Numbers

Numbers over 20
-are written with a hyphen: 35 thirty-five; 21st twenty-first
-often words are used for the pounds or dollars and figures for the pence or cents: $79.30 seventy-nine
dollars (and) 30/100 ; £22.45 twenty-two pounds (and) 45 pence

Numbers over 100

-the and is pronounced /n/ [in AmE the and is sometimes left out]: 329 three hundred and twenty-nine

Numbers over 1000

2500 two thousand five hundred (informal, esp. in AmE: twenty-five hundred)
-comma (or space in BrE) can be used to divide large numbers into groups of 3 figures: 2,268,941 or 2
768 941 (two million seven hundred and sixty-eight thousand nine hundred and forty-one)

Fractions
½ a/one half
1/3 a/one third
¼ a/one quarter (AmE also a/one fourth)
1/12 one twelfth
1/16 one sixteenth

More complex fractions

-use over: 19/56 nineteen over fifty-six

Whole numbers and fractions

-link with and: 2 ½ two and a half
-one plus a fraction is followed by a plural noun: 1 ½ one and a half pints

Fractions / percentages and noun phrases

-use of: a fifth of the women questioned
-with half do not use a, and of can sometimes be omitted: Half (of) the work is already finished.
-do not use of in expressions of measurement or quantity: It takes me half an hour by bus.

1
-use of before pronouns: Only half of us are here.

Fractions / percentages and verbs

-if a fraction / percentage is used with an uncountable or singular noun, the verb is generally singular:
Fifty per cent of the land is cultivated.
-if the noun is singular but represents a group of people, the verb is singular in AmE, but in BrE it may
be singular or plural: 75% of the workforce is/are against the strike.
-if the noun is plural, the verb is plural: 65% of children play computer games.

Decimals
-a point (.) is used (not a comma)
-say each figure after the point separately: 3.142 three point one four two; 0.67 (zero) point six seven
[BrE also: nought point six seven]
-zero and nought are used before and after a decimal point (nought is not used in AmE)
-oh can be used after the decimal point: 0.05 zero point zero five / nought point nought five / zero point
oh five

Mathematical expressions
+ plus
– minus
x times / multiplied by
: divided by
= equals / is
% per cent (AmE percent)
32 three squared
53 five cubed
610 six to the power of ten
√ square root of

The figure ‘0’

-in AmE zero is commonly used in all cases, in BrE it has several different names
-zero – used in specific scientific, medical and economic contexts and to talk about temperature: It
was ten degrees below zero last night. zero profit

2
-nought /nɔːt/ - used in BrE to talk about a number, age, etc.: A million is written with six noughts.
Clothes for children aged nought to six.
-‘o’ [BrE /əʊ/, AmE /oʊ/] – used when saying a banc account number, telephone number, room
number, bus number, dates (years) etc.: The meeting is in room 502 (five oh two). She was born in
1907 (nineteen oh seven).
-nil – used to talk about the score in a team game (The final score was one nil [1-0].); used to mean
‘nothing at all’ (The doctors rated her chances as nil.)

Telephone numbers
-all numbers are said separately and 0 is pronounced BrE /əʊ/, AmE /oʊ/: (01865) 556767 o one eight
six five, five five six seven six seven (or double five six seven six seven)

Temperature
-the Celsius or Centigrade (°C) scale is officially used in Britain and for scientific purposes in the US:
a high of thirty-five degrees Celsius
-the Fahrenheit (°F) scale is used in all other contexts in the US and is also still commonly used in
Britain; the words ‘degrees Fahrenheit/Centigrade/Celsius’ are often omitted: Temperatures soared to
over a hundred. (100°F)

Money in Britain
-100 pence/p [sg. penny] = 1 British pound (£1)
-when talking about an individual coin: a twenty pence piece / a twenty p piece
-when talking about pounds and pence, people often say only the numbers: It only costs five ninety
nine. (£5.99)
-informal BrE: £1 a quid
£5 five quid or a fiver
£10 ten quid or a tenner

Money in the US
1c one cent a penny
5c five cents a nickel
10c ten cents a dime
25c twenty-five cents a quarter
$1.00 one dollar a dollar bill
-informal AmE – dollars are called bucks: This shirt costs fifty bucks.

3
Writing and saying dates
-BrE: 14 October 1998 or 14th October 1998 (14/10/1998): Her birthday is on the fourteenth of
October. or Her birthday is on October the fourteenth.
-AmE: October 14, 1998 (10/14/1998): Her birthday is October 14th.
Years
1999 nineteen ninety-nine (less commonly: nineteen hundred and ninety-nine)
1608 sixteen o eight (less commonly: sixteen hundred and eight)
1700 seventeen hundred
2000 (the year) two thousand
2002 two thousand and two
2015 twenty fifteen

AD 76 / A.D. 76 AD seventy-six [Anno Domini]

76 CE / 76 C.E. seventy-six CE [Common Era]

1000 BC / 1000 B.C one thousand BC [Before Christ]

1000 BCE / 1000 B.C.E. one thousand BCE [Before the Common Era]

Age
-use only numbers whey saying a person’s age: Sue is ten and Tom is six.
-a man/woman/boy, etc. of…: a young woman of nineteen
-in writing, in descriptions or to emphasize sb’s age use …years old: She was thirty-one years old and
a barrister by profession.
-…years old is also used for things: The monument is 120 years old.
-you can also say a…year-old / month-old / week-old, etc.: Youth training is available to all sixteen–
year-olds.
-use …years of age in formal or written contexts: Not applicable to persons under eighteen years of
age.
-use the …age group to talk about people between certain ages: He took first prize in the 10 – 16 age
group.
-to give the approximate age of a person: 13–19 in his/her teens; 21–29 in his/her twenties
-to refer to a particular event, you can use at/by/before, etc. the age of…: Most smokers start smoking
cigarettes before the age of sixteen.

4
Numbers in time
-half hours: 6:30 six thirty / half past six (BrE) / half six (BrE informal)
-other times: 5:45 five forty-five / (a) quarter to six (BrE) / (a) quarter to/of six (AmE)
2:15 (a) quarter past two (BrE) / (a) quarter after two (AmE)
1:10 ten past one (BrE) / ten after one (AmE)
3:05 five past three (BrE) / five after three (AmE)
1:55 five to two (BrE) / five to/of two (AmE)
-with 5, 10, 20 and 25 the word minutes in not necessary, but it is used with other numbers:
10.25 twenty-five past/after ten
10.17 seventeen minutes past/after ten
-use o’clock only for whole hours: It’s three o’clock.
-if it is necessary to specific the time of day, use in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening or
at night
-in more formal context use a.m. (= in the morning or after midnight) and p.m. (= in the afternoon, in
the evening or before midnight): He gets up at 4 a.m. to deliver the mail.
-do not use o’clock with a.m. or p.m.: He gets up at 4 o’clock a.m. He gets up at 4 o’clock in the
morning.
-twenty-four hour clock is used for military purposes and in some other particular contexts, e.g. on
train timetables in Britain: 13:52 thirteen fifty two (1:52 p.m.); 22:30 twenty-two thirty (10:30 p.m.)
-for military purposes whole hours are said as hundred hours: 2400 twenty-four hundred hours
(midnight); 0400 (o) four hundred hours (4 a.m.)
-in BrE a period of two weeks is a fortnight: I’ve got a fortnight’s holiday in Spain.

Prepositions of time
-in (the): parts of the day (not night): in the morning(s), in the evening(s)
months: in February
seasons: in (the) summer
years: in 1995
decades: in the 1920s
centuries: in the 20th century

-at (the): clock time: at 5 o’clock, at 7.45 p.m.

night: at night
holiday periods: at Christmas; at the weekend (BrE)

-on (the): day of the week: on Saturdays

dates: on (the) 20th (of) May [AmE also on May 20th]
particular days: on Good Friday; on New Year’s Eve; on my birthday; on the
following day