Numbers in English Cardinal Vs. Ordinal Numbers
Related Lessons
| Cardinal Vs. Ordinal Numbers |
 |
 |
 |
| Thursday, 18 December 2008 11:24 |
Cardinal and Ordinal Numbers There are two main types of numbers: Cardinal Numbers - 1 (one), 2 (two) etc. (Used mainly for counting) Ordinal Numbers - 1st (first), 2nd (second) etc. (Used mainly for putting things in a sequence)  Cardinal Numbers Cardinal numbers are normally used when you: 1. count things: Example: I have two brothers. Example: There are thirty-one days in January.  2. give your age: Example: I am thirty-three years old. Example: My sister is twenty-seven years old.  3. give your telephone number: Example: Our phone number is two-six-three, three-eight-four-seven. (481-2240)  4. give years: Example: She was born in nineteen seventy-five (1975). Example: America was discovered in fourteen ninety-two  Notice how we divide the year into two parts. This is the form for year up to 1999. For the year 2000 and on, we say two thousand (2000), two thousand and one (2001), two thousand and two (2002) etc.  Ordinal Numbers You can normally create Ordinal numbers by adding -TH to the end of a Cardinal Number. Ordinal numbers are normally used when you: 1. give a date: Example: My birthday is on the 27th of January. (Twenty-seventh of January)  2. put things in a sequence or order: Example: Liverpool came second in the football league last year.  3. give the floor of a building: Example: His office is on the tenth floor.  4. have birthdays: Example: He had a huge party for his twenty-first birthday.  Cardinal Numbers 1 - one 2 - two 3 - three 4 - four 5 - five 6 - six 7 - seven 8 - eight 9 - nine 10 - ten 11 - eleven 12 - twelve 13 - thirteen 14 - fourteen 15 - fifteen 16 - sixteen 17 - seventeen 18 - eighteen 19 - nineteen 20 - twenty 21 - twenty-one 22 - twenty-two 23 - twenty-three 30 - thirty 40 - forty 50 - fifty 60 - sixty 70 - seventy 80 - eighty 90 - ninety 100 - one hundred* 101 - one hundred and one 200 - two hundred 300 - three hundred 1000 - one thousand 1,000,000 - one million 10,000,000 - ten million  *Instead of saying One Hundred, you can say A hundred. Example: (127) one hundred and twenty-seven OR (127) a hundred and twenty-seven. The same rule applies for one thousand (a thousand) and one million (a million)  Notice that you need to use a hyphen (-) when you write the numbers between 21 and 99. With long numbers, we usually divide them into groups of three which are divided by a comma. e.g. 5000000 (5 million) is normally written as 5,000,000  Ordinal Numbers 1st - first 2nd - second 3rd - third 4th - four 5th - fifth 6th - sixth 7th - seventh 8th - eighth 9th - ninth 10th - tenth 11th - eleventh 12th - twelfth 13th - thirteenth 14th - fourteenth 15th - fifteenth 16th - sixteenth 17th - seventeenth 18th - eighteenth 19th - nineteenth 20th - twentieth 21st - twenty-first 22nd - twenty-second 23rd - twenty-third 30th - thirtieth 40th - fortieth 50th - fiftieth 60th - sixtieth 70th - seventieth 80th - eightieth 90th - ninetieth 100th - hundredth 101st - hundred and first 200th - two hundredth 300th - three hundredth 1,000th - thousandth 1,000,000th - ten millionth  The Number 0 We normally say 'zero' for the number '0'. BUT when we give our telephone number, we often say O like the name of the letter O. Example: 505-1023 = five-O-five, one-O-two-three  Fractions and DecimalsWe use ordinal numbers (at the end position) to talk about fractions. 1/2 - a half 1/3 - a third 2/3 - two thirds 1/4 - a quarter (a fourth) 3/4 - three quarters (three fourths) 1/5 - a fifth 2/5 - two fifths 1/6 - a sixth 5/6 - five sixths 1/7 - a seventh 1/8 - an eighth 1/10 - a tenth 7/10 - seven tenths 1/20 - a twentieth 47/100 - forty-seven hundredths 1/100 - a hundredth 1/1,000 - a thousandth  * Notice that for 1/4, you can say a quarter OR a fourth. * IF we have a whole number with a fraction, we use the word AND between the two parts. Example: 2 3/5 = two and a three-fifths  * For parts of whole numbers, we use a decimal point (and NOT a comma). Example: 2 1/2 (two and a half) = 2.5 (two point five)  * If there is more than one number after the decimal point, we say each number individually. Example: 3,456.789 = three thousand, four hundred and fifty-six point seven eight nine.  * The exception to this rule is when we are talking about dollars and cents (or pound and pence) Example: $21.95 = twenty-one dollars, ninety-five (cents). Saying the word cents at the end is optional  |
| Last Updated on Saturday, 12 September 2009 20:10 |