WHOLE NUMBERS

WHOLE NUMBERS

This group includes the numbers from 1 to 12 which get no suffixes:

1 one; 2 two; 3 three; 4 four;

5 five; 6 six;7 seven;8 eight;

9 nine; 10 ten;11 eleven; 12 twelve

The teen numerals get the suffix to part of the above mentioned roots but bring about some phonetic and spelling peculiarities:

thirteen; fifteen; eighteen

besides these, all of the teen numerals have double stresses: one is placed on the first syllable (a main stress) and the other on the /t/ of the suffix (a secondary stress).

The tens, from twenty to ninety, have less modifications from the phonetic and spelling point of view:

20 twenty; 30 thirty; 40 forty;

50 fifty;  60 sixty; 70 seventy;

80 eighty; 90 ninety

The 0 sign is read indifferent ways, part of them are presented here:

nought no:t/ in Arithmetic

zero measuring instruments use it

/ou/ telephone numbers

love, duck, nil in sports language

Nought by ten is nought.

The temperature is below zero degrees.

My phone number is two five /ou/ five ten six.

The numbers between 1000 and 2000 may be read in two different ways:

1984 nineteen eighty four

one thousand nine hundred eighty four

Commas are placed after each group of three numbers: 123,452,122; it corresponds to the Romanian variant 123.452.122

The numbers ten, hundred, million get no s when they are part of a composite number:

two thousand four hundred twenty four people

but the s suffix is added when these are transformed into nouns:

Tens and tens of persons attended the conference.

Millions of flowers are in the fields.

Cardinal numbers form the common fractions having two numbers: cardinal numbers for numerator

and ordinal ones for denominator:

one third= 1/3;

five sixth= 5/6

For and besides one half and one fourth, we may say a half, a quarter.

The decimal fractions contain a point after the whole number: 3.68 (corresponding to the Romanian 3 ). If the whole unit is less than one, nought is playing the part of the whole, a point is followed and then the rest of the numbers: 0.245.