English numerals - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia














Hide




Wikipedia is getting a new lookHelp us find bugs and complete user interface translations





Notice something different? We've made a few improvements to Wikipedia. Learn more. [Hide]
[Help us with translations!]




English numerals



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Jump to: navigation, search



 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.




Contents

[hide]

* Cardinal numbers
* Specialized numbers
* Negative numbers
* Ordinal numbers
* Dates
* Fractions and decimals
* Whether to use digits or words
* Empty numbers
* Usage notes
* See also
* References
* External links



[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], 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.]

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:
  o zero: formal scientific usage
  o naught / nought: mostly British usage
  o 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)
  o oh: used when spelling numbers (like telephone, bank account, bus line)
  o nil: in general sport scores, British usage ("The score is two-nil.")
  o nothing: in general sport scores, American usage ("The score is two to nothing.")
  o null: used technically to refer to an object or idea related to nothingness. The
    0th aleph number () is pronounced "aleph-null".
  o love: in tennis (origin disputed, often said to come from French l'œuf, "egg")
  o 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!")
  o nix: also used as a verb


* 1:
  o 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:
  o couple
  o brace, from Old French "arms" (the plural of arm), as in "what can be held in
    two arms".
  o pair
  o deuce: the face of a die or playing card with two pips

* 3:
  o trey: the face of a die or playing card with three pips

* 4:
  o cater: (rare) the face of a die or playing card with four pips


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


* 6:
  o half a dozen
  o 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.]


[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]):

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:
  o 0.002 is "two thousandths" (mainly U.S.); or "point zero zero two", "point oh oh
    two", "nought point zero zero two", etc.
  o 3.1416 is "three point one four one six"
  o 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:
  o 1 1/2 is "one and a half"
  o 6 1/4 is "six and a quarter"
  o 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.

* 
  o 9 1/2
  o 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

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_numerals"


Categories: Numerals | Naming conventions | American and British English differences

Hidden categories: Articles lacking sources from January 2007 | All articles lacking
sources | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements
from January 2010 | Articles that may contain original research from January 2010 | All
articles that may contain original research









Personal tools


* New features
* Log in / create account





Namespaces


* Article
* Discussion




Variants











Views


* Read
* Edit
* View history




Actions









Search












Navigation



* Main page
* Contents
* Featured content
* Current events
* Random article





Interaction



* About Wikipedia
* Community portal
* Recent changes
* Contact Wikipedia
* Donate to Wikipedia
* Help





Toolbox



* What links here
* Related changes
* Upload file
* Special pages
* Permanent link
* Cite this page





Print/export



* Create a book
* Download as PDF
* Printable version





Languages



* Deutsch
* Español
* Français
* 한국어
* 日本語
* Português
* Simple English
* Svenska





* This page was last modified on 20 July 2010 at 12:05.

* Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;
  additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
  Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit
  organization.

* Contact us

* Privacy policy
* About Wikipedia
* Disclaimers

* 
* 










