NUMBERS

1. CARDINAL NUMBERS
 Cardinal numbers say how many people or things there are. Sometimes, we call counting
numbers.
Examples:
 There are five books on the desk.
 Ron is ten years old.

 Numbers bigger than 20

Use a hyphen between compound numbers.
Number Word
21 twenty-one
55 fifty-five
99 ninety-nine
39
65
72
67
45
93
87

 Numbers bigger than 100

Use a hyphen between compound numbers and the word and.
Use either the definite article a or one for 100.
Number Word
121 a/one hundred and twenty-one
356 three hundred and fifty-six
999 nine hundred and ninety-nine
234
765
155
753
768
890
500
  Numbers bigger than 1,000
Use a hyphen between compound numbers and the word and.
Use either the definite article a or one for 1,000.
Separate three digits with a comma (,) → 50,000.
Number Word
1,121 a/one thousand one hundred and twenty-one
2,356 two thousand three hundred and fifty-six
9,999 nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine
5,555
80,456
1, 235, 600
4,581,651
10,209,378
500,567,498
1,000,000,000

 The number 0
There are different words for the number 0.
Word Explanation Example
oh single digits (telephone numbers, codes) 67890
six - seven - eight - nine - oh
zero measurements (temperature) -5 °C
five degrees Celsius below zero
nought figure 0 in British English* 5-5=0
Five minus five leaves nought.
nil results in sport The match ended 2 - 0.
The match ended two - nil.
love Tennis 40 - 0
forty - love
* In American English zero is used.
2. ORDINAL NUMBERS
 Add “th” to the cardinal number to form the ordinal number: six → sixth
 Add the last two letters of the written word to the figure. → 4th
 Numbers in words: The ordinal numbers 1st → first, 2nd → second and 3rd → third are
irregular. Be careful with the spelling of the words for 5th, 8th, 9th, 12th and the words
ending in -y. The ending -y must change to be “i” then and add -eth.
Cardinal numbers Ordinal numbers
1 One 1st first
2 Two 2nd second
3 Three 3rd third
4 Four 4th fourth
5 Five 5th fifth
8 Eight 8th eighth
9 Nine 9th ninth
12 Twelve 12th twelfth
20 twenty 20th twentieth
21 twenty-one 21st Twenty-first
25 Twenty-five 25th Twenty-fifth
30 30th
40 40th
50 50th
55 55th
60 60th
67 67th
70 70th
80 80th
87 87th
90 90th
93 93rd
100 100th
102 102nd
234 234th
355 355th
3. FRACTIONS AND DECIMALS
a. Fractions
Use the ordinal number for the denominator:
 ½ : a half / one half
 1/3 : (a) one third
 ¼ : a quarter / one quarter
 1/5 : one fifth
 2/3 : two thirds
 ¾ : three quarters
 4/5 : four fifths
 1½ : one and a half
 2 3/5 : two and three fifths
 3 5/6 :
 2¼ :
 15 1/3 :
 5¾ :
 6¾ :
 15/16 :
 7 1/3 :
 3 2/4 :
 12 ¼ :
 15 1/5 :
b. Decimals
We use a decimal point (not a comma)
Use the cardinal number for decimals:
 3.8 : three point eight
 4.25 : four point two five
 15.045 :
 5.5 :
 40.34 :
 9.06 :
 46.78 :
 7.45 :
 5.067 :
 0.34 :
 1.05 :
  Number of times
Number for saying how many times something happens
1x : once
2x : twice
3x : three times
4x :
5x :
10x :
21x :
36x :
78x :