Today I am going to teach you such an important skill.

I'm going to teach you how to read numbers in English.

So many of my students avoid reading big numbers because they're daunting, they're scary.

I promise you after today's lesson you will feel so much more confident.

I've also created a free PDF study guide to go with this video.

You can download this for free.

Inside you'll find all of the information about how to read numbers with extra examples and further practice activities.

I've also included lots of mathematical facts and figures and there are even some number-based idioms in there.

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Okay, we're going to start at the very beginning but it is going to get more complicated.

How do we say this number?

Okay, this is actually a good question because there are various ways we can say this number.

We can use the word zero or we can say not.

Now, when we say numbers one at a time like when you need to give your phone number or bank account number, we normally say O as in the letter O.

For example, my bank account number is 01765.

Just kidding.

Okay, let's practise with a couple of my ex's phone numbers.

I'm just kidding, they're fake.

And remember in English, we tend to read each number separately but we chunk them into groups of two or three.

So for this one, 7048695.

If the same number appears twice, we usually say double.

For example, double three six, two double four.

Now notice how my intonation goes up as I say the first three numbers or digits and then falls as I read the last three.

This signals to the listener that the number has finished.

Double three six, two double four.

Okay, let's move on to temperature.

When we're talking about temperature, we use zero not not.

For example, the temperatures are unlikely to rise above zero all week.

And football results, very important.

How would you say this final score?

Well, in British English, we usually say nil.

So Liverpool beat Man United one nil or they beat Man United by one goal to nil.

Americans are more likely to say one zero or one nothing.

Okay, let's move on to some frequently confused numbers.

How would you pronounce these pairs of numbers?

Well, the higher numbers on the right are always stressed on the first syllable. 30, 40, 50, 60.

The lower numbers on the left are usually stressed on teen. 13, 14, 15, 16.

This is the same for all the teen numbers, 13 to 19.

Now I say we usually stress the last syllable because the stress can move or shift if we place a stressed noun after the number.

Listen and see if you can hear the difference.

She's 17.

She's got 17 exams.

In the second sentence, the main stress moves to exams and seven and teen have more equal stress.

Now this stress shift can leave even proficient English speakers confused.

When there's a doubt, read out each number to clarify.

Did you say 70?

No, 17 won seven.

Okay, it's time to move on to some bigger numbers.

Take a look at these and consider how you would read them as words.

Please do pause the video if you want some thinking time, okay?

The first is a hundred, a hundred.

We can say 100, but we often just say a, a hundred.

Now be careful, we don't usually add an S in the plural.

So we just say 100, 200, 300, and so on.

You will hear it pluralised in the phrase hundreds and hundreds or hundreds and thousands.

And we can also add S if we don't say a number or quantity before it.

For example, hundreds of thousands visit the cathedral every year or I received hundreds of emails while I was on holiday.

Okay, the next number is a thousand, a thousand.

And the same rules apply here.

Question, have you ever seen this written?

So K is often used as an abbreviation for thousand.

An example, the goal is to raise 3K for charity in under 20 days.

Now, did you notice that I said 20, not 20?

It's very common to elide the T sound, especially when speaking fast.

Okay, next we have 10,000 and 100,000.

Now remember, we don't say 10 thousands or 100 thousands.

A million, a billion.

Notice the Y sound in those two numbers, million, billion.

Now let's talk about when we need to add the word and when reading numbers.

We always need to say and between 100,000 and million and numbers below 100.

That's one to 99.

Listen carefully, because this is gonna be really helpful for you.

This number, 111.

This, 1,012.

This one, which honestly scares me as well, 1,984,099.

We don't need to add and when the number ends in double zero.

For example, this one, 1,100, not 1,000 and 100, 1,100.

Or this one, 17,300.

Note that in American English and other dialects, it's also common to count in hundreds rather than thousands.

So in British English, we would say 2,500.

In American English, sometimes they would say 2,500.

Whichever you choose to use, you'll be understood either way.

I just think it's important you're aware.

Right, let's put all of this knowledge to the test and take a look at some big numbers.

And don't worry, we'll build up gradually.

Now just to add a little more fun, all of these numbers have a special significance.

Maybe you can figure out what it is.

And if not, you'll have to download the PDF to find out.

Here we go.

How do we say this number?

I'll divide it to help.

It should be 1,331.

Notice how I pause slightly after the word thousand.

We don't usually say and, just use an or even n.

Okay, let's try another.

How do we say this big number?

This time we have 10,989.

Okay, let's make these numbers even bigger.

What about this one?

How many thousands do we have?

111, so that's 111,000.

Moving up to millions now.

How do you say this number?

Let's divide the number up.

We have 3,628,800.

Remember, we don't need to add and here as the number ends in double zero.

Okay, this one is a really big one.

Take a deep breath and have a think.

We have 1,503,047,000.

Okay, great work.

Don't worry, I have left plenty more examples in the PDF.

This does take some practise for you to feel natural.

And don't forget to check out the special significance of all of these numbers.

Okay, let's move on to ordinal numbers.

So cardinal numbers tell us about quantity, but ordinal numbers tell us about order or the position or place of something.

For example, he finished second in the race.

We can also use them to say the date.

My birthday's on the 10th of June.

Let's take a look at how we form ordinal numbers.

We'll begin with the cardinal numbers here.

Most ordinal numbers end in the letters TH pronounced with the f sound.

Can you think of which?

Pause the video now if you want to have some time to think.

Okay, here we are.

And we just add H to eight.

And don't forget to remove the E from nine before adding TH.

Now the ordinal numbers for five and 12 are similar, but we need to change the voiced V sound, the V, to the unvoiced F sound, the F, and then add the TH sound.

This makes the words easier to pronounce.

So five becomes fifth and 12 becomes twelfth.

Now that's still very hard to pronounce in my opinion.

Lots of English speakers, and I am one of these speakers, cut it down to fifth and twelfth.

In spoken English, we remove the th, fifth, twelfth.

Go ahead and do that if it's easier for you.

In fast speech, fifth and twelfth is what a lot of people say.

Notice the vowel change with five to fifth.

The diphthong I in five becomes the short vowel I in fifth.

Five, fifth, or fifth.

Okay, we keep this pattern for the higher ordinal numbers too. 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and so on.

The only irregular ones left in our table are one, two, and three, which become first, second, and third.

And if you need to write them as numbers rather than words, just add the last two letters of the word after the number, like this.

Okay, have you got that?

Let's see if you can read these dates then.

These dates mark important days in history.

Download the PDF to find out why.

Okay, this one here.

In British English, the first number or numbers refer to the day.

Then we have the month.

So in British English, that is the 6th of February.

In America and some other countries, this order is switched.

So the 6th of February would be written like this.

I must say, I find it so confusing.

I wish we could agree.

Because once I had a catastrophe when booking an American airline ticket, I put in my birth date as this.

In America, this is the 6th of October, 1994.

But my birthday is the 10th of June, 1994.

Just be mindful of that.

Okay, reading the year is easy.

We just divide the numbers down the middle. 19, 18, the 6th of February, 1918.

What about this one?

Well, the fourth month is April.

So we have the 15th of April, 1912.

Notice how there's a slight pause before I say the year.

What about this one?

Here we have the 20th, 20th.

Although we often don't pronounce the second T sound, we might say 20th.

The 20th of July, 1969.

Let's try one more here.

The 11th month is November.

So we read this date as the 4th of November, 2008.

This is where it gets a bit confusing.

For the years 2001 to 2009, we don't divide.

We don't say 2001 or 2002.

Instead, we just read the full number, 2001, 2002.

Once you get to this year, you can do either 2010 or just 2010.

Okay, let's take a look at fractions next.

Here is a pie, maybe it's a cake, or actually I'm going to say it's a pizza.

Here is a pizza.

It's a whole pizza.

If we divide it in two, we get two halves.

I'll have half a pizza, please.

Be careful with the silent L in half, half.

We don't say half, half.

If we divide the pizza into three, then we get thirds, thirds.

Notice how we use the ordinal number here, a third of a pizza.

And we also need to add the word of, or of in the weak form before a noun.

We need to do this with all fractions except half, where of is optional.

As I said, this is usually pronounced in the weak form of, a third of a pizza.

Now maybe you're really hungry and you want two thirds of the pizza.

That would be written like this, two over three.

Not so hungry?

Let's just have a quarter of a pizza, a quarter.

We can also use the ordinal number to describe this fraction.

I ate a quarter of a pizza.

I ate a fourth of the pizza, but we usually use the word quarter.

Here are some more fractions.

How would you say these?

Give you five seconds.

Pause if you need more time, but we have two fifths.

Yes, technically it should be two fifths, but two fifths is so much easier to say.

We have five sixths.

Now that's so hard to say.

I prefer to go for five sixths, sixths.

We have four sevenths and nine tenths.

Okay, what about these?

Easy, we just have to add and after the first number.

Nine and three quarters, four and seven eighths.

Okay, what about this fraction though?

Do we really have to say 243,728?

No, thankfully we can just say over, 243 over 728.

I also have more good news.

Decimals like this are even easier to read.

We simply name each digit individually. 3.141, 1.618.

You can use naught or zero for decimals less than one.