Name: How to read ALL NUMBERS in English - BIG NUMBERS, Decimals, Dates, Fractions, Phones, Ordinals
Uploaded: 2024-09-03T12:10:48.000Z
Duration: 20 min 27 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hello lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy.

Present continuous

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

Future simple

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.

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.

If you'd like to download this PDF numbers study guide all you have to do is click on the link in the description box and enter your name, your email address and select your estimated level of English.

Then you sign up for my mailing list and the PDF study guide will arrive directly in your inbox.

And after that, you've joined the PDF club.

You will automatically receive my free weekly PDFs alongside my news, course updates and offers.

It's a free service and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Notice how I pause slightly after the word thousand.

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

Subtitles ListPlay Video

How to read ALL NUMBERS in English - BIG NUMBERS, Decimals, Dates, Fractions, Phones, Ordinals

pattern

common

confident

stress