Cardinal & ordinal numbers

themes & topics

NUMBERS

LEARNING TIP

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

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

Examples:

There are twenty-five books on the shelf.
She was the fourteenth person to get the sack since 1984.
Six hundred thousand people were left penniless after the financial crash.
I must have asked you twenty times to be more careful.
He went to London for the third time this year.

Fractions and decimals

Said	Written	Said
half	0.5	point five
a quarter	0.25	point two five
three quarters	0.75	point seven five

Percentages

Written	Said
25%	twenty five percent
50%	fifty percent
75%	seventy five percent
100%	a/one hundred percent

Currency

Written	Said
$1,200	one thousand two hundred dollars
£16,486	sixteen thousand four hundred and eighty-six pounds
545kms	five hundred and forty-five kilometres
$25.35	twenty-five dollars thirty-five

Years

Written	Said
1988	Nineteen eighty-eight
1864	Eighteen sixty-four
1999	Nineteen ninety-nine

How to say '0'

nought	used in mathematical expressions and decimals: 'nought times three equals nought' 0.3 = 'nought point three' (or 'point three') 0.03 = 'point nought three'
zero	used in scientific expressions, especially temperatures: 20^oC = minus twenty degrees or twenty degrees below *zero* also used to mean 'the lowest point': 'The heavy rain reduced visibility to *zero*'
'o' (the letter)	used in telephone numbers: 0171 390 0062 = 'o one seven one three nine o double o six two'
nil/nothing	used to express the score in games such as football: 2 - 0 = 'two *nil' or 'two nothing*'
love	used to express the score at tennis: 15 - 0 = 'fifteen *love'*

IDIOMS

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