Counting is one of the first things you need in a new language, for prices, times, dates, phone numbers and ages.
The good news is that numbers in English follow clear, regular patterns, so once you know the building blocks up to twenty and the names of the tens, you can say any number up to a hundred. This guide gives you the full list, the rules for putting numbers together, and the small spelling traps to watch for.
The first twenty are the building blocks, and most have their own name, so they are worth learning by heart.
| Number | Word | Number | Word |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | one | 11 | eleven |
| 2 | two | 12 | twelve |
| 3 | three | 13 | thirteen |
| 4 | four | 14 | fourteen |
| 5 | five | 15 | fifteen |
| 6 | six | 16 | sixteen |
| 7 | seven | 17 | seventeen |
| 8 | eight | 18 | eighteen |
| 9 | nine | 19 | nineteen |
| 10 | ten | 20 | twenty |
After twenty, the tens are all regular, ending in -ty. Watch the spelling of forty (no "u", unlike four) and the shortened fifty and eighty.
| Number | Word |
|---|---|
| 10 | ten |
| 20 | twenty |
| 30 | thirty |
| 40 | forty |
| 50 | fifty |
| 60 | sixty |
| 70 | seventy |
| 80 | eighty |
| 90 | ninety |
| 100 | one hundred |
For any number from 21 to 99, you say the ten, then the unit, joined with a hyphen: twenty-one, thirty-four, sixty-seven, ninety-nine. That single rule covers everything between the tens. For hundreds, British English adds "and" before the last part: one hundred and one, two hundred and fifty, three hundred and sixty-five. (American English usually drops the "and": two hundred fifty.)
Two pairs cause most of the trouble. First, the -teen and -ty endings: thirteen is 13, but thirty is 30, and the difference is easy to mishear, so the stress helps, thir-TEEN puts the stress at the end, while THIR-ty stresses the front. The same goes for fourteen and forty, fifteen and fifty, and so on. Second, the spelling: it is forty, not "fourty"; fifty, not "fivety"; and the teens keep their base (sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen).
To put things in order you use ordinal numbers. The first three are irregular, first (1st), second (2nd) and third (3rd), and from there you mostly add -th: fourth, fifth, sixth, and so on, up to twentieth, then twenty-first, twenty-second and so on. These are what you use for dates and rankings, as in the fifth of May or her twenty-first birthday.
Fractions reuse the ordinals: one half (1/2), one third (1/3), one quarter or one fourth (1/4), and then three fifths (3/5), two thirds (2/3) and the like. Zero has several names depending on context: zero in general and in maths, "oh" when reading out phone numbers, nil in football scores, and love in tennis.
Numbers in English are built from the names up to twenty and the tens (twenty, thirty, forty and so on, all ending in -ty). Join a ten and a unit with a hyphen (forty five), and in British English add "and" for hundreds (one hundred and one). Watch the -teen and -ty pairs like thirteen and thirty, and the spelling of forty and fifty. Learn these patterns and you can count to a hundred with confidence, ready to practise on an English course abroad with SPRACHCAFFE.
English numbers follow a regular pattern. You learn one to twenty, then the tens (twenty, thirty, forty), and combine a ten with a unit for the numbers in between, such as "forty-two". Only the teens and a few spellings need special attention.
The teens cause the most trouble, especially the pairs that sound alike, such as thirteen and thirty or fifteen and fifty. The difference is the stress and the ending, -teen against -ty, so saying them aloud helps.
"Thirteen" (13) ends in teen and stresses the second syllable, while "thirty" (30) ends in -ty and stresses the first. The same contrast runs through all the pairs from fourteen and forty to nineteen and ninety.
Ordinal numbers show order or position: first, second, third, then fourth, fifth and so on, mostly by adding -th. They are used for dates, rankings and floors, as in "the third of May" or "the fifth floor".
English has several forms. "Zero" is standard, "nought" is common in British English, "oh" is used in phone numbers and years, and "nil" or "love" appear in sports scores. The right choice depends on the context.
