Numbers in English

English Vocabulary

There are two main types of numbers:

Cardinal Numbers - 1 (one), 2 (two) etc. (Used

mainly for counting)

Ordinal Numbers - 1st (first), 2nd (second) etc.

(Used mainly for putting things in a sequence)

Cardinal Numbers
Cardinal numbers are normally used when you:

count things: I have two brothers. There are

thirty-one days in January.
give your age: I am thirty-three years old. My
sister is twenty-seven years old.
give your telephone number: Our phone number
is two-six-three, three-eight-four-seven. (481-
2240)
give years: She was born in nineteen seventy-five
(1975). America was discovered in fourteen
ninety-two

Notice how we divide the year into two parts. This is

the form for year up to 1999. For the year 2000 and
on, we say two thousand (2000), two thousand and
one (2001), two thousand and two (2002) etc.

Ordinal Numbers
You can normally create Ordinal numbers by adding -
TH to the end of a Cardinal Number.

Ordinal numbers are normally used when you:

give a date: My birthday is on the 27th of

January. (Twenty-seventh of January)
put things in a sequence or order: Liverpool
came second in the football league last year.
give the floor of a building: His office is on the
tenth floor.
have birthdays: He had a huge party for his
twenty-first birthday.
refer to centuries: Shakespeare was born in the
16th century.

For the name of a king or queen in written English,

Roman numerals are used = Henry VIII
but in Spoken English you would say Henry the
Eighth.

Cardinal Numbers
Listen to the pronunciation of the numbers from 1 to
100 in the following video:

Numbers 1-100 in English

Here is a list of cardinal numbers in English

1 - one
2 - two
3 - three
4 - four
5 - five
6 - six
7 - seven
8 - eight
9 - nine
10 - ten
11 - eleven
12 - twelve
13 - thirteen
14 - fourteen
15 - fifteen
16 - sixteen
17 - seventeen
18 - eighteen
19 - nineteen
20 - twenty
21 - twenty-one
22 - twenty-two
23 - twenty-three
30 - thirty
40 - forty
50 - fifty
60 - sixty
70 - seventy
80 - eighty
90 - ninety
100 - one hundred*
101 - one hundred and one
200 - two hundred
300 - three hundred
1000 - one thousand
1,000,000 - one million
10,000,000 - ten million

* Instead of saying One Hundred, you can say A

hundred.

e.g. (127) one hundred and twenty-seven OR (127) a

hundred and twenty-seven.

The same rule applies for one thousand (a thousand)

and one million (a million)

Notice that you need to use a hyphen (-) when you

write the numbers between 21 and 99.

With long numbers, we usually divide them into

groups of three which are divided by a comma. e.g.
5000000 (5 million) is normally written as 5,000,000

NumbersinEnglish Woodward?
ENGLISH

ozero 10ten 20twenty 30thirty

1one 11eleven 21twenty-one 31thirty-one
2two 12twelve 22twenty-two 32thirty-two
3three 13thirteen 23twenty-three 33thirty-three
4four 14fourteen 24twenty-four 34thirty-four
5five 15fifteen 25twenty-five 35thirty-five
6six 16sixteen 26twenty-six 36thirty-six
7seven 17seventeen 27twenty-seven 37thirty-seven
8eight 18eighteen 28twenty-eight 38thirty-eight
9nine 19nineteen 29twenty-nine 39thirty-nine
40forty 50fifty 60sixty 70seventv
41forty-one 51fifty-one 61sixty-one 71seventy-one
42forty-two 52fifty-two 62sixty-two 72seventy-two
43forty-three 53fifty-three 63sixty-three 73seventy-three
44forty-four 54fifty-four 64sixty-four 74seventy-four
45forty-five 55fifty-five 65sixty-five 75seventy-five
46forty-SiX 56fifty-six 66sixty-six 76seventy-six
47for ty-seven 57fifty-seven 67sixty-seven 77seventy-seven
48forty-eight 58fifty-eight 68sixty-eight 78seventy-eight
49forty-nine 59fifty-nine 69sixty-nine 79seventy-nine

80eighty 90ninety LARGENUMBERS ©WoodwardEnglish

81eighty-one 91ninety-one 100onehundred 1,000onethousand
82eighty-two 92ninety-two 101onehundredandone2,000twothousand
83eighty-three 93ninety-three 200twohundred 10.000tenthousand
300threehundred 100.000onehundredthousand
84eighty-four 94ninety-four
400fourhundred 1.000.000onemillion
85eighty-five 95ninety-five 500fivehundred 10,000.000tenmillion
86eighty-six 96ninety-six 600sixhundred
123,456,789
87eighty-seven 97ninety-seven700sevenhundred onehundredandtwenty-threemillion,
88eighty-eight 98ninety-eight 800eighthundred fourhundredandfifty-sixthousand,
900ninehundred sevenhundredandeighty-nine.
89eighty-nine 99ninety-ni ne
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Version of this chart for Parents and Teachers (each

purchase helps us to create more free ESL material)

Ordinal Numbers

Ordinal Numbers in Engl…

1st - first
2nd - second
3rd - third
4th - fourth
5th - fifth
6th - sixth
7th - seventh
8th - eighth
9th - ninth
10th - tenth
11th - eleventh
12th - twelfth
13th - thirteenth
14th - fourteenth
15th - fifteenth
16th - sixteenth
17th - seventeenth
18th - eighteenth
19th - nineteenth
20th - twentieth
21st - twenty-first
22nd - twenty-second
23rd - twenty-third
30th - thirtieth
40th - fortieth
50th - fiftieth
60th - sixtieth
70th - seventieth
80th - eightieth
90th - ninetieth
100th - hundredth
101st - hundred and first
200th - two hundredth
300th - three hundredth
1,000th - thousandth
1,000,000th - ten millionth

Version of this chart for Parents and Teachers (Each

purchase helps us to create more free ESL material)

The Number 0
We normally say 'zero' for the number '0'.

BUT when we give our telephone number, we often

say O like the name of the letter O.

e.g. 505-1023 = five-O-five, one-O-two-three

See our page about telephone numbers in English

Fractions and Decimals

We use ordinal numbers (at the end position) to talk
about fractions.

1/2 - a half
1/3 - a third
2/3 - two thirds
1/4 - a quarter (a fourth)
3/4 - three quarters (three fourths)
1/5 - a fifth
2/5 - two fifths
1/6 - a sixth
5/6 - five sixths
1/7 - a seventh
1/8 - an eighth
1/10 - a tenth
7/10 - seven tenths
1/20 - a twentieth
47/100 - forty-seven hundredths
1/100 - a hundredth
1/1,000 - a thousandth

Notice that for 1/4, you can say a quarter OR a fourth.

IF we have a whole number with a fraction, we use

the word AND between the two parts.
e.g. 2 3/5 = two and a three-fifths

For parts of whole numbers, we use a decimal point

(and NOT a comma).
e.g. 2 1/2 (two and a half) = 2.5 (two point five)

If there is more than one number after the decimal

point, we say each number individually.
e.g. 3,456.789 = three thousand, four hundred and
fifty-six point seven eight nine.

The exception to this rule is when we are talking

about dollars and cents (or pound and pence)
e.g. $21.95 = twenty-one dollars, ninety-five (cents).
Saying the word cents at the end is optional.

Next Activities
GAMES: Try our interactive GAME about the
numbers from 1-100 in English or our Numbers
Spelling Game.

VIDEOS: See our Numbers from 1-10, Numbers from

1-100 and Ordinal Numbers in English Video.

English Teacher Resources

We have created a version of this numbers chart
that ESL / ELA Teachers can easily print and use in
their classroom (and parents with their kids).

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Last Updated: 17 August 2022