From telling the time and sharing phone numbers to talking about prices, dates, and years, numbers are everywhere in daily life. Yet, many learners of English find it tricky to know the right way to say them aloud. You must know what comes next if you really want to learn English numbers. Here’s how you say them aloud in English, so everyday communication becomes easier and more natural:
1 one /wʌn/
2 two /tuː/
3 three /θriː/
4 four /fɔːr/
5 five /faɪv/
6 six /sɪks/
7 seven /ˈsev.ən; ˈsev.n/
8 eight /eɪt/
9 nine /naɪn/
10 ten /ten/
11 eleven /ɪˈlev.ən; ɪˈlev.n/
12 twelve /twelv/
13 thirteen /θɜːˈtiːn; AmE θɝːˈtiːn/
14 fourteen /ˌfɔːˈtiːn; AmE ˌfɔːrˈtiːn/
15 fifteen /ˌfɪfˈtiːn/
16 sixteen /ˌsɪkˈstiːn/
17 seventeen /ˌsev.ənˈtiːn/
18 eighteen /ˌeɪˈtiːn/
19 nineteen /ˌnaɪnˈtiːn/
20 twenty /ˈtwent.i/
30 thirty /ˈθɜːt.i; AmE ˈθɝː.t̬i/
40 forty /ˈfɔːt.i; AmE ˈfɔːr.t̬i/
50 fifty /ˈfɪft.i/
60 sixty /ˈsɪk.sti/
70 seventy /ˈsev.ən.ti, ˈsev.ənt.i, ˈsev.n.ti; AmE ˈsev.ən.t̬i/
80 eighty /ˈeɪ.ti; AmE ˈeɪ.t̬i/
90 ninety /ˈnaɪn.ti; AmE ˈnaɪn.t̬i/
100 hundred /ˈhʌn.drəd/
Numbers other than these are made by adding numbers from one to nine, for example:
21 twenty‑one /ˌtwent.iˈwʌn/
32 thirty‑two /ˌθɜːt.i ˈtuː/
43 forty‑three /ˌfɔːt.i ˈθriː/
54 fifty‑four /ˌfɪft.i ˈfɔː/
65 sixty‑five /ˌsɪkst.i ˈfaɪv/
76 seventy‑six /ˌsev.ənt.i ˈsɪks/
87 eighty‑seven /ˌeɪt.i ˈsev.ən/
98 ninety‑eight /ˌnaɪnt.i ˈeɪt/
99 ninety‑nine /ˌnaɪnt.iˈnaɪn/
While saying compound numbers, the main stress falls on the first syllable of the second part, for example, twenty-SEVen.
Here is how we say or read numbers:
100 a/one hundred
1000 a/one thousand
1,000,000 a/one million
100,000 a/one hundred thousand
1,000,000,000 a/one billion
1,000,000,000,000 a/one trillion
101 a/one hundred and one (Americans usually leave out ‘and’.)
239,745 two hundred and thirty-nine thousand, seven hundred and forty-five
4,382,719,654,321 four trillion, three hundred and eighty-two billion, seven hundred and nineteen million, six hundred and fifty-four thousand, three hundred and twenty-one