Editing English numerals (section)

==Cardinal numbers==
<!-- Template:Number as word links here --><!-- [[Cardinal number]] (linguistics) redirects here -->
[[Cardinal number]]s refer to the size of a group. In English, these words are numerals.

{|class="wikitable"
|-
|0||[[0 (number)|zero (nought)]]||10||[[10 (number)|ten]]||&nbsp;||&nbsp;
|-
|1||[[1 (number)|one]]||11||[[11 (number)|eleven]]||&nbsp;||&nbsp;
|-
|2||[[2 (number)|two]]||12|| [[12 (number)|twelve]] (a [[dozen]])||20||[[20 (number)|twenty]]
|-
|3||[[3 (number)|three]]||13||[[13 (number)|thirteen]] ([[Dozen#Baker's dozen|a baker's dozen]])||30||[[30 (number)|thirty]] 
|-
|4||[[4 (number)|four]]||14||[[14 (number)|fourteen]]||40||[[40 (number)|forty]]
|-
|5||[[5 (number)|five]]||15||[[15 (number)|fifteen]] ||50||[[50 (number)|fifty]]
|-
|6||[[6 (number)|six]]||16||[[16 (number)|sixteen]]||60||[[60 (number)|sixty]]
|-
|7||[[7 (number)|seven]]||17||[[17 (number)|seventeen]]||70||[[70 (number)|seventy]]
|-
|8||[[8 (number)|eight]]||18||[[18 (number)|eighteen]] ||80||[[80 (number)|eighty]] 
|-
|9||[[9 (number)|nine]]||19||[[19 (number)|nineteen]]||90||[[90 (number)|ninety]]
|}

If a number is in the range 21 to 99, and the second digit is not zero, the number is typically written as two words separated by a [[hyphen]].
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|21||[[21 (number)|twenty-one]]
|-
|25||[[25 (number)|twenty-five]]
|-
|32||[[32 (number)|thirty-two]]
|-
|58||[[58 (number)|fifty-eight]]
|-
|64||[[64 (number)|sixty-four]]
|-
|79||[[79 (number)|seventy-nine]]
|-
|83||[[83 (number)|eighty-three]]
|-
|99||[[99 (number)|ninety-nine]]
|}

In English, the [[hundred (number)|hundred]]s are perfectly regular, except that the word ''hundred'' remains in its singular form regardless of the number preceding it.
{|class="wikitable"
|-
|100||[[100 (number)|one hundred]] 
|-
|200||[[200 (number)|two hundred]]
|-
|...||...
|-
|900||[[900 (number)|nine hundred]]
|}

So too are the thousands, with the number of thousands followed by the word "thousand". The number one thousand may be written 1&nbsp;000 or 1000 or 1,000; larger numbers are written for example 10&nbsp;000 or 10,000 for ease of reading. European languages that use the comma as a [[Decimal_separator#Current_standards|decimal separator]] may correspondingly use the period as a thousands separator. As a result, some style guides{{Example needed |date=August 2020}} recommend avoidance of the [[comma]] (,) as either separator and the use of the [[full stop|period]] (.) only as a decimal point. Thus one-half would be written 0.5 in decimal, base ten notation, and fifty thousand as 50&nbsp;000, and not 50.000 nor 50,000 nor 50000.

{|class="wikitable"
|1,000||[[1000 (number)|one thousand]]
|-
|2,000||[[2000 (number)|two thousand]]
|-
|...||...
|-
|10,000||[[10000 (number)|ten thousand]] or (rarely used) a [[myriad]], which usually means an indefinitely large number.
|-
|11,000||eleven thousand
|-
|...||...
|-
|20,000||twenty thousand
|-
|21,000||twenty-one thousand
|-
|30,000||thirty thousand
|-
|85,000||eighty-five thousand
|-
|100,000||[[100000 (number)|one hundred thousand]] or [[lakh|one lakh]] (1,00,000) ''(Indian English)''
|-
|999,000||nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand ''(inclusively British English, Irish English, Australian English, and New Zealand English)''<br />nine hundred ninety-nine thousand ''(American English)''
|-
|
|
|-
|1,000,000||[[million|one million]]
|-
|10,000,000||ten million or [[crore|one crore]] (1,00,00,000) ''(Indian English)''
|}

In American usage, four-digit numbers are often named using multiples of "hundred" and combined with tens and ones: "eleven hundred three", "twelve hundred twenty-five", "forty-seven hundred forty-two", or "ninety-nine hundred ninety-nine". In British usage, this style is common for multiples of 100 between 1,000 and 2,000 (e.g. 1,500 as "fifteen hundred") but not for higher numbers.

Americans may pronounce four-digit numbers with non-zero tens and ones as pairs of two-digit numbers without saying "hundred" and inserting "oh" for zero tens: "twenty-six fifty-nine" or "forty-one oh five". This usage probably evolved from the distinctive usage for years; "nineteen-eighty-one", or from four-digit numbers used in the American telephone numbering system which were originally two letters followed by a number followed by a four-digit number, later by a three-digit number followed by the four-digit number. It is avoided for numbers less than 2500 if the context may mean confusion with time of day: "ten ten" or "twelve oh four".

Intermediate numbers are read differently depending on their use. Their typical naming occurs when the numbers are used for counting. Another way is for when they are used as labels. The second column method is used much more often in [[American English]] than [[British English]]. The third column is used in British English but rarely in American English (although the use of the second and third columns is not necessarily directly interchangeable between the two regional variants). In other words, British English and American English can seemingly agree, but it depends on a specific situation (in this example, bus numbers).{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}}

{|class="wikitable"
! !!Common British vernacular!!Common American vernacular!!Common British vernacular
|-
! !!"How many marbles do you have?"!!"What is your house number?"!!"Which bus goes to the High Street?"
|-
|101||"A hundred and one."||"One-oh-one."<br/>''Here, "oh" is used for the digit zero.''||"One-oh-one."
|-
|109||"A hundred and nine."||"One-oh-nine."||"One-oh-nine."
|-
|110||"A hundred and ten."||"One-ten."||"One-one-oh."
|-
|117||"A hundred and seventeen."||"One-seventeen."||"One-one-seven."
|-
|120||"A hundred and twenty."||"One-twenty."||"One-two-oh", "One-two-zero."
|-
|152||"A hundred and fifty-two."||"One-fifty-two."||"One-five-two."
|-
|208||"Two hundred and eight."||"Two-oh-eight."||"Two-oh-eight."
|-
|394||"Three hundred and ninety-four."||"Three-ninety-four."||"Three-ninety-four." or "Three-nine-four."
|}
'''Note''': When a [[cheque]] (or ''check'') is written, the number 100 is always written "one hundred". It is never "a hundred".

In [[American English]], many students are taught{{Example needed |date=August 2020}}{{Citation needed|reason=which state curriculum or book or any record of this being so rather than a change in the language use|date=August 2020}} not to use the word ''and'' anywhere in the whole part of a number, so it is not used before the tens and ones. It is instead used as a verbal delimiter when dealing with [[#Fractions and decimals|compound numbers]]. Thus, instead of "three hundred and seventy-three", "three hundred seventy-three" would be said. Despite this rule, some Americans use the ''and'' in reading numbers containing tens and ones as an alternative.

===Very large numbers===
For numbers above a million, there are three main systems used to form numbers in English. (For the use of prefixes such as kilo- for a thousand, mega- for a million, milli- for a thousandth, etc. see [[SI units]].) These are:
*the [[long and short scales|long scale]] – designates a system of numeric names formerly used in British English, but now obsolete, in which a ''billion'' is used for a million million (and similarly, with trillion, quadrillion etc., the prefix denoting the power of a million); and a thousand million is sometimes called a ''milliard''. This system is still used in several other European languages. There is some favour for this scale in astronomy, due to the issue of the vastness of the Universe.
*the [[long and short scales|short scale]] – always used in American English and almost always in British English since the politically-ordained{{fact|date=October 2024}} formal adoption of this scale in the 1970s – designates a system of numeric names in which a thousand million is called a ''billion'', and the word ''milliard'' is not used.
*the [[Indian numbering system]], used widely across [[Indian subcontinent]].

Many people have no direct experience of manipulating numbers this large, and many non-American readers may interpret ''billion'' as 10<sup>12</sup> (even if they are young enough to have been taught otherwise at school); moreover, usage of the "long" billion is standard in some non-English-speaking countries. For these reasons, defining the word may be advisable when writing for the public.

{|class="wikitable"
!Number notation
!Power<br />notation
!Short scale
!Long scale
!Indian<br />(or South Asian) English
|-
|1,000,000||10<sup>6</sup>
|one [[million]]
|one million
|ten lakh
|-
|1,000,000,000||10<sup>9</sup>
|one [[1,000,000,000 (number)|billion]]<br />''a thousand million''
|one [[milliard]]<br />''a thousand million''
|one hundred crore<br />(one ''[[South Asian numbering system|arab]]'')
|-
|1,000,000,000,000||10<sup>12</sup>
|one [[Orders of magnitude (numbers)#1012|trillion]]<br />''a thousand billion''
|one [[1,000,000,000,000 (number)|billion]]<br />''a million million''
|one lakh crore<br />(ten ''[[South Asian numbering system|kharab]]'')
|-
|1,000,000,000,000,000||10<sup>15</sup>
|one [[1,000,000,000,000,000|quadrillion]]<br />''a thousand trillion''
|one [[Billiard (number)|billiard]]<br />''a thousand billion''
|ten crore crore<br />(one ''[[South Asian numbering system|padm]]'')
|-
|1,000,000,000,000,000,000||10<sup>18</sup>
|one [[quintillion]]<br />''a thousand quadrillion''
|one [[Orders of magnitude (numbers)#1018|trillion]]<br />''a million billion''
|ten thousand crore crore<br />(ten ''[[South Asian numbering system|shankh]]'')
|-
|1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000||10<sup>21</sup>
|one [[sextillion]]<br />''a thousand quintillion''
|one [[trilliard]]<br />''a thousand trillion''
|one crore crore crore
|}

The numbers past one trillion in the short scale, in ascending powers of 1000, are as follows: quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, nonillion, decillion, undecillion, duodecillion, tredecillion, quattuordecillion, quindecillion, sexdecillion, septendecillion, octodecillion, novemdecillion and vigintillion (which is 10 to the 63rd power, or a one followed by 63 zeros). The highest number in this series listed in modern dictionaries is centillion, which is 10 to the 303rd power.<ref>''[[Webster's Third New International Dictionary]], Unabridged'', 1993, Merriam-Webster</ref>  The interim powers of one thousand between vigintillion and centillion do not have standardized names, nor do any higher powers, but there are many {{Lang|la|ad hoc}} extensions in use. The highest number listed in Robert Munafo's table of such unofficial names<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mrob.com/pub/math/largenum.html|title=Large Numbers at MROB}}</ref> is milli-millillion, which was coined as a name for 10 to the 3,000,003rd power.

The [[googolplex]] was often cited as the largest named number in English. If a [[googol]] is ten to the one hundredth power, then a googolplex is one followed by a googol of zeros (that is, ten to the power of a googol).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ask.yahoo.com/20051018.html|title=Home - Yahoo Answers}}</ref> There is the coinage, of very little use, of ten to the googolplex power, of the word [[wikt:googolplexplex|googolplexplex]].

The terms ''arab'', ''kharab'', ''padm'' and ''shankh'' are more commonly found in old books on Indian mathematics.

Here are some approximate composite large numbers in American English:
{|class="wikitable"
|-
!Quantity
!Written
!Pronounced
|-
|1,200,000||1.2 [[million]]||one point two million
|-
|3,000,000||3 million||three million
|-
|250,000,000||250 million||two hundred fifty million
|-
|6,400,000,000||6.4 billion||six point four billion
|-
|23,380,000,000||23.38 billion||twenty-three point three eight billion
|}

Often, large numbers are written with (preferably [[non-breaking]]) [[half-space (punctuation)|half-space]]s or thin spaces separating the thousands (and, sometimes, with normal [[space]]s or [[apostrophe (mark)|apostrophe]]s) instead of [[comma (punctuation)|comma]]s&mdash;to ensure that confusion is not caused in countries where a [[decimal comma]] is used. Thus, a million is often written 1&nbsp;000&nbsp;000. In some areas, a [[point (typography)|point]] (. or ·) may also be used as a [[thousands separator]], but then the [[decimal separator]] must be a comma (,). In English the point (.) is used as the decimal separator, and the comma (,) as the thousands separator.