Fun fact! The symbols we call “Arabic numbers” really come from India! They were invented about 1,100 years ago. Arabic scholars started using these numbers and they brought them to Europe. Arabic numbers are easier for doing math than Roman numerals (ex: XVII) or other European number systems, so Europeans started using Arabic numbers instead. Now they are used almost everywhere in the world!
English Articles
How to form cardinal numbers in English?
By: Erin Kuester, Isabel McKay Thu Sep 12 2024
EnglishNumbers
To form cardinal numbers (counting numbers) in English, you only need to learn:
the numbers 0-19
the words for multiples of 10
a few more words (for 100, 1,000, 1,000,000, etc.)
In this post, we’ll teach you how to take these few basic facts and turn them into any number in English, from 0 to infinity!
Can you say the number 1,437,226 in English? For a fun challenge, as you read through this article, try and figure out how to say this number! We’ll check in at the end of this post and see how you did!
Table of Contents
What are cardinal numbers?
Cardinal numbers are numbers we usually use to count and to do math. Cardinal numbers can be used before a noun to indicate how many there are. This makes them different from English ordinal numbers, which are the numbers that are used to put things in order.
You can write cardinal numbers in two ways:
using the Arabic numeral form:
My history lecture class has 325 students in it.
The distance between New York City and Los Angeles is 2,777 miles.
Using the word form:
I have two brothers.
I read fifty-five books this year!
In this post, we’ll mostly focus on teaching you to use the word form of cardinal numbers, since this is how we pronounce numbers.
What are the numbers from 0-19?
The cardinal numbers from 0-9 are the base numerals in English. We use these when we form all other cardinal numbers.
0 - zero | 1 - one | 2 - two | 3 - three | 4 - four |
5 - five | 6 - six | 7 - seven | 8 - eight | 9 - nine |
These are the words and numerals for the cardinal numbers from 10-19:
10 - ten | 11 - eleven | 12 - twelve | 13 - thirteen | 14 - fourteen |
15 - fifteen | 16 - sixteen | 17 - seventeen | 18 - eighteen | 19 - nineteen |
Did you see? We use the numbers from 0-9 to create most of the words for numbers from 13-19. We just add -teen to the end of the words for the numbers 3-9 (though thirteen and fifteen have a slightly different spelling and pronunciation).
The -teen ending says you add ten to the base number. So seventeen is just 7 plus 10 (“seven-teen”), fourteen is 4 plus 10 (“four-teen”), and so on.
How to form numbers 20-100?
To make cardinal numbers larger than 20, you will need to combine the words for multiples of 10 (20, 30, 40…) with the words for the numbers from 1-9. Here are the English words for multiples of ten:
10 - ten | |||
20 - twenty | 30 - thirty | 40 - forty | 50 - fifty |
60 - sixty | 70 - seventy | 80 - eighty | 90 - ninety |
Tip
The multiples of ten from 20-90 were historically formed just by counting “how many tens.” The -ty ending for these numbers refers to ten. So twen-ty is two tens, thir-ty is three tens, for-ty is four tens, and so on.
For all others between 21-99, use this formula to make numbers:
multiple of ten
base number 1-9
twenty-nine (29)
forty-five (45)
eighty-three (83)
You do not need to add any other words:
✅ twenty-nine
❌ twenty and nine
✅ forty-five
❌ forty and five
But notice that when we write out these numbers in words, we usually add a hyphen (-) between the -ty number and the base number, as you can see in the examples above.
How to form numbers 100-999?
To make cardinal numbers larger than 100, you will need to be able to count “how many 100s” and then put that together with the number from 0-99.
how many hundreds
and
number from 0-99
seven hundred and thirteen (713)
three hundred and sixty-five (365)
six hundred and four (604)
Notice that the word for 100 in English is hundred, so here is how we count “how many 100s” in English:
100 - one hundred | |||
200 - two hundred | 300 - three hundred | 400 - four hundred | 500 - five hundred |
600 - six hundred | 700 - seven hundred | 800 - eight hundred | 900 - nine hundred |
Important
When we count hundreds, we always use the singularNo definition set for singularLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. form hundred:
✅ two hundred
❌ two hundreds
✅ three hundred
❌ three hundreds
You can use the plural word hundreds, but only if there is no number or quantity word before it (e.g. There were hundreds of people at the football game.)
Also, we use the word one before hundred for 100:
✅ one hundred
❌ hundred
You can also say a hundred for numbers 100-199 (e.g. 123 = a hundred and twenty-three). But, do not use a hundred when forming numbers over 1,000.
Now you try! Think about each of the following numbers…how would you pronounce them?
396
704
855
Check your answers!
three hundred and ninety-six
seven hundred and four
eight hundred and fifty-five
Tip
Often, when we are saying numbers casually, English speakers don’t say the and. We may even delete other words, like hundred or thousand. This is most common when we are doing math. For example:
342 + 626
✅ three hundred and forty-two plus six hundred and twenty-six
✅ three hundred forty-two plus six hundred twenty-six
✅ three forty-two plus six twenty-six
We sometimes do this in other contexts too, but only if you can still understand what number we are talking about. We’ll talk more about how to use cardinal numbers for different reasons in another post!
However, if you’re ever in doubt, the full form of the number will always be correct!
How to form cardinal numbers over 1000?
After 1000, cardinal numbers follow a simple pattern. All you need to know is a few words for special multiples of 1000, how to count them, and how to put them together.
In English, the special multiples of 100 that you need to know to form numbers over 1000 are:
thousand(1,000)
million(1,000,000)
billion(1,000,000,000)
How to count thousands, millions, and billions?
Here’s how to count “how many thousands,” “how many millions,” and “how many billions”:
1,000 = thousand
Count “how many thousands” just like you count “how many hundreds.” Like when you count hundreds, use the singular form of the word thousand:
✅ two thousand❌ two thousandsYou can count up to 999 thousands:
one thousand / (a thousand)(1,000)
nine thousand(9,000)
eleven thousand(11,000)
nine hundred and seventy-two thousand(972,000)
1,000,000 = million
We also count “how many millions” just like counting hundreds and thousands. We always use the singular form of the word million:
✅ four million❌ four millionsYou can count up to 999 millions:
one million / (a million)(1,000,000)
ten million(10,000,000)
one hundred and seventy-five million(175,000,000)
nine hundred and seventy-two thousand(972,000)
1,000,000 = million
We count “how many billions” just like counting hundreds, thousands, and millions. We can count up to nine hundred and ninety-nine(999) billion, and we always use the singular form of the word.
Important
You do not need to use the word and to count hundreds of thousands, hundreds of millions, or hundreds of billions.
152,000
✅ one hundred and fifty-two thousand…
✅ one hundred fifty-two thousand…
320,000,000
✅ three hundred and twenty million…
✅ three hundred twenty million…
762,000,000,000
✅ seven hundred and sixty-two billion…
✅ seven hundred sixty-two billion…
But you can always use the word and if you want to be very clear!
How to put together large cardinal numbers in English?
Use this formula to put together a large number in English:
how many billions
how many millions
how many thousands
how many hundreds
and
number from 0-99
three billion, four hundred and fifty-two million, forty-three thousand, one hundred and sixty-six
3,452,043,166
Just like with numbers between 100-999, we read these numbers in chunks. When we write large numbers in Arabic numerals, the chunks are divided by commas and we read the chunk by the biggest number word in that part of the number.
Tip
In American English, we use commas to split larger numbers into chunks (1,347,129), but in many other countries it’s common to use periods to do this.
Important
If there are 0 hundreds / thousands / millions…, skip that part of the number; do not say ❌ zero hundred / thousand / million.
12,000,152 → twelve million, one hundred and fifty two
We also never say ❌ and zero at the end of a number.
1,200 → one thousand, two hundred
Let’s look at some examples of how to read large cardinal numbers in English out loud. We’ll start with a number “in the thousands.”
Example 1: How to read a number in the thousands
Let’s look at this number:
5,426
We start with how many thousands. This is the number to the left of the comma. We read five. Since this number is counting “how many thousands,” we say five thousand.
Next, we are left with only numbers after the comma. We read this number just like we read other numbers between 100-999. We count “how many hundreds”: four hundred. And then we finish by saying and followed by the number from 0-99 that is left: twenty-six.
So altogether, we say this number as five thousand, four hundred and twenty-six.
Example 2: How to read a number in the hundred-thousands
If we look at a bigger number, we follow the same pattern. Let’s look at this number:
384,065
We start with “how many thousands.” This is the number before the comma: 384. To read this number, we count how many hundreds there are: three hundred and eighty-four. Because we’re counting thousands, we say three hundred and eighty-four thousand.
To read the final chunk, 065 we would usually start with “how many hundreds,” but there are 0 hundreds, so we skip the 100s and read the number from 1-99: sixty-five.
So altogether we say this number as three hundred eighty-four thousand and sixty-five.
Example 3: How to read numbers in the millions
Okay, let’s take a look at one more number using the millions!
320,543,621
We start with “how many millions.” This is the number to the left of the comma: 320 = three hundred and twenty. Since we are using this number to count “how many millions,” we say three hundred and twenty million.
Then we read the next chunk: 543. We read this as five hundred and forty-three. Because we are counting “how many thousands,” we say five hundred and forty-three thousand.
The final chunk is: 621. We read this as six hundred and twenty-one.
So we say this whole number as: three hundred and twenty million, five hundred and forty-three thousand, six hundred and twenty-one.
Now that you know how to read cardinal numbers in chunks, you can use this method to read any combination of cardinal numbers in English!
Summary
In this post, we discussed that cardinal numbers are used for counting, along with how to form them. We looked at:
the words and symbols for numbers from 0-19
the words for multiples of ten
how to form numbers 20-100:
multiple of ten
a number 1-9
how to count 100s, 1000s, millions, and billions
how to form numbers over 100:
how many billions
how many millions
how many thousands
how many hundreds
andnumber from 0-99
Did you figure out how to say 1,437,226 as you read this article? The answer is:
one million, four hundred (and) thirty-seven thousand, two hundred and twenty-six!
Is that the answer you came up with?
Important
In this article, we taught you how to form the “full forms” of cardinal numbers that we use for counting and doing math. But sometimes we change the way we say numbers in English when we use them as labels or when we speak very quickly. To learn more about how to use and say numbers in English sentences, have a look at our article on that topic!
If you want some more practice with forming cardinal numbers, check out these cardinal numbers activities! Or if you want an excellent review sheet, check out our printable English cardinal numbers cheat sheet!
