Numbers
Cardinal Ordinal
0 Zero
1 One 1st First
2 Two 2nd Second
3 Three 3rd Third
4 Four 4th Fourth
5 Five 5th Fifth
6 Six 6th Sixth
7 Seven 7th Seventh
8 Eight 8th Eighth
9 Nine 9th Ninth
10 Ten 10th Tenth
11 Eleven 11th Eleventh
12 Twelve 12th Twelfth
13 Thirteen 13th Thirteenth
14 Fourteen 14th Fourteenth
15 Fifteen 15th Fifteenth
16 Sixteen 16th Sixteenth
17 Seventeen 17th Seventeenth
18 Eighteen 18th Eighteenth
19 Nineteen 19th Nineteenth
20 Twenty 20th Twentieth
21 twenty-one 21st twenty-first
22 twenty-two 22nd twenty-second
23 twenty-three 23rd twenty-third
24 twenty-four twenty-fourth
25 twenty-five twenty-fifth
30 Thirty 30th Thirtieth
40 Forty 40th Fortieth
50 Fifty 50th Fiftieth
60 Sixty 60th Sixtieth
70 Seventy 70th Seventieth
80 Eighty 80th Eightieth
90 Ninety 90th Ninetieth
100 one hundred 100th Hundredth
101st one hundred and first
500 five hundred 500th five hundredth
1,000 one thousand 1,000th One Thousandth
10,000 ten thousand 10,000th Ten Thousandth
100,000 one hundred thousand One hundred thousandth
1,000,000 one million 1,000,000th (ten) Millionth
Cardinal Numbers
Normally are 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
Ordinal Numbers
You can normally create Ordinal numbers by adding -TH to the end of a Cardinal
Number, with some exceptions (highlighted in the table). Normally are used when you:
give a date: My birthday is on the 27th of January. (Twenty-seventh of January)
refer to centuries: Shakespeare was born in the 16th century.
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.
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.
Written Reading
Decimals
0.5 point five
0.25 point two five
Read decimals aloud in English by pronouncing the
decimal point as "point", then read each digit
0.73 point seven three
individually. Money is not read this way. 0.05 point zero five
0.6529 point six five two nine
2.95 two point nine five
Fractions
Read fractions using the cardinal number for the 1/3 one third
numerator and the ordinal number for the
3/4 three fourths
denominator, making the ordinal number plural if
the numerator is larger than 1. This applies to all 5/6 five sixths
numbers except for the number 2, which is read
"half" when it is the denominator, and "halves" if 1/2 one half
there is more than one.
3/2 three halves
Percentages
5% five percent
25% twenty-five percent
Percentages are easy to read aloud in English. Just
say the number and then add the word "percent". 36.25% thirty-six point two five percent
100% one hundred percent
400% four hundred percent
sums of money
25$ twenty-five dollars
52€ fifty-two euros
To read a sum of money, first read the whole
number, then add the currency name. If there is a 140₤ one hundred and forty pounds
decimal, follow with the decimal pronounced as a
whole number, and if coinage has a name in the
forty-three dollars and twenty-five cents
currency, add that word at the end. Note that $43.25 (shortened to "forty-three twenty-five" in
normal decimals are not read in this way. These everyday speech)
rules only apply to currency.
€12.66 twelve euros sixty-six
₤10.50 ten pounds fifty
Measurements
60m sixty meters
25km/h twenty-five kilometers per hour
Just read out the number, followed by the unit of 11ft eleven feet
measurement, which will often be abbreviated in the
written form. 2L two liters
3tbsp three tablespoons
1tsp one teaspoon
How to say 0
There are several ways to pronounce the number 0, used in different contexts. Unfortunately, usage
varies between different English-speaking countries. These pronunciations apply to American
English.
Pronunciation Usage
Used to read the number by itself, in reading decimals, percentages, and
zero
phone numbers, and in some fixed expressions.
o (the letter name) Used to read years, addresses, times and temperatures
nil Used to report sports scores
nought Not used in the USA
Years
Reading years in English is relatively complicated. In general, when the year is a four-digit number,
read the first two digits as a whole number, then the second two digits as another whole number.
There are a few exceptions to this rule. Years that are within the first 100 years of a new millennium
can be read as whole numbers even though they have four digits, or they can be read as two two-
digit numbers. Millennia are always read as whole numbers because they would be difficult to
pronounce otherwise. New centuries are read as whole numbers of hundreds. We do not use the
word "thousand", at least not for reading years within the past 1000 years.
Years that have just three digits can be read as a three-digit number, or as a one-digit number
followed by a two-digit number. Years that are a two-digit number are read as a whole number. You
can precede any year by the words "the year" to make your meaning clear, and this is common for
two- and three-digit years. Years before the year 0 are followed by BC, pronounced as two letters of
the alphabet.
Interestingly, these rules apply to reading street addresses as well.
Written Reading
2014 twenty fourteen or two thousand fourteen
2008 two thousand eight
2000 two thousand
1944 nineteen forty-four
1908 nineteen o eight
1900 nineteen hundred
1600 sixteen hundred
1256 twelve fifty-six
1006 ten o six
866 eight hundred sixty-six or eight sixty-six
25 twenty-five
3000 BC three thousand BC
3250 BC thirty-two fifty BC