As a business writer, you will often have to write out numbers out as words. One of the most common tasks for everyone is having to write amounts on cheques in both numbers and words. But how many of you can write out a number, particularly a long number, accurately. The aim of this topic is to revise writing numbers as words accurately.
We've divided numbers into the following groups:
- Cardinal Numbers
- Ordinal Numbers
- Decimal Numbers
- Fractions and Percentages
- Weights, Measures and Currencies
Cardinal Numbers
| 0 | "oh", nought, zero |
| 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 |
| 30 | thirty |
| 31 | thirty-one |
| 32 | thirty-two |
| 100 | one hundred |
| 101 | one hundred and one |
| 102 | one hundred and two |
| 999 | nine hundred and ninety-nine |
| 1,000 | one thousand |
| 1,199 | one thousand one hundred and ninety-nine |
| 1,000,000 | one million |
| 5,000,000 | five million |
| 1000,000,000 | a billion |
| 1000,000,000,000 | a trillion |
Ordinal numbers
| 1st | first |
| 2nd | second |
| 3rd | third |
| 4th | fourth |
| 5ft | fifth, etc |
| 17e etc | seventeenth |
| 20th, 30th etc | twentieth, thirtieth etc |
| 21st, 31st etc | twenty-first, thirty-first etc |
| 22nd, 32nd etc | twenty-second, thirty-second etc |
| 100th | hundredth |
| 101st | hundred and first |
| 1,000th | thousandth |
| 1,000,000th | millionth |
Decimal numbers
| 10.5 ten point five | 10.58 ten point five eight |
| 0.5 | nought point five |
| 0.05 | nought point nought five |
| 1.05 | one point zero five |
Fractions and percentages
| 1/2 | a half |
| 1/3 | a third |
| 2/3 | two thirds |
| 1/4 | a quarter |
| 3/4 | three quarters |
| 160/400 | one hundred and sixty over four hundred |
| 1/5 | a fifth |
| 1/10 | a tenth |
| 1/100 | a hundredth |
| 1/1000 etc | a thousandth etc |
| 5% | five percent |
| 5.4% | five point four percent |
Weights, measures and currencies
| 1 cm | one centimetre |
| 1.5 l | one and a half litres (or one point five litres) |
| 1.7 l | one point seven litres |
| 1.25 m | one meter twenty-five (or one and a quarter metres) |
| 1.3 km | one point three kilometres |
| 1.2 kg | one point two kilos |
| 1.5 T | one and a half tons (or one point five tons) |
| $500 | five hundred dollars |
| $6.80 | six dollars eighty |
| $14.25 | (on a cheque) fourteen dollars and twenty-five cents |