English Club : Learn English : English Vocabulary : Numbers

Numbers

The main units of numbers in English are:

1	10	100	1000	1000000	1000000000
one	ten	hundred	thousand	million	billion

Here is a list of numbers. On the left are normal or "cardinal" numbers. On the right are "ordinal" numbers, which we use to define a thing's position in a series.

Cardinal Number		Ordinal Number
0	zero, nought
1	one	1st	first
2	two	2nd	second
3	three	3rd	third
4	four	4th	fourth
5	five	5th	fifth
6	six	6th	sixth
7	seven	7th	seventh
8	eight	8th	eighth
9	nine	9th	ninth
10	ten	10th	tenth
11	eleven	11th	eleventh
12	twelve	12th	twelfth
13	thirteen	13th	thirteenth
14	fourteen	14th	fourteenth
15	fifteen	15th	fifteenth
16	sixteen	16th	sixteenth
17	seventeen	17th	seventeenth
18	eighteen	18th	eighteenth
19	nineteen	19th	nineteenth
20	twenty	20th	twentieth
21	twenty-one	21st	twenty-first
22	twenty-two	22nd	twenty-second
23	twenty-three	23rd	twenty-third
24	twenty-four	24th	twenty-fourth
30	thirty	30th	thirtieth
31	thirty-one	31st	thirty-first
40	forty	40th	fortieth
50	fifty	50th	fiftieth
60	sixty	60th	sixtieth
70	seventy	70th	seventieth
80	eighty	80th	eightieth
90	ninety	90th	ninetieth
100	hundred	100th	hundredth
101	hundred and one	101st	hundred and first
152	hundred and fifty-two	152nd	hundred and fifty-second
200	two hundred	200th	two hundredth
1,000	thousand	1,000th	thousandth
1,000,000	million	1,000,000th	millionth
1,000,000,000	billion	1,000,000,000th	billionth

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

British English
120 = one hundred and twenty
American English
120 = one hundred twenty

Note that in English, we usually separate the digits of numbers over 999 with a comma (,). We count 3 digits from the right and insert a comma, like this:

		<	-	-	-	<	-	-	-
					1	,	0	0	0	one thousand
	1	,	0	0	0	,	0	0	0	one million
1	2	,	7	5	0	,	2	0	0	twelve million, seven hundred and fifty thousand, two hundred

We use a point (.) to indicate a decimal number, or to separate dollars from cents, pounds from pennies and so on. Here are some examples:

					0	.	1		=	one tenth or 1/10
					1	.	0		=	one
	1	,	0	0	0				=	one thousand
	1	,	5	0	0	.	7	5	=	one thousand five hundred and three quarters
				$	1	.	5	0	=	one dollar and fifty cents
		$	7	0	0	.	0	0	=	seven hundred dollars
£	3	,	5	0	0	.	0	1	=	three thousand five hundred pounds and one penny

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

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