by Liz Walter
In a recent lesson, I discovered that many of my students did not know how to read numbers aloud, especially long numbers. Numbers are a basic part of the language and it can sometimes be very important to say them clearly!
One important thing to remember is that we say and after hundreds, before the tens (20, 30, etc) or units (1, 2, etc):
319: three hundred and nineteen
507: five hundred and seven
This is also true when the word hundred occurs in longer numbers:
140, 000: a hundred and forty thousand
325, 250: three hundred and twenty five thousand, two hundred and fifty
We also say it in numbers over 1,000 where there are no hundreds but there are tens or units:
1, 056: one thousand and fifty six
The second important thing is that we do not put an ‘s’ on hundred, thousand or million, even when the number is more than 1.
There were five thousand people at the show.
Another common learner error is to use of after numbers. You should not say of before the things you are counting:
There are around a hundred and fifty fish in the pond.
There are around a hundred and fifty of fish in the pond.
However we do use the phrases hundreds of, thousands of and millions of to describe a general large number of something:
Millions of people watched the wedding on TV.
Some of my students also asked me whether they should say a hundred/thousand, etc or one hundred/thousand, etc in a numbers such as 120 or 1,350.
Reference books don’t give much guidance on this question, but this is what I have noticed:
For a round number, i.e. 100, 1,000, 100,000,000, we are more likely to use a unless we want to be particularly emphatic about the number:
We employ over a thousand people.
Can you supply one thousand steel posts?
For hundreds that are more than 100, we are most likely to use a, though again the use of one makes it more emphatic:
You can put a hundred and fifty CDs in this case.
You have been late for work one hundred and twenty three times this year.
If the hundred is in the middle of a longer number, we always use one:
We sold one thousand, one hundred books.
We almost always use one with thousands or millions:
The city’s population is one million, two hundred thousand.
In my next post, I will look at the way we talk about numbers in mathematics – for example how to say things like 9.3, 5 ¾ or 6 ÷2.
Good lesson. Thanks.
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I was taught in school that the word “and” should specifically not be included in numbers. i.e.: one hundred twenty, not one hundred and twenty.
That’s interesting. Where did you go to school? I’m wondering if it’s more common to leave out the ‘and’ in American English. In British English it’s certainly normal to have it.
I was taught that as well. I think it was second grade when I was told “say ‘one hundred one,’ not ‘a hundred and one’.” The latter was considered wrong both for the use of “a” instead of “one” and for the use of “and.”
But it’s not actually wrong, and in fact in America people would say “a hundred and one” more often than “one hundred one,” though both are commonly used. It’s one of those “rules” someone made up and passed along. I’ve noticed that for numbers larger than 200, it is more common to leave off “and,” so someone might say “a hundred and twenty” but “two hundred twenty.”
Same here. Ms. Klostermann’s 3rd grade class. St. Louis, Missouri.
It drives me nuts when reporters and journalists on TV say “and” in their numbers.
Reblogged this on StatsLife.
An inquisitor can learn .
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I say , ‘An inquisitor learns’ .
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I say , ‘An inquisitor learns’ .
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Thank you, Liz! The information is really helpful. I’m looking forward to your next post.
Reblogged this on shukrimahmoodmohamed.
Am grateful to know that and thanks a lot for posting such a helpful post
This lesson has solved my problems of how to spell numbers, thanks for the useful one. You may find some ideas for your next lessons from this comment, i guess.
Please, could you explain to us why we say England is a european … instead of England is an european…?
Due to pronunciation. The first sound is that of ‘y’ like in ‘yatch’.
Because the *sound* that European starts with is like a ‘y’. In phonetics, it’s /j/. So it sounds like a consonant. We only use ‘an’ when the *sound* is like a vowel. Most words that begin with vowels sound like vowels, but a few don’t. ‘Uniform’ is another example where you need ‘a’.
Hey, it’s ‘ cause the word European is pronounced with a consonant sound ”y”.
You must have now got the hang of it.
Good job
Dear Liz,
Thanks a lot for this post. It’s very useful. And I’m sure that the next post about numbers in mathematics will be as useful as this post.
When I read this article I was surprised with all the use of “and” in number recitation.
In 1952-1953, I was in second grade in Salem county, New Jersey.
My male teacher at the time told us the correct way to say/read numbers was not to use “and” anywhere in the recitation of the number. Ever since then, I have heard more numbers with the and than without.
I don’t know if his lesson was right or wrong, but to this day I still leave out the “and” whenever I state numbers.
As my church treasurer, I need to recite the dollars spent at our annual meeting, and also the dollar amounts planned for our next year’s budget. I still remember that second grade lesson each year when I give my two reports. (I also hear the improper use of “I” in the object position quite often. Example: John invited Sam and I to the baseball game.)
Excellent! Can´t wait to read your next post!
thanks !! It is very useful for me !!!!
Awesome blog as always!!
Can you please explain whether to use plural for units?
eg. 200km: 200 kilometers?/ 200 kilometer?
Thank you, Shradda! Yes, you do need to use plural for units over 1: 200 kilometers (or kilometres as we say in British English!)
From these comments it does appear that in American English, some people favour leaving out the ‘and’. However, in British English, we always include it and it would sound quite odd to omit it.
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Thank you for your article!
Over here in the states, we seem to use the conjunction at a logical break: between units and fraction, as an example. While spme deprecate this form, it may have basis from our currency. When whiting the text of the value on a financial instrument, the convention is… One thousand, one hundred fifteen dollars AND twenty-seven cents, emphasizing the decimal point. (No research implied, just memories from my youth.)
Thanks for this!
Hi Liz,
I’ve got a question on hyphenating the compound numbers from twenty-one through ninety-nine: is it a rule to hyphenate such numbers, or perhaps is it to do with AmE/BrE writing conventions?
Thank you.
I don’t think it’s a hard and fast rule to hyphenate, although it is often taught this way. If I saw ‘twenty nine’, I would not consider it an error.
Dear Liz, thanks a lot.
I always use “and” and teach my students to do it. But I’m not very sure about ‘thousands’. For example, 1234. Should we use ‘and’ after ‘thousand’/’millions’? Sounds like too many ‘ands’.
Looking forward to your answer.
I think the most common way for 1234 would be ‘twelve thirty four’ – it’s the normal case described at the beginning of this post.
I was taught in school to leave out “and” when saying a whole number. “And” is only to be used when there are decimals. For example, “1234” is spoken as “one thousand, two hundred, thirty-four.” Whereas, “1234.56” is spoken as “one thousand, two hundred, thirty-four and fifty-six hundreths.” It follows the rule of writing a check (which will soon become a lost art). When you write out the check amount, it is written “one thousand, two hundred, thirty-four and 56/100.” I hear most people use “and” when they say a number, and it is incorrect. However, when teachers and journalists are using “and” incorrectly, it will soon become the norm unfortunately.
I remember when i was in grade school, my teacher was so dead set on not useing the word and in any said numbers that she made us students write the multiplacations from 0 x 0 to 12 x 12 once every time and was said when speaking large numbers…..needless to say by the last few weeks of 5th grade i knew my times table by heart because and would always slip out at least 5 times daily….glad to know that she was training the whole class wrong and now 30yrs later i now have the proof;)