NUMBERS

NUMBERS

Numbers are the words or symbols that we use to count quantity. We have one (1) nose and two (2) eyes on our face. We have four (4) fingers and one (1) thumb on each hand. There are seven (7) days in a week. There are twelve (12) months in a year. And there are one hundred (100) years in a century.

The symbols that we use for numbers today (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) are called Arabic numerals. Another system that you sometimes see (i, ii, v, x, l, c etc) uses Roman numerals

Cardinal Numbers

"Cardinal numbers" are ordinary numbers like 1, 2, 3. In the chart below, you can see how we make numbers from 0 to 100 and then some units above that.

The numbers from 13 (thirteen) to 19 (nineteen) all end in -teen and are called "the teens". This is why people from thirteen to nineteen years of age are called "teenagers".

Arabic numeral	word
0	zero, nought
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
30	thirty
31	thirty-one
40	forty
50	fifty
60	sixty
70	seventy
80	eighty
90	ninety
100	hundred
101	hundred and one
152	hundred and fifty-two
200	two hundred
1,000	thousand
1,000,000	million
1,000,000,000	billion
1,000,000,000,000	trillion

For numbers in the hundreds, the British usually say "and" but the Americans often do not say "and":

• British English: 120 = one hundred and twenty
• American English: 120 = one hundred twenty
• Decimal Numbers
• We can describe numbers smaller than one by using fractions or decimals. Today, the decimal system is more common than fractions.
• To indicate a decimal number we use a point (.) and this includes money such as dollars and cents.
• Look at these decimal examples:

We write:	We say:
0.3	nought point three zero point three
3.45	three point four five (NOT three point forty-five)
98.4	ninety-eight point four
$1.55	one dollar, fifty-five cents one dollar, fifty-five
$700.00	seven hundred dollars
€3,500.50	three thousand five hundred euro and fifty cents three thousand five hundred euro, fifty cents

• Remember that we use commas to separate thousands. Be careful with commas and points. Some languages use them in the opposite way!

Cardinals | Thousands | Song | Decimals | Fractions | Ordinals | Roman

Thousands

In English, when we write numerals or digits, we separate thousands with a comma (,) as in this example: 5,300,000

We count 3 digits from the right and insert a comma, like this:

1,000	(one thousand)
4,500	(four thousand, five hundred)
96,000	(ninety-six thousand)
450,000	(four hundred and fifty thousand)
$6,300,000	(six million, three hundred thousand dollars)

• We do NOT use a point (.) to separate thousands.
• We do NOT use a space (  ) to separate thousands.
• There is NO space before or after the comma.

Be careful with commas and points. Some languages use them in the opposite way!

Fractions

We can describe numbers smaller than one by using decimals or fractions. Today, most systems use decimals, but it is still useful to know how to read and say simple fractions in English.

Look at these examples of fractions:

We write:	We say:
½	a half OR one half
¼	a quarter OR one quarter
¾	three quarters
⅓	a third OR one third
⅔	two thirds
⅕	a fifth OR one fifth
⅗	three fifths
⅛	an eighth OR one eighth
⅝	five eighths
1½	one and a half
5¾	five and three quarters

Although the system of fractions is not used much these days, we commonly use a few simple fractions in everyday speech, for example:

• They phoned half an hour ago.
• Hurry up! The bus leaves in a quarter of an hour.
• The police station is about three quarters of a mile past the traffic lights.

Note that after "one and a half", the noun is plural:

• Go straight on for one and a half kilometres. (OR ...one kilometre and a half)
• We had to wait for one and a half hours. (OR ...an hour and a half)
• Ordinal Numbers
• We use ordinal numbers to talk about the "order" of things or to define a thing's position in a series.
• Note that after the numeral or digit, we write the last two letters of the word. For example, we take the last two letters of first and add them to the digit 1 to make 1st.

first	1st
second	2nd
third	3rd
fourth	4th
fifth	5th
sixth	6th
seventh	7th
eighth	8th
ninth	9th
tenth	10th
eleventh	11th
twelfth	12th
thirteenth	13th
fourteenth	14th
fifteenth	15th
sixteenth	16th
seventeenth	17th
eighteenth	18th
nineteenth	19th
twentieth	20th
twenty-first	21st
twenty-second	22nd
twenty-third	23rd
twenty-fourth	24th
thirtieth	30th
thirty-first	31st
fortieth	40th
fiftieth	50th
sixtieth	60th
seventieth	70th
eightieth	80th
ninetieth	90th
hundredth	100th
hundred and first	101st
hundred and fifty-second	152nd
two hundredth	200th
thousandth	1,000th
millionth	1,000,000th
billionth	1,000,000,000th
trillionth	1,000,000,000,000th

• Roman Numerals →

Roman Numerals

The numbers that we normally use (1, 2, 3 etc) are called "Arabic numerals". But we sometimes use another system for writing numbers - "Roman numerals". The Romans used letters of the alphabet to represent numbers, and you will occasionally see this system used for page numbers, clock faces, dates of movies etc.

The letters used in Roman numerals are:

• I = 1
• V = 5
• X = 10
• L = 50
• C = 100
• D = 50
• M = 1000

We can use upper-case letters (capitals) or lower-case letters (small letters) when writing Roman numerals. So the following numbers are exactly the same: XVIII = xviii = 18

In general, letters are placed in decreasing order of value, eg XVI = 16. Letters can be repeated one or two times to increase value, eg XX = 20, XXX = 30. Letters cannot be repeated three times, so XXXX is not used for 40. In this case, XL = 40 (50 minus 10).

Significant Roman numerals from one to a thousand

Roman Numerals		Arabic Numerals
upper-case	lower-case
I	i	1
II	ii	2
III	iii	3
IV	iv	4
V	v	5
VI	vi	6
VII	vii	7
VIII	viii	8
IX	ix	9
X	x	10
XI	xi	11
XII	xii	12
XIII	xiii	13
XIV	xiv	14
XV	xv	15
XVI	xvi	16
XVII	xvii	17
XVIII	xviii	18
XIX	xix	19
XX	xx	20
XXI	xxi	21
XXII	xxii	22
XXIII	xxiii	23
XXX	xxx	30
XL	xl	40
L	l	50
LX	lx	60
LXX	lxx	70
LXXX	lxxx	80
XC	xc	90
C	c	100
CC	cc	200
CCC	ccc	300
CD	cd	400
D	d	500
M	m	1000

.

 FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT AND JOIN http://www.englishclub.com/