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Lesson 8. English Numbers: The Complete Guide (Up to 10^100)

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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