Cardinal and Ordinal Numbers

Source of this blog:

https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-grammar/numbers-english/

Numbers in English

The cardinal numbers (one, two, three, etc.) are adjectives referring to quantity, and the ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.) refer to distribution.

Number	Cardinal	Ordinal
1	one	first
2	two	second
3	three	third
4	four	fourth
5	five	fifth
6	six	sixth
7	seven	seventh
8	eight	eighth
9	nine	ninth
10	ten	tenth

Examples:

• There are twenty-five people in the room.
• He was the fourteenth person to win the award.
• Six hundred thousand people were left homeless after the earthquake.
• I must have asked you twenty times to be quiet.
• He went to Israel for the third time this year.

Anwer the following questions in your notebook.

1. How many members does your family have?
2. How many siblings do you have?
3. How old are you?
4. How old is your older brother or sister?
5. How many classmates do you have?

Watch the following video to learn about the right pronunciation of Cardinal numbers from 1 to 100.

Pronouncing percentages

Percentages are easy to read aloud in English. Just say the number and then add the word "percent".

Written	Pronounced
5%	five percent
25%	twenty-five percent
36.25%	thirty-six point two five percent
100%	one hundred percent
400%	four hundred percent

Reading sums of money

To read a sum of money, first read the whole number, then add the currency name. If there is a decimal, follow with the decimal pronounced as a whole number, and if coinage has a name in the currency, add that word at the end. Note that normal decimals are not read in this way. These rules only apply to currency.

Written	Spoken
25$	twenty-five dollars
52€	fifty-two euros
140₤	one hundred and forty pounds
$43.25	forty-three dollars and twenty-five cents (shortened to "forty-three twenty-five" in everyday speech)
€12.66	twelve euros sixty-six
₤10.50	ten pounds fifty

Pronouncing measurements

Just read out the number, followed by the unit of measurement, which will often be abbreviated in the written form.

Written	Spoken
60m	sixty meters
25km/h	twenty-five kilometers per hour
11ft	eleven feet
2L	two liters
3tbsp	three tablespoons
1tsp	one teaspoon

Pronouncing years

Reading years in English is relatively complicated. In general, when the year is a four digit number, read the first two digits as a whole number, then the second two digits as another whole number. There are a few exceptions to this rule. Years that are within the first 100 years of a new millenium can be read as whole numbers even though they have four digits, or they can be read as two two-digit numbers. Millennia are always read as whole numbers because they would be difficult to pronounce otherwise. New centuries are read as whole numbers of hundreds. We do not use the word "thousand", at least not for reading years within the past 1000 years.

Years that have just three digits can be read as a three digit number, or as a one digit number followed by a two-digit number. Years that are a two digit number are read as a whole number. You can precede any year by the words "the year" to make your meaning clear, and this is common for two and three digit years. Years before the year 0 are followed by BC, pronounced as two letters of the alphabet.

Interestingly, these rules apply to reading street addresses as well.

Written	Spoken
2014	twenty fourteen or two thousand fourteen
2008	two thousand eight
2000	two thousand
1944	nineteen forty-four
1908	nineteen o eight
1900	nineteen hundred
1600	sixteen hundred
1256	twelve fifty-six
1006	ten o six
866	eight hundred sixty-six or eight sixty-six
25	twenty-five
3000 BC	three thousand BC
3250 BC	thirty two fifty BC

How to say 0

There are several ways to pronounce the number 0, used in different contexts. Unfortunately, usage varies between different English-speaking countries. These pronunciations apply to American English.

Pronunciation	Usage
zero	Used to read the number by itself, in reading decimals, percentages, and phone numbers, and in some fixed expressions.
o (the letter name)	Used to read years, addresses, times and temperatures

PRACTICE:

Watch the following video and try to guess as many numbers as possible. Practice your pronunciation by telling the numbers aloud while you are guessing them.