CFGS AF1 Administration and Finance

M6 English
Vidal Ortega-Jiménez

THE CARDINAL NUMBERS

1) 0 - 100:

1 one 11 eleven 21 twenty-one

2 two 12 twelve 22 twenty-two
3 three 13 thirteen 30 thirty
4 four 14 fourteen 40 forty
5 five 15 fifteen 50 fifty
6 six 16 sixteen 60 sixty
7 seven 17 seventeen 70 seventy
8 eight 18 eighteen 80 eighty
9 nine 19 nineteen 90 ninety
10 ten 20 twenty 100 one hundred / a hundred

NB: We write a hyphen between the tens and the units.

e.g.: 25 twenty-five.

NB: We write and before the tens. In American English, this is unusual.
e.g.: 135 one hundred and thirty-five.
307 three hundred and seven (but ‘three hundred seven’ in American English).

NB: We write a comma after ‘thousand’, ‘million’, ‘billion’, ‘trillion’ and so on.
Exception: We don’t write a comma before ‘and.’
e.g.: 1,105 one thousand, one hundred and five.
2,015 two thousand and fifteen.

2) 101 – 109:

101 one hundred and one

153 one hundred and fifty-three
200 two hundred
500 five hundred
900 nine hundred
1,000 one thousand
1,003 one thousand and three
1,059 one thousand and fifty-nine
1,263 one thousand, two hundred and sixty-three
2,599 two thousand, five hundred and ninety-nine
10,000 ten thousand
100,000 one hundred thousand
1,000,000 one million
3,685,421 three million, six hundred and eighty-five thousand, four hundred and twenty-
one
7
10 ten million
109 (Br.E. = British English) one thousand million
(Am.E. = American English) one billion

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 CFGS AF1 Administration and Finance
M6 English
Vidal Ortega-Jiménez

NB: The words hundred, thousand and million can be used in the singular with a or one, but
not alone. A is more common in an informal style; one is used when we are speaking
more precisely.
e.g.: I want to live for a hundred years.
The journey took exactly one hundred days.

Note that a is only used with hundred, thousand, etc at the beginning of a number.
e.g. 146 a hundred and forty-six or one hundred and forty-six.
3,146 three thousand, one hundred and forty-six.

NB: Numbers from 1100 to 1900 can be spoken as ‘eleven hundred’ or as ‘one thousand,
one hundred’.

NB: We can also use the expressions dozen (12) and score (20).
e.g.: a dozen eggs, two score chairs.

3) FRACTIONS

Simple fractions are expressed by using ordinal numbers.

e.g.: 1/8 an eighth (or one eighth)
3/7 three sevenths
1+5/9 one and five ninths

More complex fractions are often expressed by using the word over.
e.g.: 317/509 three hundred and seventeen over five hundred and nine.

Expressions like ¾ hour, 7/10 mile are said three quarters of an hour, seven tenths of a mile.

4) DECIMALS

Decimal fractions are said with each figure separate. We use a full stop (called point), not a
comma, before the fraction.
e.g.: 0.5 (=1/2) nought point five, or point five (Am.E.: zero point five)
3.375 (=3+3/8) three point three seven five.

5) TELEPHONE NUMBERS

In phone numbers, we say each figure separately (they are pronounced figure by figure). 0 is
called like ‘o’ (or ‘oh’). When the same digit is repeated, this can be given as ‘double …’
(Instead of six six, two two, etc, British speakers usually say double six, etc).
e.g.: 307 – 4922 three o seven, four nine double two (Am.E.: … two two).

NB: Business firms often have a single telephone number from which callers may be
connected to a three- or four-digit internal extension (number).
e.g.: Oxford 56767 Ext 429; (202) 234-5678 (x301).

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C/ Ferrer i Busquets, 17 25230-Mollerussa E-mail: lasallemollerussa@lasalle.cat
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 CFGS AF1 Administration and Finance
M6 English
Vidal Ortega-Jiménez

6) 0

The figure 0 is normally called nought in British English, and zero in American English.

When numbers are said figure by figure, 0 is often called ‘o’ (like the letter O)
e.g.: My account number is four one three two six o six nine.

In measurements (for instance, of temperature), 0 is called zero.

e.g.: Zero degrees Fahrenheit = -17.8ºC = seventeen point eight degrees below zero
Centigrade.

Zero scores in team-games are usually called nil in British English (American zero). In tennis,
table-tennis and similar games, the word love is used. This is derived from the French l’oeuf,
meaning ‘the egg’, presumably because zero can be egg-shaped.
e.g.: Manchester three, Liverpool nil.
Five-love, your service.

7) MONEY

The singular of pence is penny.

e.g.: 1p = one penny (informally one p), 5p = five pence (informally five p).

In sums which consist of pounds and pence together, the letter p is dropped from the writing,
and the word pence is usually dropped from the spoken form.
e.g.: £ 3.75 three pounds seventy-five.

When sums of money are used as adjectives, singular forms are usual.
e.g.: a five-pound note.

Examples of American usage: 1¢ = one cent, 23 ¢ or $0.23 twenty-three cents, $1.95 a dollar
ninety-five (or: one ninety-five).

NB: pennies = one-cent coins, nickels = five-cent coins, dimes = ten-cent coins, quarters =
twenty-five-cent coins, half-dollars = fifty-cent coins.
e.g.: Does this machine take dimes?

8) AREAS

In giving dimensions, we say, for example, that a room is twelve feet by fifteen feet (12’ x 15’)
or that a garden is thirty feet by forty-eight feet. A room twelve feet by twelve feet can be
called twelve feet square; the total area is 144 square feet (12’ x 12’). In an informal style,
foot is often used instead of feet in measurements.
e.g.: ‘How tall are you?’ – ‘Five foot eight.’
My bedroom is about eight foot by twelve.

NB: For weights (ounces, pounds…), length (inches, feet…)and liquid measure (pints,
gallons…), see a dictionary.

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C/ Ferrer i Busquets, 17 25230-Mollerussa E-mail: lasallemollerussa@lasalle.cat
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 CFGS AF1 Administration and Finance
M6 English
Vidal Ortega-Jiménez

THE ORDINAL NUMBERS

1) 1st - 1010th

1st first 11th eleventh 21st twenty-first

2nd second 12th twelfth 22nd twenty-second
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 18th eighteenth 80th eightieth
9th ninth 19th nineteenth 90th ninetieth
10th tenth 20th twentieth 100th one hundredth

212th two hundred and twelfth.

1,000th one thousandth.
2,033rd two thousand and thirty-third.
1,000,000th one millionth.
2,435,067th two million, four hundred and thirty-five thousand and sixty-seventh.
15,697,302nd fifteen million, six hundred and ninety-seven thousand, three hundred and
second.
135,088,511th one hundred and thirty-five million, eighty-eight thousand, five hundred and
eleventh.
10th
10 ten thousand millionth.

2) DATES

There are 2 ways of saying dates:

e.g.: The first of January = January the first.
The seventeenth of June = June the seventeenth.

NB: When dates are written, ‘the’, ‘of’, and often the ordinal ending (‘-th’, etc) are dropped.
Commas are possible before the number of the year.
e.g.: 1(st) January 2019.
September 28(th), 2022.

NB: When dates are expressed entirely in figures, Americans put the month before the day, e.g.:
8.6.16 means June the eighth in Britain, but August sixth in the United States.

NB: The numbers of years are usually said in 2 halves, but we normally say ‘the year two
thousand’ or ‘the year two thousand and nine.’
e.g.: 921 ‘nine twenty-one.’
1066 ‘ten (hundred and) sixty-six.’
1905 ‘nineteen hundred and five’ or ‘nineteen-o-five.’
1997 ‘nineteen ninety-seven (or nineteen hundred and ninety-seven).’
2009 ‘two thousand and nine.’
2018 ‘twenty eighteen’ or ‘two thousand and eighteen.’

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C/ Ferrer i Busquets, 17 25230-Mollerussa E-mail: lasallemollerussa@lasalle.cat
Tel. 973 600 270 Fax 973 710 599 http://www.mollerussa.lasalle.cat
 CFGS AF1 Administration and Finance
M6 English
Vidal Ortega-Jiménez

SAYING NUMBERS: EXERCISES

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C/ Ferrer i Busquets, 17 25230-Mollerussa E-mail: lasallemollerussa@lasalle.cat
Tel. 973 600 270 Fax 973 710 599 http://www.mollerussa.lasalle.cat
 CFGS AF1 Administration and Finance
M6 English
Vidal Ortega-Jiménez

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C/ Ferrer i Busquets, 17 25230-Mollerussa E-mail: lasallemollerussa@lasalle.cat
Tel. 973 600 270 Fax 973 710 599 http://www.mollerussa.lasalle.cat
 CFGS AF1 Administration and Finance
M6 English
Vidal Ortega-Jiménez

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C/ Ferrer i Busquets, 17 25230-Mollerussa E-mail: lasallemollerussa@lasalle.cat
Tel. 973 600 270 Fax 973 710 599 http://www.mollerussa.lasalle.cat
 CFGS AF1 Administration and Finance
M6 English
Vidal Ortega-Jiménez

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C/ Ferrer i Busquets, 17 25230-Mollerussa E-mail: lasallemollerussa@lasalle.cat
Tel. 973 600 270 Fax 973 710 599 http://www.mollerussa.lasalle.cat