
CARDINAL NUMBERS
| 0 zero, oh, nought,
nil, love, nothing 1 one 2 two 3 three 4 four 5 five 6 six 7 seven 8 eight 9 nine 10 ten 11 eleven 12 twelve 13 thirteen 14 fourteen 15 fifteen 16 sixteen 17 seventeen 18 eighteen 19 nineteen 20 twenty 21 twenty-one 22 twenty-two 23 twenty-three 24 twenty-four 25 twenty-five |
26 twenty-six 27 twenty-seven 28 twenty-eight 29 twenty-nine 30 thirty 40 forty (no "u") 50 fifty 60 sixty 70 seventy 80 eighty 90 ninety 100 a/one hundred 101 a hundred and one 110 a hundred and ten 120 a hundred and twenty 200 two hundred 1,000 a/one thousand 1,001 a thousand and one 1,010 a thousand and ten 2,000 two thousand 10,000 ten thousand 11,000 eleven thousand 100,000 a/one hundred thousand 1,000,000 a/one million 2,000,000 two million 1,000,000,000 a/one billion |
Use 100 always with 'a' or 'one'.
100 - a hundred / one hundred
'a' can only stand at the beginning of a number.
100 - a hundred / one
hundred
2,100 - two thousand, one hundred
Use 1,000 and 1,000,000 always with 'a' or 'one'.
1,000 - a thousand / one
thousand
201,000 - two hundred and one thousand
Use commas as a separator.
57,458,302
In English this number is a billion. This is very tricky for nations where 'a billion' has 12 zeros. 1,000,000,000,000 in English, however, is a trillion.
But don't worry, these numbers are even a bit problematic for native speakers: for a long time the British 'billion' had 12 zeros (a number with 9 zeros was called 'a thousand million'). Now, however, also in British English 'a billion' has 9 zeros. But from time to time this number still causes confusion (just like this paragraph, I'm afraid). ;o)
Numbers are usually written in singular.
two hundred Euros
several thousand light years
The plural is only used with dozen, hundred, thousand, million, billion, if they are not modified by another number or expression (e.g. a few / several).
hundreds of Euros
thousands of light years
ORDINAL NUMBERS
| 1 | st | first | 11 | th | eleventh | 21 | st | twenty-first | 31 | st | thirty-first | ||
| 2 | nd | second | 12 | th | twelfth | 22 | nd | twenty-second | 40 | th | fortieth | ||
| 3 | rd | third | 13 | th | thirteenth | 23 | rd | twenty-third | 50 | th | fiftieth | ||
| 4 | th | fourth | 14 | th | fourteenth | 24 | th | twenty-fourth | 60 | th | sixtieth | ||
| 5 | th | fifth | 15 | th | fifteenth | 25 | th | twenty-fifth | 70 | th | seventieth | ||
| 6 | th | sixth | 16 | th | sixteenth | 26 | th | twenty-sixth | 80 | th | eightieth | ||
| 7 | th | seventh | 17 | th | seventeenth | 27 | th | twenty-seventh | 90 | th | ninetieth | ||
| 8 | th | eighth | 18 | th | eighteenth | 28 | th | twenty-eighth | 100 | th | one hundredth | ||
| 9 | th | ninth | 19 | th | nineteenth | 29 | th | twenty-ninth | 1,000 | th | one thousandth | ||
| 10 | th | tenth | 20 | th | twentieth | 30 | th | thirtieth | 1,000,000 | th | one | ||
Just add th to the cardinal number:
Exceptions:
In compound ordinal numbers, note that only the last figure is written as an ordinal number:
When expressed as figures, the last two letters of the written word are added to the ordinal number:
In names for kings and queens, ordinal numbers are written in Roman numbers. In spoken English, the definite article is used before the ordinal number:
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nought | - | in general (British English), in mathematics (AmE: zero) |
| zero | - | in general (American English). | |
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- | in measurements of temperature (British and American English) | |
| 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 | - | in count-downs (British and American English) | |
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- | score in team games, e.g. football (American English) | |
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oh | - | when each figure is said separately (e.g. in phone numbers, account numbers etc.) |
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nil | - | score in team games, e.g. football (British English) |
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love | - | in tennis and similar games |
| 1. How
many fingers do you have? 2. You have eight fingers? 3. How many brothers does Ryan have? 4. How many students in your class? 5. How old is your sister? 6. How many hours do you work every day? 7. How many people are in the group? 8. How many cookies are left? 9. How many toothpicks are in the box? |
I have eight fingers. Eight fingers and two thumbs. He has four (brothers). Thirty-five, including me. She is seventeen. From nine to five. Eight hours. About seventy. Five or six. More than a hundred. |
| ½ | a half | 0.5 | British English nought point five American English zero point five |
| 2½ | two and a half | 2.5 | two point five |
| ¼ | a/one quarter | 0.25 | British English nought point two five American English zero point two five |
| ¾ | three quarters American English also three fourths |
0.75 | British English nought point seven five American English zero point seven five |
| 1/8 | One eighth | ||
| 1/5 | One fifth | ||
| 1/3 | One third | ||
| 2/3 | Two thirds | ||