25/2/2016
Viv Quarry's intermediate + vocabulary practice
Viv Quarry's upperintermediate vocabulary practice (www.vivquarry.com)
Numbers, time, dates and prices.
Student's name _________________________ Date ___________________
Ordinal numbers
Ordinal numbers are usually preceded by the definite article (the) unless a possessive adjective is
used.
The eighteenth floor Her eighteenth birthday.
For many language students the most difficult thing about ordinal numbers is the pronunciation. the
'th' sound at the end of most ordinal numbers does not exist in many Latin based languages. Don't
forget that this sound must be pronounced with air escaping between your tongue and upper teeth!
Apart from the first three ordinal numbers:
1st = the first 2nd = the second 3rd = the third
103rd = the hundred and third
Most other ordinals are formed by adding 'th' to the cardinal number.
500th = the five hundredth
However, there are some difficult cases. 'V' changes to 'F' and the final 'E' is dropped from '5' and '12'.
5th = the fifth
12th = the twelfth (in both cases the 'F' is silent and the numbers are pronounced /FIθ/ & /TWELθ/)
With multiples of ten the final 'Y' changes to 'IETH'.
30th = the thirtieth
Don't forget that the final 'E' is also dropped from the number 9.
9th = the ninth /NAINTH/
Cardinal numbers
Compound numbers should be written with a hyphen.
22 = twentytwo
The word stress for 'tens' is on the first syllable, and for 'teens' it is on the second syllable.
13 /θERTEEN/ 30 /θERTEE/
Spoken English usually uses the indefinite article (a) with numbers between 100 and 199.
139 = a hundred and thirtynine.
In more formal English, 'one' can be used.
139 = one hundred and thirtynine.
Either 'a' or 'one' can also be used with 1000; 100,000 ; 1,000,000 ; 1 billion ; 1 trillion etc.
100,000 = a hundred thousand (informal) or one hundred thousand (formal).
Only 'one' can be used if a number above 99 follows thousand, million etc.
1,100 = one thousand, one hundred.
Or if '100' is preceded by other numbers.
10,100 = ten thousand, one hundred.
In British English, when saying cardinal numbers, 'and' comes after the word 'hundred'.
4,150 four thousand, one hundred and fifty. (in US English this 'and' is sometimes dropped).
If a number between 1 and 99 follows thousand, million etc, 'and' is also used.
123,099 = a/one hundred and twentythree thousand and ninetynine.
5,001 = five thousand and one.
In informal English (both UK and US), it is possible to pronounce numbers between 1,099 and 1,901
which end in two zeros in the following way:
1,200 = twelve hundred feet 1,800 = eighteen hundred people
In formal English these numbers would be 'one thousand, two hundred' and 'one thousand eight
hundred'.
Don't forget that there is no 'U' in the number 40! (forty).
Percentages are written like this: 26% = twentysix per cent.
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Brazilian students: Don't forget that in English a COMMA is used to separate billions, millions and
thousands!
Decimals and lists of numbers
In decimal numbers (less than one), '0' is pronounced 'nought' /NORT/ in British English, and 'zero'
/ZEEROW/ in USA English if it comes before the decimal point.
0.3 = nought point three (UK) and zero point three (US).
If '0' appears to the right of the decimal point it is pronounced 'zero' in both Britain and the USA.
1.03 = one point zero three (UK&US).
After the decimal point, each number must be spoken individually.
7.3661 = seven point three, six, six, one.
When numbers appear in lists, for example bank account, room and flight numbers, '0' is pronounced
like the letter 'O' /OW/.
'0' is also pronounced /OW/ in telephone numbers. When saying telephone numbers in English you
can't use any number above '9'. However, if the same number is repeated you can use the word
'double' /DUBL/. 6641044 = double six, four, one, oh, double four. There is an exception to the 'no
number above 9' rule with some prefixes eg. 0800 = oh, eight hundred.
In football scores '0' is 'nil' /NIL/, and in tennis it is 'love' /LUV/.
Brazilian students: don't forget that a COMMA is NOT used to separate decimals from whole
numbers!
Fractions
Fractions combine both cardinal and ordinal numbers, with three exceptions (½, ⅓ & ¼).
The indefinite article (a/an) is used when the upper number is 1.
½ = a half, ⅓ = a third, ¼ = a quarter, ⅛ = an eighth
In fractions starting with a number above 1, cardinal numbers combine with plural ordinal numbers
(see exceptions above).
¾ = three quarters, ⅜ = three eighths.
When fractions combine with whole numbers, use 'and' between the two types of number.
16⅞ = sixteen and seven eighths.
Time
There are three conventions for telling the time in English. They depend on the level of formality.
1 informal spoken English.
2 Neutral (can be used in most situations)
3 Formal (used for public transport and by the military)
Here are examples of the spoken forms of these three conventions:
Time
Informal
Neutral
Formal
1am
One o'clock in the morning* One 'A' 'M'
Oh one hundred (hours***)
1pm One o'clock in the afternoon* One 'P' 'M'
Thirteen hundred (hours)
2.05am Five past two
Two, oh, five
Oh, two, zero, five
3.06pm Six minutes past three**
Three, oh, six
Fifteen, oh, six
4.15am Quarter past four
Four, fifteen
Oh, four, fifteen
5.25pm Twentyfive past five
Five, twentyfive Seventeen, twentyfive
6.30am Half past six
Six, thirty
Oh, six, thirty
7.31pm Twentynine minutes to eight Seven, thirtyone Nineteen, thirtyone (hours)
8.40am Twenty to nine
Eight, forty
Oh, eight, forty
9.45pm Quarter to ten
Nine, fortyfive Twentyone, fortyfive
10.48am Twelve minutes to eleven
Ten, fortyeight Ten, fortyeight
11.55pm Five to twelve
Eleven, fiftyfive Twentythree, fiftyfive
12am Midnight
Twelve 'A' 'M'
Twentyfour hundred hours
12pm Midday
Twelve 'P' 'M'
Twelve hundred hours
*'in the morning', 'in the afternoon', 'in the evening' and 'at night' will be added if there is any
possibility that the time of day may be misunderstood.
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** Note that if the number of minutes is not a multiple of 5 then the word 'minutes' is added when
saying the time.
*** The word 'hours' is usually added in military time, but not necessarily in other areas.
What comes before the time depends on the question: What's the time? It's... When did it happen?
At....
Dates
The way the date is written and spoken is different:
Written in the UK
Written in the USA Spoken in the UK
Spoken in the USA
13/2/05
2/13/05
The thirteenth of February February the thirteenth
two thousand and five
two thousand three.
Note that ordinal numbers are used for the day.
What comes before the date depends on the type of question asked:
What's the date today? It's the fifth of August two thousand and four.
When did it happen? On the thirtieth of March nineteen eighty.
Years
Look at these examples:
15BC = Fifteen before Christ 1902 = Nineteen oh two
10AD = Ten after Christ (AD = Latin for 'Anno Domini') 1999 = Nineteen ninetynine
1500 = Fifteen hundred 2000 = (The year) two thousand
1900 = Nineteen hundred 2002 = Two thousand and two
Ordinal numbers are also used for centuries:
1900 1999 = The twentieth century 2000 + = The twentyfirst century.
Prices
This worksheet will focus on prices in England, Europe and the USA. Don't forget that the name of
the currencies in other countries may be different in both spelling and pronunciation than it is
pronounced by the native speakers of the country. When two counties use the same name for their
currencies, it's common to put the adjective for the country before the less known country eg. Cypriot
Pound, Australian Dollar. The abbreviations will also be different (CYP or CY£, AU$ or AUD). In
informal English, people do not usually write 'GB' before a pound sign, or 'US' before a Dollar sign.
As with dates, prices are usually spoken differently than they are written. Look at these examples:
The UK. (if there's no pound sign on your computer, press CTRL+Shift+Alt+$)
Written Spoken neutral
Spoken informal
23p
Twentythree pence
Twentythree p (pronounced /PEE/)
£1.89 One pound eightynine
One, eightynine
£33.02 Thirtythree pounds and two pence* Thirtythree pounds and tuppence
* For pounds + less than ten pence, the words 'and pence' are added, but not pounds + more than
9p.
Eg. £10.09 = Ten pounds and nine pence £10.10 = Ten pounds ten.
The European Union, The United States, Australian and Canada (for the USA, Australia and Canada,
replace the Euro sign with a '$' sign and replace the word 'Euro/s' with 'Dollar/s')
Written Spoken neutral
Spoken informal
€0.23 Twentythree cents
Twentythree cents
€1.89 One Euro and eightynine cents One Euro eightynine
€33.02 Thirtythree euros and two cents Thirtythree euros, two cents
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In the USA, some coins have informal names:
1¢ = a penny 5¢= a nickel 10¢ = a dime 25¢ = a quarter 50¢ = half
dollar
Exchange rates
What's the exchange rate for the Dollar?
There are 2.58 Reals to the Dollar.
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