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# English numerals

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| This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2007)

English numerals are words for numbers used in English-speaking cultures.

## [edit] Cardinal numbers

Cardinal numbers refer to the size of a group.

0 | zero (nought) |  |  |  |
1 | one | 11 | eleven | 10 | ten
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")

If a number is in the range 21 to 99, and the second digit is not zero, one should write the number as two words separated by a hyphen.

21 | twenty-one
25 | twenty-five
32 | thirty-two
58 | fifty-eight
64 | sixty-four
79 | seventy-nine
83 | eighty-three
99 | ninety-nine

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)

100 | one hundred
200 | two hundred
… | …
900 | nine hundred

So too are the thousands, with the number of thousands followed by the word "thousand"

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)

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, 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: 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.

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

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:

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

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.

## [edit] 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 (origin disputed, often said to come from French l'œuf, "egg")
  - 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

- 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

- 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
- 3:
  - trey: the face of a die or playing card with three pips
- 4:
  - cater: (rare) the face of a die or playing card with four pips

- 5:
  - cinque: (rare) the face of a die or playing card with five pips

- 6:
  - half a dozen
  - sice: (rare) the face of a die or playing card with six pips
- 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 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.)

Naming conventions of Tennis scores (and related sports) work a lot differently to most other sports.

A few numbers have specialised multiplicative numerals expresses how many fold or how many times: once, twice, thrice.[3]

## [edit] 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".

## [edit] 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

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.

21st | twenty-first
25th | twenty-fifth
32nd | thirty-second
58th | fifty-eighth
64th | sixty-fourth
79th | seventy-ninth
83rd | eighty-third
99th | ninety-ninth

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:

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.

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.

Any ordinal name that doesn't end in "first", "second", or "third", ends in "th".

## [edit] 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

## [edit] 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

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. (This form is not common in British English.)

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

## [edit] 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."

## [edit] 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.

See also Placeholder name.

## [edit] Usage notes

| This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (January 2010)

While there are a number of "rules" about ways of expressing numbers, the essential requirement must always be to avoid ambiguity. Different authorities do not always agree; for example the following sentence was found in a perfectly respectable document. "It has sold 10,000,000 copies. It was number 21 on a recent list of the 100 most important non-fiction books of the 20th century." This sentence is perfectly clear, and it is unlikely that any reader would change his attitude toward the author because of these "errors".

The usage of either a comma or a point in a number provides a degree of ambiguity too. The number 1,000 would be read as being one thousand in the US and the UK, and as Exactly One in most of Europe and elsewhere. Modern usage in ISO 31-0 shows either the point or the dot to be used for the "Exactly One" form, and for spaces to be used in very large or very small numbers, like in 1 000 000 or in 0.000 000 005 and so on.

With the rise of computers, use of the name of the letter "O" to signify both the letter "O" and numeric zero has become ambiguous. If numbers are typed into the computer as spoken, problems may arise if the numbers are used for anything other than simple display. If a house number is shown on screen as "12O" instead of "120", no harm is done. But if this error is made in a telephone number to be dialed, or in calculations, problems will arise. The simplest solution is always to say "zero" or "nought".

Numeric dates, as normally abbreviated, are ambiguous: the forms "mm/dd/yy", "dd/mm/yy" (where "yy" may be a 2-digit or 4-digit year), are used in different places; in the US, the former is used, and is reflected in the spoken convention for dates there, for example 10/04/05 would be read "October Fourth, Two Thousand Five", whereas in Britain, the latter naming convention is used, and would be spoken as "(The) Tenth of April, Two Thousand and Five". The international standard, with the form YYYY-MM-DD avoids ambiguity and 2005-07-09 always means 2005 July the 9th. This date is sometimes written without spaces or hyphens, 20050709.

## [edit] See also

| Mathematics portal

- Indefinite and fictitious numbers
- List of numbers
- Long and short scales
- Names of large numbers
- Natural number
- Number names

## [edit] References

1. ^ http://www.mrob.com/pub/math/largenum.html
2. ^ http://ask.yahoo.com/20051018.html
3. ^ What is a multiplicative numeral?
4. ^ What is a partitive numeral?

## [edit] External links

- English Numbers - explanations, exercises and number generator (cardinal and ordinal numbers)
- Write out numbers - automatic numbers (and sum of money) translation to English and Russian languages

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