After learning numbers in Chinese, French, and Japanese, you will learn about English numbers today! In fact, English numbers are easy yet tricky. Let’s get started!

 

Cardinal Numbers vs Ordinal Numbers

We use the cardinal numbers to count, while the ordinal numbers to show the order, rank, position, or sequence. Basically, we just need to add ‘th’ to the cardinal numbers to form ordinal numbers, except 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, and 12.

 

Level One: 1 to 10 – the basic numbers you must know!

Arabic	Cardinal	Ordinal
0	zero	zeroth
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

 

Level Two: 11 to 19 – a bit irregular, but still understandable!

Arabic	Cardinal	Ordinal
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

 

Level Three: 20-99 – note the pattern.

Arabic	Cardinal	Ordinal
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
40	forty	fortieth
50	fifty	fiftieth
60	sixty	sixtieth
70	seventy	seventieth
80	eighty	eightieth
90	ninety	ninetieth
91	ninety-one	ninety-first
98	ninety-eight	ninety-eighth
99	ninety-nine	ninety-ninth

Do you notice that you need to write down the hyphen (-) from 21 to 99?

 

Level IV: 100 – Under 1,000,000

Arabic	Cardinal	Ordinal
100	one hundred	hundredth
200	two hundred	two hundredth
300	three hundred	three hundredth
1,000	one thousand	thousandth
4,000	four thousand	four thousandth
10,000	ten thousand	ten thousandth
50,000	fifty thousand	fifty thousandth
100,000	one hundred thousand	hundred thousandth
600,000	six hundred thousand	six hundred thousand

‘One’ can be substituted by ‘a’ from here. Thus:

one hundred = a hundred

one thousand = a thousand

In UK and US English numbers, we use comma (,) to separate every three digits.

 

Level V: 1,000,000 and Beyond

Arabic	Cardinal	Ordinal
106	one million	millionth
107	ten million	ten millionth
108	hundred million	hundred millionth
109	one billion	billionth
1010	ten billion	ten billionth
1012	one trillion	trillionth
1015	one quadrillion	quadrillionth
1018	one quintillion	quintillionth
1021	one sextillion	sextillionth
1024	one septillion	septillionth
1027	one octillion	octillionth
1030	one nonillion	nonillionth
1033	one decillion	decillionth
1036	one undecillion	undecillionth
1039	one duodecillion	duodecillionth
1042	one tredecillion	tredecillionth
1045	one quattuordecillion	quattuordecillionth
1048	one quindecillion	quindecillionth
1051	one sexdecillion	sexdecillionth
1054	one septendecillion	septendecillionth
1057	one octodecillion	octodecillionth
1060	one novemdecillion	novemdecillionth
1063	one vigintillion	vigintillionth
10100	one googol	googolth

 

Level VI: ‘hundred and’ for UK English, while ‘hundred’ for US English

Arabic	UK English	US English
101	one hundred and one	one hundred one
102	one hundred and two	one hundred two
110	one hundred and ten	one hundred ten
136	one hundred and thirty-six	one hundred thirty-six
288	two hundred and eighty-eight	two hundred eighty-eight
999	nine hundred and ninety-nine	nine hundred ninety-nine
1,010	one thousand and ten	one thousand ten
2,018	two thousand and eighteen	two thousand eighteen
3,996	three thousand nine hundred and ninety-six	three thousand nine hundred ninety-six
6,003	six thousand and three	six thousand three
12,345	twelve thousand three hundred and forty-five	twelve thousand three hundred forty-five
111,111	one hundred and eleven thousand one hundred and eleven	one hundred eleven thousand one hundred eleven
1,008,000	one million eight thousand	one million eight thousand

 

The Incredible Zero

Beside zero, there are several ways to describe the number ‘0’. For instances:

The letter ‘o’ are used to spell the number as in room numbers, years, bank accounts, and telephone numbers.

On the other hand, British often use ‘nought’ instead of ‘zero’.

 

Below Zero

For the numbers below zero – negative numbers, the numbers are preceded by the ‘minus’. Therefore:

-5 → minus five.

-20 → minus twenty.

 

Decimal Numbers

We use ‘point’ to pronounce the decimal point (.)

After the decimal points, we read each digit of the number individually.

0.2 → zero point two.

0.05 → zero point zero five.

0.667 → zero point six six seven.

1.2385 → one point two three eight five.

 

Fraction Numbers

Structure: cardinal number for numerator + hyphen (-) + ordinal number for denominator.

1/4 → one fourth (also known as a quarter).

1/8 → one eighth.

 

For the plural numerators, we add ‘s’ on the ordinal numbers.

2/3 → two thirds.

3/4 → three fourths (also known as three quarters).

 

When the number ‘2’ is the denominator, we use ‘half’ (singular) or ‘halves’ (plural).

1/2 → one-half.

5/2 → five-halves.

 

If the number consisting of a whole number with a fraction number, we use ‘and’ between them.

2 3/4 → two and three-fourths.

8 39/100 → eight and thirty-nine-hundredths.

 

Percentages

We form the percentages by simply adding the ‘percent’ behind the numbers. Thus:

10% → ten percent.

25% → twenty-five percent.

49.75% → forty-nine point seven five percent.

100% → one hundred percent.

Grand or K

We can shorten the ‘thousand’ into ‘grand’ or ‘K’. Note that this rule applies for the number with exact on the thousands. For examples:

8,000 → eight grand or eight K.

20,000 → twenty grand or twenty K.

9,900 → nine grand nine hundred or nine K nine hundred.

 

Years

For saying years in English, divide the years into two digits-two digits. Therefore:

1996 → nineteen ninety-six.

2018 → twenty eighteen.

2036 → twenty thirty-six.

However, for years from 2000 to 2009, we need to say the full number.

2000 → two thousand.

2002 → two thousand and two.

2009 → two thousand and nine.

 

Quiz Time

Cool! Let’s do these exercices to ensure you fully understand to English numbers!

 

1. 369
2. 2,468
3. -100
4. 0.125
5. 3 5/8

 

 

Answers:

1. Three hundred and sixty-nine (UK) or three hundred sixty-nine (US).
2. Two thousand four hundred and sixty-eight (UK) or two thousand four hundred sixty-eight (US).
3. Minus one hundred.
4. Zero point one two five.
5. Three and five-eighths.

 

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