Home > Names of numbers in English
Here are examples of how to name numbers in English.1 Cardinal numbers
| 0 | zero / nought / oh
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| 1 | one
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| 2 | two | 20 | twenty
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| 3 | three | 30 | thirty
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| 4 | four | 40 | forty (there is no "u")
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| 5 | five | 50 | fifty
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| 6 | six | 60 | sixty
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| 7 | seven | 70 | seventy
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| 8 | eight8 eight is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. Prefixes for 8 include octa- ( Greek) and octo- ( Latin. The SI prefix for 10008 is yotta (Y), and for its reciprocal yocto (y). Evolution of the glyph In the beginning, various groups in India wr | 80 | eighty80 is the natural number following 79 and preceding 81. It is a Harshad number. Greek numeral: π´ See wiktionary:eighty to see 80 in other languages. Eighty is also: the atomic number of mercury (Hg) the number of units in a four score the age at which (there is only one "t")
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| 9 | nine9 nine is the natural number following 8 and preceding 10. Prefixes for 9 include ennea- ( Greek) and nona- ( Latin. Evolution of the glyph In the beginning, various Indians wrote 9 in a way that pretty much looks like our modern closing question mark, bu | 90 | ninetyIntegers Composite numbers 90 is the natural number preceded by 89 and followed by 91. Cardinal ninety Ordinal90th (ninetieth) Factorization Divisors 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 15, 18, 30, 45 Roman numeralXC Binary1011010 Hexadecimal5A In mathematics Ninety is the su
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| 10 | ten10 ten is the natural number following 9 and preceding 11. Prefixes for 10 include deca- ( Greek) and deci- ( Latin). In mathematics Ten is a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2 and 5. Ten is the base of the decimal numeral system, by far the
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| 11 | eleven11 eleven is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12. Eleven is the smallest positive integer requiring three syllables in English. In mathematics Eleven is the 5th smallest prime number, and also a repunit prime. Although it is necessary for n t
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| 12 | twelve12 twelve is the natural number following 11 and preceding 13. In mathematics Twelve is a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. Twelve is also a highly composite number, the next one being 24. Twelve being the product of three and
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| 13 | thirteen13 Thirteen is the natural number following 12 and preceding 14. In mathematics Thirteen is the 6th smallest prime number, the next is seventeen. 13 is a Wilson prime. 13 is the fifth Mersenne prime exponent, yielding 8191. 13 is also the third lucky prim
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| 14 | fourteen
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| 15 | fifteen
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| 16 | sixteen
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| 17 | seventeen
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| 18 | eighteen (there is only one "t")
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| 19 | nineteen
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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.
In English, the hundreds are perfectly regular, except that the word hundred remains singular regardless of the number preceding it (obviously, one may on the other hand say "Hundreds of people flew in", or the like)
So are the thousands, with the number of thousands followed by the word "thousand"
| 1,000 | one thousand
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| 2,000 | two thousand
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| 3,000 | three thousand
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| 4,000 | four thousand
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| 5,000 | five thousand
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| 6,000 | six thousand
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| 7,000 | seven thousand
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| 8,000 | eight thousand
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| 9,000 | nine thousand
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| 10,000 | ten thousand
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| 11,000 | eleven thousand
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| 12,000 | twelve thousand
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| 13,000 | thirteen thousand
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| 14,000 | fourteen thousand
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| 15,000 | fifteen thousand
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| 16,000 | sixteen thousand
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| 17,000 | seventeen thousand
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| 18,000 | eighteen thousand
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| 19,000 | nineteen thousand
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| 20,000 | twenty thousand
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| 21,000 | twenty-one thousand
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| 30,000 | thirty thousand
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| 85,000 | eighty-five thousand
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| 100,000 | one hundred thousand
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| 999,000 | nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand (British English)
nine hundred ninety-nine thousand (American English)
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| 1,000,000 | one million
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In informal English, exact numbers larger than one million are seldom named, except perhaps for dramatic effect.
There is more than one way of forming intermediate numbers. One way is for when you are counting something. Another way is for when you are using numbers 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).
| | "How many marbles do you have?" | "What is your house number?" | "Which bus goes to the high street?"
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| 101 | "A hundred and one." | "One-oh-one."
Here, "oh" is used for the digit zero. | "One-oh-one."
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| 109 | "A hundred and nine." | "One-oh-nine." | "One-oh-nine."
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| 110 | "A hundred and ten." | "One-ten." | "One-one-oh."
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| 117 | "A hundred and seventeen." | "One-seventeen." | "One-one-seven."
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| 120 | "A hundred and twenty." | "One-twenty." | "One-two-oh."
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| 152 | "A hundred and fifty-two." | "One-fifty-two." | "One-five-two."
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| 208 | "Two hundred and eight." | "Two-oh-eight." | "Two-oh-eight."
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| 334 | "Three hundred and thirty-four." | "Three-thirty-four." | "Three-three-four."
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Note: When writing a check (cheque), the number 100 is always written "one hundred". It is never "a hundred".
Note that in American English, it is non-standard to use the word and before tens and ones. It is instead used as a verbal delimiter when dealing with compound numbers . Thus, instead of "three hundred and seventy-three", Americans usually say (and write) "three hundred seventy-three". For details, see American and British English differences.
Here are some approximate large numbers in American English:
| Quantity
| Written
| Pronounced
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| 1,200,000 | 1.2 million | one point two million
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| 3,000,000 | 3 million | three million
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| 250,000,000 | 250 million | two hundred and fifty million
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| 1,000,000,000 | 1 billion | one billion (a billion is 1000 times 1 million)
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| 6,400,000,000 | 6.4 billion | six point four billion
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| 1,000,000,000,000 | 1 trillion | one trillion (a trillion is 1000 times 1 billion, or 1 million times 1 million)
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In British English, 1,000,000,000 is a thousand million or, rarely, a milliard. Traditionally, British English has followed the 'long scale' or European numbering system, although in recent years the 'short scale' (American) usage has become increasingly common. For example, the UK Government and BBC websites use the short-scale values exclusively, with 1,000,000,000 being termed a billion.
Often, large numbers are written with half-spaces instead of commas to separate thousands. Thus, a million is 1 000 000. In Commonwealth English, it can also be a point (.), but then, the decimal point becomes a comma.
