Numbers in English

Thứ tư - 27/09/2017 16:57

The cardinal numbers (one, two, three, etc.) are adjectives referring to quantity, and the ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.) refer to distribution.

Number	Cardinal	Ordinal	Number	Cardinal	Ordinal
1	one	first	23	twenty-three	twenty-third
2	two	second	24	twenty-four	twenty-fourth
3	three	third	25	twenty-five	twenty-fifth
4	four	fourth	26	twenty-six	twenty-sixth
5	five	fifth	27	twenty-seven	twenty-seventh
6	six	sixth	28	twenty-eight	twenty-eighth
7	seven	seventh	29	twenty-nine	twenty-ninth
8	eight	eighth	30	thirty	thirtieth
9	nine	ninth	31	thirty-one	thirty-first
10	ten	tenth	40	forty	fortieth
11	eleven	eleventh	50	fifty	fiftieth
12	twelve	twelfth	60	sixty	sixtieth
13	thirteen	thirteenth	70	seventy	seventieth
14	fourteen	fourteenth	80	eighty	eightieth
15	fifteen	fifteenth	90	ninety	ninetieth
16	sixteen	sixteenth	100	one hundred	hundredth
17	seventeen	seventeenth	500	five hundred	five hundredth
18	eighteen	eighteenth	1,000	one thousand	thousandth
19	nineteen	nineteenth	1,500	one thousand five hundred, or fifteen hundred	one thousand five hundredth
20	twenty	twentieth	1,500	one thousand five hundred, or fifteen hundred	one thousand five hundredth
21	twenty-one	twenty-first	100,000	one hundred thousand	hundred thousandth
22	twenty-two	twenty-second	1,000,000	one million	millionth

EXAMPLES
§ There are twenty-five people in the room.
§ He was the fourteenth person to win the award.
§ Six hundred thousand people were left homeless after the earthquake.
§ I must have asked you twenty times to be quiet.
§ He went to Israel for the third time this year.

1. READING DECIMALS

Read decimals aloud in English by pronouncing the decimal point as "point", then read each digit individually. Money is not read this way.

Written	Said	Written	Said
0.5	point five	0.05	point zero five
0.25	point two five	0.6529	point six five two nine
0.73	point seven three	2.95	two point nine five

2. READING FRACTIONS

Read fractions using the cardinal number for the numerator and the ordinal number for the denominator, making the ordinal number plural if the numerator is larger than 1. This applies to all numbers except for the number 2, which is read "half" when it is the denominator, and "halves" if there is more than one.

Written	Said	Written	Said
1/3	one third	1/2	one half
3/4	three fourths	3/2	three halves
5/6	five sixths

3. PRONOUNCING PERCENTAGES

Percentages are easy to read aloud in English. Just say the number and then add the word "percent".

Written	Pronounced	Written	Pronounced
5%	five percent	100%	one hundred percent
25%	twenty-five percent	400%	four hundred percent
36.25%	thirty-six point two five percent

4. READING SUMS OF MONEY

To read a sum of money, first read the whole number, then add the currency name. If there is a decimal, follow with the decimal pronounced as a whole number, and if coinage has a name in the currency, add that word at the end. Note that normal decimals are not read in this way. These rules only apply to currency.

Written	Spoken	Written	Spoken
25$	twenty-five dollars	€12.66	twelve euros sixty-six
52€	fifty-two euros	₤10.50	ten pounds fifty
140₤	one hundred and forty pounds
$43.25	forty-three dollars and twenty-five cents (shortened to "forty-three twenty-five" in everyday speech)

5. PRONOUNCING MEASUREMENTS

Just read out the number, followed by the unit of measurement, which will often be abbreviated in the written form.

Written	Spoken	Written	Spoken
60m	sixty meters	2L	two liters
25km/h	twenty-five kilometers per hour	3tbsp	three tablespoons
11ft	eleven feet	1tsp	one teaspoon

6. PRONOUNCING 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 millenium 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	Spoken	Written	Spoken
2017	twenty seventeen or two thousand seventeen	866	eight hundred sixty-six or eight sixty-six
2008	two thousand eight	1600	sixteen hundred
2000	two thousand	1256	twelve fifty-six
1944	nineteen forty-four	1006	ten o six
1908	nineteen o eight	25	twenty-five
1900	nineteen hundred	3000 BC	three thousand BC
		3250 BC	thirty two fifty BC

7. 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
zero	Used to read the number by itself, in reading decimals, percentages, and 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

EXAMPLES

Written	Said
3.04+2.02=5.06	Three point zero four plus two point zero two makes five point zero six.
There is a 0% chance of rain.	There is a zero percent chance of rain.
The temperature is -20⁰C.	The temperature is twenty degrees below zero.
You can reach me at 0171 390 1062.	You can reach me at zero one seven one, three nine zero, one zero six two
I live at 4604 Smith Street.	I live at forty-six o four Smith Street
He became king in 1409.	He became king in fourteen o nine.
I waited until 4:05.	I waited until four o five.
The score was 4-0.	The score was four nil.

Tác giả bài viết: Đoàn Thị Thanh Tuyền

Từ khóa: n/a

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