1/2 - twenty-three and one-half

Important Numerical Expressions

Here is how to say a number of important numerical expressions in English.

• Speed: 100 mph (miles per hour). Read speed as numbers: One hundred miles per hour

• Weight: 42 lb. (pounds). Read weight as numbers: forty-two pounds​
• Telephone numbers: 212-555-1212. Read telephone numbers in individual numbers: two one two five five five one two one two
• Dates: 12/04/65. Read dates month, day, year in the U.S.
• Temperature: 72° F (Fahrenheit). Read temperature as "degrees +number": seventy-two degrees fahrenheit
• Height - 6'2''. Read height in feet and then inches: six feet two inches
• Score - 2-1. Read scores as "number + to + number": Two to one 

​Talking About Money

When you see a price such as $60, read the currency first then the number: Sixty dollars.

If the amount includes cents, express the dollar amount first, followed by the cents:

• $43.35 - forty-three dollars and thirty-five cents
• $120.50 - one hundred twenty dollars and fifty cents

Native speakers often just say the dollar number and then the cents number and drop "dollars" and "cents"

• $35.80 - thirty-five eighty
• $175.50 - one hundred seventy-five fifty

Ordinal Numbers

Ordinal numbers are used when speaking about the day of the month, or a position in a group. Most numbers end in 'th', except "first", "second", and "third" of every ten numbers:

1st	first
2nd	second
3rd	third
5th	fifth
8th	eighth
17th	seventeenth
21st	twenty-first
46th	forty-sixth
100th	one-hundredth
1000th	one thousandth

Examples:

• His birthday is May fifth.
• She is third in line, behind the guy in the cap.
• I greeted her first, as she had been waiting the longest.