Cardinal numbers

What is a cardinal number?

It is a number we use for counting. We need cardinal numbers to say how many objects there are.

Numbers from 1 to 12

You'll have to memorise these numbers.

Numbers from 13 to 19

All these numbers end with -teen. Don't forget to stress the last syllable!

Numbers from 20 to 99

All round tens end with -ty. Here is the list.

To make a compound number, we add 1–9 to round tens with a hyphen..

Numbers larger than 100

Milliard or billion?

The word "billion" means a thousand million (9 zeros) and it originally came from the US. The British word for "billion" is "milliard" but the British officially accepted the US practice in 1974. Today, you will rarely hear the word "milliard" from a British English speaker. The US terminology for numbers gradually spread from international commerce to everyday life.

Now, let's look at large compound numbers. To make 3-digit compound numbers, we put and after hundred. See the examples below.

Pay attention

In US English and is not used. For example, one hundred eighty-six, two hundred seventy-three etc.

With larger numbers, the principle is the same: going from left to right, we say how many thousands, hundreds, tens and ones there are. Note that we do not add and after thousand, million, billion etc.

In writing, we usually put commas after every 3 digits counting from the right. It makes reading simpler.

Pay attention

When pronouncing cardinal numbers, we do not put the words "hundred", "thousand", "million", "billion" into the plural form. Note that there is no -s at the end.

However, when we refer to large but not exact quantities of people, animals or things, we can use these words in plural.

Zero and synonyms

The symbol 0 or the absence of number is called differently depending on where we use it. You may always use the word zero and people will understand you correctly. However, here is a helpful table in case you come across one of these words, in speaking or writing.