Cardinal numbers
Cardinal numbers refer to the size of a group.| 0 | zero (nought) | 10 | ten | ||
| 1 | one | 11 | eleven | ||
| 2 | two | 12 | twelve | 20 | twenty |
| 3 | three | 13 | thirteen | 30 | thirty |
| 4 | four | 14 | fourteen | 40 | forty (no "u") |
| 5 | five | 15 | fifteen (note "f", not "v") | 50 | fifty (note "f", not "v") |
| 6 | six | 16 | sixteen | 60 | sixty |
| 7 | seven | 17 | seventeen | 70 | seventy |
| 8 | eight | 18 | eighteen (only one "t") | 80 | eighty (only one "t") |
| 9 | nine | 19 | nineteen | 90 | ninety (note the "e") |
| 21 | twenty-one |
| 25 | twenty-five |
| 32 | thirty-two |
| 58 | fifty-eight |
| 64 | sixty-four |
| 79 | seventy-nine |
| 83 | eighty-three |
| 99 | ninety-nine |
| 100 | one hundred |
| 200 | two hundred |
| … | … |
| 900 | nine hundred |
| 1,000 | one thousand |
| 2,000 | two thousand |
| … | … |
| 10,000 | ten thousand |
| 11,000 | eleven thousand |
| … | … |
| 20,000 | twenty thousand |
| 21,000 | twenty-one thousand |
| 30,000 | thirty thousand |
| 85,000 | eighty-five thousand |
| 100,000 | one hundred thousand or one lakh (Indian English) |
| 999,000 | nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand (British English) nine hundred ninety-nine thousand (American English) |
| 1,000,000 | one million |
| 10,000,000 | ten million or one crore (Indian English) |
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, the British dialect can seemingly adopt the American way of counting, but it is specific to the situation (in this example, bus numbers).
| Common British vernacular | Common American vernacular | Common British vernacular | |
| "How many marbles do you have?" | "What is your house number?" | "Which bus goes to the high street?" | |
| 101 | "A hundred and one." | "One-oh-one." Here, "oh" is used for the digit zero. | "One-oh-one." |
| 109 | "A hundred and nine." | "One-oh-nine." | "One-oh-nine." |
| 110 | "A hundred and ten." | "One-ten." | "One-one-oh." |
| 117 | "A hundred and seventeen." | "One-seventeen." | "One-one-seven." |
| 120 | "A hundred and twenty." | "One-twenty." | "One-two-oh", "One-two-zero." |
| 152 | "A hundred and fifty-two." | "One-fifty-two." | "One-five-two." |
| 208 | "Two hundred and eight." | "Two-oh-eight." | "Two-oh-eight." |
| 334 | "Three hundred and thirty-four." | "Three-thirty-four." | "Three-three-four." |
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.
| Number notation | Power notation | Short scale | Long scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 | 106 | one million | one million |
| 1,000,000,000 | 109 | one billion a thousand million | one milliard a thousand million |
| 1,000,000,000,000 | 1012 | one trillion a thousand billion | one billion a million million |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000 | 1015 | one quadrillion a thousand trillion | one billiard a thousand billion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 | 1018 | one quintillion a thousand quadrillion | one trillion a million billion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | 1021 | one sextillion a thousand quintillion | one trilliard a thousand trillion |
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:
| Quantity | Written | Pronounced |
|---|---|---|
| 1,200,000 | 1.2 million | one point two million |
| 3,000,000 | 3 million | three million |
| 250,000,000 | 250 million | two hundred fifty million |
| 6,400,000,000 | 6.4 billion | six point four billion |
| 23,380,000,000 | 23.38 billion | twenty-three point three eight billion |
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)
- 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 (
) is pronounced "aleph-null".
- 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!")
- nix: also used as a verb
- cypher / cipher: archaic, from French chiffre, in turn from Arabic sifr, meaning zero
- 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
- solo
- unit
- 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
- duo
- 3:
- trey: the face of a die or playing card with three pips
- trio
- 4:
- cater: (rare) the face of a die or playing card with four pips
- quartet
- 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)
- 6:
- half a dozen
- sice: (rare) the face of a die or playing card with six pips
- sextet
- 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)
- 1–0 British English: one nil; American English: one-nothing, one-zip, or one-zero
- 0–0 British English: nil-nil, or 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 numerals
A few numbers have specialised multiplicative numerals expresses how many fold or how many times[3]:| one time | once |
| two times | twice |
| three times | thrice |
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
See also: Numbering of storeys in buildings
Ordinal numbers refer to a position in a series. Common ordinals include:| 0th | zeroth or noughth (see below) | 10th | tenth | ||
| 1st | first | 11th | eleventh | ||
| 2nd | second | 12th | twelfth (note "f", not "v") | 20th | twentieth |
| 3rd | third | 13th | thirteenth | 30th | thirtieth |
| 4th | fourth | 14th | fourteenth | 40th | fortieth |
| 5th | fifth | 15th | fifteenth | 50th | fiftieth |
| 6th | sixth | 16th | sixteenth | 60th | sixtieth |
| 7th | seventh | 17th | seventeenth | 70th | seventieth |
| 8th | eighth (only one "t") | 18th | eighteenth | 80th | eightieth |
| 9th | ninth (no "e") | 19th | nineteenth | 90th | ninetieth |
Ordinal numbers such as 21st, 33rd, etc., are formed by combining a cardinal ten with an ordinal unit.
| 21st | twenty-first |
| 25th | twenty-fifth |
| 32nd | thirty-second |
| 58th | fifty-eighth |
| 64th | sixty-fourth |
| 79th | seventy-ninth |
| 83rd | eighty-third |
| 99th | ninety-ninth |
- 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:
| If the units digit is: | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| write this after the number | th | st | nd | rd | th | th | th | th | th | th |
- For example: 2nd, 7th, 20th, 23rd, 52nd, 135th, 301st.
- For example: 42d, 33d, 23d
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.| Year | Most common pronunciation method | Alternative methods |
|---|---|---|
| 1 BC | (The year) One Before Christ (BC) | 1 before the Common era (BCE) |
| 1 | (The year) One | Anno Domini (AD) 1 1 of the Common era (CE) In the year of Our Lord 1 |
| 235 | Two thirty-five | Two-three-five Two hundred (and) thirty-five |
| 911 | Nine eleven | Nine-one-one Nine hundred (and) eleven |
| 999 | Nine ninety-nine | Nine-nine-nine Nine hundred (and) ninety-nine Triple nine |
| 1000 | One thousand | Ten hundred 1K Ten aught Ten oh |
| 1004 | One thousand (and) four | Ten oh-four |
| 1010 | Ten ten | One thousand (and) ten |
| 1050 | Ten fifty | One thousand (and) fifty |
| 1225 | Twelve twenty-five | One-two-two-five One thousand, two hundred (and) twenty-five Twelve-two-five |
| 1900 | Nineteen hundred | One thousand, nine hundred Nineteen aught |
| 1901 | Nineteen oh-one | Nineteen hundred (and) one One thousand, nine hundred (and) one Nineteen aught one |
| 1919 | Nineteen nineteen | Nineteen hundred (and) nineteen One thousand, nine hundred (and) nineteen |
| 1999 | Nineteen ninety-nine | Nineteen hundred (and) ninety-nine One thousand, nine hundred (and) ninety-nine |
| 2000 | Two thousand | Twenty hundred Two triple-oh |
| 2001 | Two thousand (and) one | Twenty oh-one Twenty hundred (and) one Two double-oh-one Two oh-oh-one |
| 2009 | Two thousand (and) nine | Twenty oh-nine Twenty hundred (and) nine Two double-oh-nine Two oh-oh-nine |
| 2010 | 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').Here are some common fractions (partitive numerals[4]):
| 1/16 | one-sixteenth |
| 1/10 or 0.1 | one-tenth |
| 1/8 | one-eighth |
| 2/10 or 0.2 | two-tenths |
| 1/4 | one-quarter or (mainly American English) one-fourth |
| 3/10 or 0.3 | three-tenths |
| 1/3 | one-third |
| 3/8 | three-eighths |
| 4/10 or 0.4 | four-tenths |
| 1/2 | one half |
| 6/10 or 0.6 | six-tenths |
| 5/8 | five-eighths |
| 2/3 | two-thirds |
| 7/10 or 0.7 | seven-tenths |
| 3/4 | three-quarters or three-fourths |
| 8/10 or 0.8 | eight-tenths |
| 7/8 | seven-eighths |
| 9/10 or 0.9 | nine-tenths |
| 15/16 | fifteen-sixteenths |
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".
- 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"
-
- 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."
- Example: "I have 28 grapes." (Preferred)
- Example: "I have twenty-eight grapes."
- 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)
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).
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.
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