English numerals
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English number words include numerals and various words derived from them, as well as a large
number of words borrowed from other languages.
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Contents
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Cardinal
numbers
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0
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10
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1
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11
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2
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12
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20
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3
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13
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30
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4
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14
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40
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forty (no "u")
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5
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15
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fifteen (note "f", not "v")
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50
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fifty (note "f", not "v")
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6
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16
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60
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7
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17
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70
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8
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18
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eighteen (only one "t")
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80
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eighty (only one "t")
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9
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19
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90
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ninety (note the "e")
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If a number is in the range 21 to
99, and the second digit is not zero, one typically writes the number as two
words separated by a hyphen.
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21
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25
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32
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58
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64
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79
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83
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99
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In English, the hundreds are perfectly regular, except that the word hundred
remains in its singular form regardless of the number preceding it
(nevertheless, one may on the other hand say "hundreds of people flew
in", or the like)
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100
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200
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…
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…
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900
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So too are the thousands, with the
number of thousands followed by the word "thousand"
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1,000
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2,000
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…
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…
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10,000
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11,000
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eleven thousand
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…
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…
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20,000
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twenty thousand
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21,000
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twenty-one thousand
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30,000
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thirty thousand
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85,000
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eighty-five thousand
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100,000
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999,000
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nine hundred and ninety-nine
thousand (British English)
nine hundred ninety-nine thousand (American English) |
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1,000,000
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10,000,000
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In American usage, four-digit
numbers with non-zero hundreds are often named using multiples of
"hundred" and combined with tens and ones: "One thousand
one", "Eleven hundred three", "Twelve hundred
twenty-five", "Four thousand forty-two", or "Ninety-nine
hundred ninety-nine." In British usage, this style is common for multiples
of 100 between 1,000 and 2,000 (e.g. 1,500 as "fifteen hundred") but
not for higher numbers.
Americans may pronounce four-digit
numbers with non-zero tens and ones as pairs of two-digit numbers without
saying "hundred" and inserting "oh" for zero tens:
"twenty-six fifty-nine" or "forty-one oh five". This usage
probably evolved from the distinctive usage for years;
"nineteen-eighty-one". It is avoided for numbers less than 2500 if
the context may mean confusion with time of day: "ten ten" or
"twelve oh four".
Intermediate numbers are read differently
depending on their use. Their typical naming occurs when the numbers are used
for counting. Another way is for when they are used as labels. The second
column method is used much more often in American English
than British English. The third column is used in British English, but rarely in
American English (although the use of the second and third columns is not
necessarily directly interchangeable between the two regional variants). In
other words, British English and American English can seemingly agree, but it
depends on a specific situation (in this example, bus numbers).
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Common British vernacular
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Common American vernacular
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Common British vernacular
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"How many marbles do you
have?"
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"What is your house
number?"
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"Which bus goes to the high
street?"
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101
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"A hundred and one."
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"One-oh-one."
Here, "oh" is used for the digit zero. |
"One-oh-one."
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109
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"A hundred and nine."
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"One-oh-nine."
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"One-oh-nine."
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110
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"A hundred and ten."
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"One-ten."
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"One-one-oh."
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117
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"A hundred and
seventeen."
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"One-seventeen."
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"One-one-seven."
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120
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"A hundred and twenty."
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"One-twenty."
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"One-two-oh", "One-two-zero."
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152
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"A hundred and
fifty-two."
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"One-fifty-two."
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"One-five-two."
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208
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"Two hundred and eight."
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"Two-oh-eight."
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"Two-oh-eight."
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334
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"Three hundred and
thirty-four."
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"Three-thirty-four."
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"Three-three-four."
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Note: When writing a cheque (or check), the number 100 is always written
"one hundred". It is never "a hundred".
Note that in American English,
many students are taught not to use the word and anywhere in the whole
part of a number, so it is not used before the tens and ones. It is instead
used as a verbal delimiter when dealing with compound numbers.
Thus, instead of "three hundred and seventy-three", one would say
"three hundred seventy-three". For details, see American
and British English differences.
For numbers above a million, there
are two different systems for naming numbers in English (for the use of
prefixes such as kilo- for a thousand, mega- for a million, milli- for a
thousandth, etc. see SI units):
- the long
scale (decreasingly used in British
English) designates a system of numeric names in which a thousand million
is called a ‘‘milliard’’ (but the latter usage is now rare), and
‘‘billion’’ is used for a million million.
- the short
scale (always used in American
English and increasingly in British English) designates a system of
numeric names in which a thousand million is called a ‘‘billion’’, and the
word ‘‘milliard’’ is not used.
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Number
notation
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Power
notation |
Short
scale
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Long
scale
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Indian
English
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1,000,000
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106
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one million
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ten lakh
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1,000,000,000
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109
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1,000,000,000,000
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1012
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1,000,000,000,000,000
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1015
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1,000,000,000,000,000,000
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1018
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1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
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1021
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one crore crore crore
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The numbers past a trillion, in
ascending powers of ten, are as follows: quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion,
septillion, octillion, nonillion, decillion, undecillion, duodecillion,
tredecillion, quattuordecillion, and quindecillion (that's 10 to the 48th, or a
one followed by 48 zeros). The highest number listed on Robert Munafo's table,[1]
is a milli-millillion. That's 10 to the 3000003rd.
The googolplex has often been
nominated as the largest named number in the world. If a googol is ten to the
one hundredth, then a googolplex is one followed by a googol of zeroes.[2]
Although British English has traditionally
followed the long-scale numbering system, the short-scale usage has become
increasingly common in recent years. For example, the UK Government and BBC
websites use the newer short-scale values exclusively.
Here are some approximate composite
large numbers in American English:
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Quantity
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Written
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Pronounced
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1,200,000
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one point two million
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3,000,000
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3 million
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three million
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250,000,000
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250 million
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two hundred fifty million
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6,400,000,000
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6.4 billion
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six point four billion
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23,380,000,000
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23.38 billion
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twenty-three point three eight
billion
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Often, large numbers are written
with (preferably non-breaking) half-spaces or thin spaces separating the thousands (and, sometimes,
with normal spaces or apostrophes) instead of commas—to ensure that confusion is not caused in countries where a
decimal comma is used. Thus, a million is often written 1 000 000.
In some areas, a point (. or ·) may also be used as a thousands' separator, but then, the decimal separator
must be a comma.
Specialized
numbers
A few numbers have special names (in
addition to their regular names):
- 0: has several other names, depending on context:
- zero:
formal scientific usage
- naught / nought: mostly British usage
- aught:
Mostly archaic but still occasionally used when a digit in mid-number is
0 (as in "thirty-aught-six", the .30-06
Springfield rifle cartridge and by association guns that fire it)
- oh:
used when spelling numbers (like telephone, bank account, bus line
[British: bus route])
- nil:
in general sport scores, British usage ("The score is
two–nil.")
- nothing:
in general sport scores, American usage ("The score is two to
nothing.")
- null: used technically to refer to an object or idea
related to nothingness. The 0th aleph number
(
- love:
in tennis,
badminton,
squash and similar sports (origin disputed, often said to
come from French l'œuf, "egg"; but the Oxford
English Dictionary
mentions the phrase for love, meaning nothing is at risk)
- zilch, nada
(from Spanish),
zip: used informally when stressing nothingness; this is true
especially in combination with one another ("You know
nothing—zero, zip, nada, zilch!"); American usage
- nix:
also used as a verb; mostly American usage
- cypher / cipher: archaic, from French chiffre, in turn from Arabic
sifr, meaning zero
- goose egg
(informal)
- 1:
- ace:
in certain sports and games, as in tennis or golf, indicating success
with one stroke, and the face of a die or playing card with one pip
- birdie
in golf denotes one stroke less than par,
and bogey, one stroke more than par
- solo
- unit
- linear the degree
of a polynomial is 1
- 2:
- couple
- brace,
from Old French "arms" (the plural of arm), as in
"what can be held in two arms".
- pair
- deuce:
the face of a die or playing card with two pips
- eagle
in golf denotes two strokes less than par
- duo
- quadratic the degree of a polynomial is 2
- 3:
- trey:
the face of a die or playing card with three pips
- trio
- trips: three-of-a-kind in a poker hand. a player has three
cards with the same numerical value
- cubic
the degree of a polynomial is 3
- albatross
in golf denotes three strokes less than par. Sometimes called double
eagle
- 4:
- cater:
(rare) the face of a die or playing card with four pips
- quartet
- quartic or biquadratic the degree of a polynomial is 4
- condor
in golf denotes four strokes less than par
- 5:
- cinque:
(rare) the face of a die or playing card with five pips
- quintet
- nickel
(informal American, from the value of the nickel
(United States coin),
but applied in non-monetary references)
- quintic the degree of a polynomial is 5
- 6:
- half a dozen
- sice:
(rare) the face of a die or playing card with six pips
- sextet
- sextic or hectic the degree of a polynomial is 6
- 7:
- 8:
- 9:
- 10:
- 12: a dozen
(first power of the duodecimal
base), used mostly in commerce
- 13: a baker's dozen
- 20: a score
(first power of the vigesimal base), nowadays archaic; famously used in the opening
of the Gettysburg Address: "Four score and seven years ago..."
The Number
of the Beast in the King
James Bible is rendered "Six hundred
threescore and six".
- 50: half a century,
literally half of a hundred, usually used in cricket
scores.
- 100: a century,
also used in cricket scores.
- 120: a great hundred
(twelve tens; as opposed to the small hundred, i.e. 100 or ten
tens), also called small gross
(ten dozens), both archaic; also sometimes referred to as duodecimal
hundred
- 144: a gross
(a dozen dozens, second power of the duodecimal base), used mostly in
commerce
- 1000: a grand,
colloquially used especially when referring to money, also in fractions
and multiples, e.g. half a grand, two grand, etc.
- 1728: a great gross
(a dozen gross, third power of the duodecimal base), used mostly in
commerce
- 10,000: a myriad
(a hundred hundred), commonly used in the sense of an indefinite very high
number
- 100,000: a lakh
(a hundred thousand), loanword
used mainly in Indian English
- 10,000,000: a crore
(a hundred lakh), loanword used mainly in Indian English
- 10100: googol
(1 followed by 100 zeros), used in mathematics; not to be confused with
the name of the company Google
(which was originally a misspelling of googol)
- 10googol googolplex
(1 followed by a googol of zeros)
- 10googolplex
googolplexplex (1 followed by a googolplex of zeros)
Combinations of numbers in most
sports scores are read as in the following examples:
- 1–0 British English: one nil;
American English: one-nothing, one-zip, or one-zero
- 0–0 British English: nil-nil, or
more rarely nil all; American English: zero-zero or nothing-nothing,
(occasionally scoreless or no score)
- 2–2 two-two or two all;
American English also twos, two to two, even at two,
or two up.)
Multiplicative
adverbs
A few numbers have specialised multiplicative
numbers expresses how many times something happens:
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one time
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Once
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two times
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twice
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three times
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thrice
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Negative
numbers
The name of a negative number is the
name of the corresponding positive number preceded by "minus" or
(American English) "negative". Thus -5.2 is "minus five point
two" or "negative five point two". For temperatures, Americans
colloquially say "below" —short for "below zero"— so a
temperature of -5 ° is "five below".
Ordinal
numbers
Ordinal numbers refer to a position in a series. Common ordinals
include:
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0th
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zeroth or noughth (see below)
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10th
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1st
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11th
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2nd
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12th
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twelfth (note "f", not "v")
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20th
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3rd
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13th
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30th
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4th
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14th
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40th
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5th
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15th
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50th
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6th
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16th
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60th
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7th
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17th
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70th
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8th
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eighth (only
one "t")
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18th
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80th
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9th
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ninth (no
"e")
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19th
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90th
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Zeroth only has a meaning when counts start with zero, which
happens in a mathematical or computer science
context.
Ordinal numbers such as 21st, 33rd,
etc., are formed by combining a cardinal ten with an ordinal
unit.
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21st
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twenty-first
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25th
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twenty-fifth
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32nd
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thirty-second
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58th
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fifty-eighth
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64th
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sixty-fourth
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79th
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seventy-ninth
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83rd
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eighty-third
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99th
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ninety-ninth
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Higher ordinals are not often
written in words, unless they are round numbers (thousandth, millionth,
billionth). They are written using digits and letters as described below. Here
are some rules that should be borne in mind.
- The suffixes -th, -st, -nd and -rd
are occasionally written superscript
above the number itself.
- If the tens digit of a number is 1, then write
"th" after the number. For example: 13th, 19th, 112th, 9,311th.
- If the tens digit is not equal to 1, then use
the following table:
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If the units digit is:
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0
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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8
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9
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write this after the number
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th
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st
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nd
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rd
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th
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th
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th
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th
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th
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th
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- For example: 2nd, 7th, 20th, 23rd, 52nd, 135th, 301st.
These ordinal abbreviations are
actually hybrid contractions of a numeral and a word. 1st is "1" +
"st" from "first". Similarly, we use "nd"
for "second" and "rd" for "third".
In the legal field and in some older publications, the ordinal abbreviation for
"second" and "third" is simply, "d".
- For example: 42d, 33d, 23d
NB: The practice of using "d" to denote
"second" and "third" is still often followed in the
numeric designations of units in the US armed forces, for example, 533d
Squadron.
Any ordinal name that doesn't end in
"first", "second", or "third", ends in
"th".
Dates
There are a number of ways to read
years. The following table offers a list of valid pronunciations and alternate
pronunciations for any given year of the Gregorian calendar.
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Most
common pronunciation method
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Alternative
methods
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1 BC
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1
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(The year) One
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235
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Two thirty-five
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Two-three-five
Two hundred (and) thirty-five |
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911
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Nine eleven
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Nine-one-one
Nine hundred (and) eleven |
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999
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Nine ninety-nine
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Nine-nine-nine
Nine hundred (and) ninety-nine Triple nine |
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1000
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One thousand
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Ten hundred
1K Ten aught Ten oh |
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1004
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One thousand (and) four
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Ten oh-four
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1010
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Ten ten
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One thousand (and) ten
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1050
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Ten fifty
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One thousand (and) fifty
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1225
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Twelve twenty-five
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One-two-two-five
One thousand, two hundred (and) twenty-five Twelve-two-five |
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1900
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Nineteen hundred
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One thousand, nine hundred
Nineteen aught |
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1901
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Nineteen oh-one
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Nineteen hundred (and) one
One thousand, nine hundred (and) one Nineteen aught one |
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1919
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Nineteen nineteen
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Nineteen hundred (and) nineteen
One thousand, nine hundred (and) nineteen |
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1999
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Nineteen ninety-nine
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Nineteen hundred (and) ninety-nine
One thousand, nine hundred (and) ninety-nine |
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2000
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Two thousand
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Twenty hundred
Two triple-oh |
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2001
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Two thousand (and) one
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Twenty oh-one
Twenty hundred (and) one Two double-oh-one Two oh-oh-one |
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2009
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Two thousand (and) nine
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Twenty oh-nine
Twenty hundred (and) nine Two double-oh-nine Two oh-oh-nine |
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2010
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Two thousand (and) ten
Twenty ten |
Twenty hundred (and) ten
two-oh-one-oh |
Fractions
and decimals
In spoken English, ordinal numbers
are also used to quantify the denominator of a fraction. Thus 'fifth' can mean
the element between fourth and sixth, or the fraction created by dividing the
unit into five pieces. In this usage, the ordinal numbers can be pluralized:
one seventh, two sevenths. The sole exception to this rule is division
by two. The ordinal term 'second' can only refer to location in a series; for
fractions English speakers use the term 'half' (plural 'halves').
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1/16
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one sixteenth
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1/10 or 0.1
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one tenth
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1/8
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one eighth
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2/10 or 0.2
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two tenths
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1/4
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one quarter or (mainly
American English) one fourth
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3/10 or 0.3
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three tenths
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1/3
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one third
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3/8
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three eighths
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4/10 or 0.4
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four tenths
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1/2
|
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6/10 or 0.6
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six tenths
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5/8
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five eighths
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2/3
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two thirds
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7/10 or 0.7
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seven tenths
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3/4
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three quarters or three
fourths
|
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8/10 or 0.8
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eight tenths
|
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7/8
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seven eighths
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9/10 or 0.9
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nine tenths
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15/16
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fifteen sixteenths
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Alternatively, and for greater numbers,
one may say for 1/2 "one over two", for 5/8 "five over
eight", and so on. This "over" form is also widely used in
mathematics.
Numbers with a decimal point may be
read as a cardinal number, then "and", then another cardinal number
followed by an indication of the significance of the second cardinal number
(not common in British English); or as a cardinal number, followed by
"point", and then by the digits of the fractional part. The
indication of significance takes the form of the denominator of the fraction
indicating division by the smallest power of ten larger than the second
cardinal. This is modified when the first cardinal is zero, in which case
neither the zero nor the "and" is pronounced, but the zero is
optional in the "point" form of the fraction.
- For example:
- 0.002 is "two thousandths" (mainly U.S.); or
"point zero zero two", "point oh oh two",
"nought point zero zero two", etc.
- 3.1416 is "three point one four one six"
- 99.3 is "ninety-nine and three tenths"
(mainly U.S.); or "ninety-nine point three".
In English the decimal point was
originally printed in the center of the line (0·002), but with the advent of
the typewriter it was placed at the bottom of the line, so that a single key
could be used as a full stop/period and as a decimal point. In many non-English
languages a full-stop/period at the bottom of the line is used as a thousands
separator with a comma being used as the decimal point.
- Fractions together with an integer are read as follows:
- 1 1/2 is "one and a half"
- 6 1/4 is "six and a quarter"
- 7 5/8 is "seven and five eighths"
A space is required between the
whole number and the fraction; however, if a special fraction character is used
like "½", then the space can be done without, e.g.
·
- 9 1/2
- 9½
Whether
to use digits or words
According to most copy editors and
English teachers,[citation
needed] the numbers zero to nine inclusive should be "written
out" – meaning instead of "1" and "2", one would write
"one" and "two".
Example: "I have two apples." (Preferred)
Example: "I have 2 apples."
After "nine", one can head
straight back into the 10, 11, 12, etc., although some write out the numbers
until "twelve".
Example: "I have 28 grapes." (Preferred)
Example: "I have twenty-eight grapes."
Another common usage is to write out
any number that can be expressed as one or two words, and use figures
otherwise.
Examples:
"There are six million dogs." (Preferred)
"There are 6,000,000 dogs."
"That is one hundred twenty-five oranges."
"That is 125 oranges." (Preferred)
Numbers at the beginning of a
sentence should also be written out.
The above rules are not always used.
In literature, larger numbers might be spelled out. On the other hand, digits
might be more commonly used in technical or financial articles, where many
figures are discussed. In particular, the two different forms should not be
used for figures that serve the same purpose; for example, it is inelegant to
write, "Between day twelve and day 15 of the study, the population
doubled."
Empty
numbers
Colloquial English has a small
vocabulary of empty numbers that can be employed when there is uncertainty as
to the precise number to use, but it is desirable to define a general range: specifically,
the terms "umpteen", "umpty", and "zillion".
These are derived etymologically from the range affixes:
- "-teen" (designating the range as being
between 10 and 20)
- "-ty" (designating the range as being in one
of the decades between 20 and 100)
- "-illion" (designating the range as being
above 1,000,000; or, more generally, as being extremely large).
The prefix "ump-" is added
to the first two suffixes to produce the empty numbers "umpteen" and
"umpty": it is of uncertain origin. There is a noticeable absence of
an empty number in the hundreds range.
Usage of empty numbers:
- The word "umpteen" may be used as an
adjective, as in "I had to go to umpteen stores to find shoes that fit."
It can also be used to modify a larger number, usually
"million", as in "Umpteen million people watched the show;
but they still cancelled it."
- "Umpty" is not in common usage. It can appear
in the form "umpty-one" (parallelling the usage in such numbers
as "twenty-one"), as in "There are umpty-one ways to do it
wrong." "Umpty-ump" is also heard, though "ump"
is never used by itself.
- The word "zillion" may be used as an
adjective, modifying a noun. The noun phrase normally contains the
indefinite article "a", as in "There must be a zillion
sites on the World Wide Web."
- The plural "zillions" designates a number
indefinitely larger than "millions" or "billions". In
this case, the construction is parallel to the one for
"millions" or "billions", with the number used as a
plural count noun, followed by a prepositional phrase with "of",
as in "Out in the countryside, the night sky is filled with zillions
of stars."
- Empty numbers are sometimes made up, with obvious
meaning: "squillions" is obviously an empty, but very large,
number; a "squintillionth" would be a very small number.
- Some empty numbers may be modified by actual numbers,
such as "four zillion", and are used for jest, exaggeration, or
to relate abstractly to actual numbers.
- Empty numbers are colloquial, and primarily used in
oral speech or informal contexts. They are inappropriate in formal or
scholarly usage.
