Numbers

The main units of numbers in English are:

1 10 100 1000 1000000 1000000000
one ten hundred thousand million billion

Here is a list of numbers. On the left are normal or "cardinal" numbers. On the right are "ordinal" numbers, which we use to define a thing's position in a series.

Cardinal Numbers Ordinal Numbers
0 zero, nought    
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 24th twenty-fourth
30 thirty 30th thirtieth
31 thirty-one 31st thirty-first
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 hundred 100th hundredth
101 hundred and one 101st hundred and first
152 hundred and fifty-two 152nd hundred and fifty-second
200 two hundred 200th two hundredth
1,000 thousand 1,000th thousandth
1,000,000 million 1,000,000th millionth
1,000,000,000 billion 1,000,000,000th billionth
 
For numbers in the hundreds, the British usually say "and" but the Americans usually do not say "and":
  • British English
    120 = one hundred and twenty
  • American English
    120 = one hundred twenty

Note that in English, we usually separate the digits of numbers over 999 with a comma (,). We count 3 digits from the right and insert a comma, like this:

    , - - - , - - -  
          1 , 0 0 0 one thousand
  1 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 one million
1 2 , 7 5 0 , 2 0 0 twelve million, seven hundred and fifty thousand, two hundred

We use a point (.) to indicate a decimal number, or to separate dollars from cents, pounds from pennies and so on. Here are some examples:

          0 . 1   = one tenth or 1/10
          1 . 0   = one
  1 , 0 0 0       = one thousand
  1 , 5 0 0 . 7 5 = one thousand five hundred and three quarters
        $ 1 . 5 0 = one dollar and fifty cents
    $ 7 0 0 . 0 0 = seven hundred dollars
£ 3 , 5 0 0 . 0 1 = three thousand five hundred pounds and one penny
 
Be careful with commas and points. Some languages use them in the opposite way!