this article is still a work in progress. It is not completed yet.Do you want to know how to use all numbers confidently in English? Sure, many people know how to count to 1-10, maybe even 1-100, but do you know how to tell time? Can you read historical dates or describe money? Can you say a number with a lot of zeros, like 1,000,000,000? Do English speakers struggle to understand your pronunciation, and think you meant 30 when you said 13? This article will show you everything there is to know about numbers in English.Part 1: Counting
We’ll start simple.
1-10
1: one /huan/
2: two /tuu/ (long ‘o’)
3: three /thrii/ (not ‘tree’) put your tongue between your teeth, and blow. Three.
4: four
5: five /faiv/ (asegurate que pronuncies el ‘v’; no digas ‘fai’)
6: six /siks/
7: seven
8: eight /ey-t/ (long ‘ey’)
9: nine /nain/
10: tenGreat job!11-19
Pay attention to pronunciation here.
11: eleven
12: twelve
13: thirteen /thir-TEEN/ - emphasis on the ‘TEEN.’ If you say ‘THIR-teen,’ it will sound like 30
14: fourteen /four-TEEN/
15: fifteen /fif-TEEN/ (not ‘fiveteen’)
16: sixteen /siks-TEEN/
17: seventeen /seven--TEEN/
18: eighteen /eyt-TEEN/
19: nineteen /nain-TEEN/
Did you know why 11 and 12 are so different from 13-19? In ancient English, people counted with a base-12 system. Today, we use a base-10 system. This means we have 10 number symbols total, 0-9, that we use to write every number in existence! The ancestors of the English, on the other hand, had 12 number symbols. After they counted to 12, they had to reuse numbers.
* Para los angloparlantes, el concepto de los ‘teenagers’ (adolescentes) es vinculado con los números. La adolescencia empieza a los 13 años de edad, y oficialmente termina a los 19 (pero a veces la gente dice que termina a las 17 porque legalmente se consideran adultos a los 18 años). Cada año de adolescencia, los teenagers (or teens), tiene el sonido ‘teen’ en el número.20-90
20: twenty /TWEN-ni/
30: thirty /THIR-di/ (remember: emphasize the first syllable, ‘THIR.’ Saying ‘thir-DI’ sounds too much like 13).
40: forty /FOR-di/
50: /FIF-di/ (not: five-di)
60: /SIKS-di/
70: /SEVEN-di/
80: /EY-di/
90: /NAIN-di/100-900 (hundreds)1,000 (thousands)Let’s practice saying these numbers:Really big numbers:
10,000 (ten thousands)
100,000 (hundred thousands)
1,000,000 (millions)
10,000,000 (ten millions)
100,000,000 (hundred millions)1,000,000,000 (billions)
1,000,000,000,000 (trillions)
1,000,000,000,000,000 (quadrillions) (uncommon)
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (quintillion) (very uncommon)Practice:Part 2: Money
Let’s practice with examples.
Say these prices aloud:$8.99: eight dollars and ninety-nine cents /sents/
$24.50: twenty-four dollars and fifty cents
$137.72
$1,250.58
$12,499See the pattern? ___ dollars and ___ cents.Common mistake: $8.99: dollars eight and ninety-nine cents.
Why is it wrong?There is another way we talk about prices that’s shorter.
Say these prices aloud:$8.99: eight ninety-nine
$24.50: twenty-four fifty
$137.72
$1,250.58
$12,499Bills and Coins
In the United States, we have different types of physical currency (cash):
💵 Bills
$1 bill
$5 bill
$10 bill
$20 bill
$50 bill
$100 billMost of our bills have former U.S. presidents on them. Which bills don’t?🪙 Coins
penny = 1 cent
nickel = 5 cents
dime = 10 cents
quarter = 25 centsYou might see many quarters with different backs. While all quarters have the same face, with the head of first U.S. president George Washington, every few years the backs change in design to follow a theme. We have quarters with the different U.S. states, territories, national parks, and other designs minted on their backs.Old Money
These are rare or no longer being made, but you can still buy things with them.$2 bill
Half dollar coin (50 ₵)
Dollar coin ($1)Heads or Tails?
Like in many other countries, Americans will sometimes do a coin toss if they want to make a decision or see who goes first in a game. They will flip a coin, usually a quarter because it is the largest. If you say “heads” then you want the coin to land face up, showing the president’s head. If you say “tails” you want the coin to land with its back up.American Money SlangBuck = 1 dollar
Dough / bread = money
Chump change = a very small amount of money
Grand / K = $1,000
Examples:
“Gimmie 5 bucks, I’ll pay you back.”
“That’ll be a buck fifty.” (That costs $1.50)
“Let’s get this bread!” (Let’s make money)
“I only have chump change, so I can’t buy that.”
“I have five grand in my bank account. She only has 2K in hers.”Slang Practice:
How many bucks do you have in your pocket right now?
Do you have enough dough to make it through the week? (or: do you have enough money to cover your weekly expenses?) If not, go get that bread!
Who in your family always has only chump change?
How many grand does it cost to buy a house?Using the Thousands
In English, sometimes we say big numbers differently, especially when making a big purchase, like a car.For example:
$1,500 can be “one thousand five hundred” OR “fifteen hundred”Let’s look at more examples.
The car costs fifty-five hundred ($5,500).
I spent twelve hundred dollars ($1,200) on a new sofa.
What do you mean they’re charging twenty-four hundred ($2,400) for catering?!Note: We can only say “___ hundred” if the number ends in “00” and is between 1,000 – 9,900.❌ Incorrect: 3,429 – “thirty-four hundred twenty-nine” – this number doesn’t end in “00,” so we can’t use the word “hundred.”
✅ Correct: thirty-four hundred (3,400)❌ Incorrect: 10,100 – “one hundred one hundred.”
✅ Correct: ninety-nine hundred (9,900) is the highest you can go.Let’s Practice!
Say “___ hundred”:$1,200
$3,400
$1,600
$2,300
$4,700
$5,800Part 3: Historical Dates
You might have noticed that English speakers use strange numbers to talk about past years. What the heck is fourteen eighty-two?? Here I’ll show you what’s happening.Columbus discovered America in fourteen ninety-two (1492).
World War II (WWII) ended in nineteen forty-five (1945).
The United States was founded in seventeen seventy-six (1776).
In eighteen fifteen (1815) Napoleon was defeated.What pattern did you notice?Centuries:
The Industrial Revolution happened during the 1800s (eighteen hundreds), and the Renaissance began in the 1300s. But, the World Wars didn’t happen until the 20th century.You can refer to an entire century by putting an ‘s’ at the end of it.
1700s (seventeen hundreds - from 1700 to 1799)
1400s (fourteen hundreds)
1800sYou can also refer to a century by its cardinal number.
20th century: 1900s
21st century: 2000s (two-thousand’s)
13th century: 1200s
First century: 0-00 CE
Decades:
You might hear people talk about 80s (eighty’s) rock or the hippie movement of the 1960s (nineteen sixty’s). The 1770s were famous for the Declaration of Independence, but the 40s were when World War II killed millions of people.
Before 1900: You can refer to an entire decade by putting an ‘s’ at the end of the year.
The 1780s (seventeen eighty’s)
1410s (fourteen ten’s)
1320s (thirteen twenty’s)
1900-1999: You can refer to an entire decade by putting an ‘s’ at the end of the year, or at the end of just the last two numbers of the year.
1960s (nineteen sixty’s)
80s (eighty’s)
50s (fifty’s)
Roaring 20s (yes, we do call it that, because of the explosion of culture that happened during that decade in the U.S.)
2000s
2000 – 2009: ALWAYS “two thousand, two thousand one, two thousand two, etc.”
2010-present: can be BOTH “twenty ten” or “two thousand ten.”
✅ “Twenty twenty-six” or “two thousand twenty six.” ✅Part 4: Telling Time