Reading and Writing Decimals

Decimals are another way of writing “parts of a whole.”

Place Value:

Hundred-thousandths
Hundred thousands

Ten-thousandths
Ten thousands

Thousandths
Hundredths
Thousands

Millionths
Hundreds

Tenths
Ones
Tens

.
↑
“and”

Notice that the place value names to the right of the decimal end with the letters “ths.” Also,
there is no “ones” place to the right of the decimal; it starts at “tenths.”

Read the number after the decimal like a whole number. Then add the place value name of the
last digit.
Examples: Write the decimal in words.
0.08 Eight hundredths

0.675 Six hundred seventy-five thousandths

2.31 Two and thirty-one hundredths

Write the number.

Eight and twelve hundredths. 8.12

Two hundred and twenty-four thousandths. 200.024

Rounding Decimals
Round decimals as you round whole numbers. Drop off the zeros to the right of the rounded
digit, if it is to the right of the decimal.

Examples: Round 11.357945 to the nearest:

a) Thousandth 11.358

b) Tenth 11.4
 Round 57.976 to the nearest:
a) Hundredth 57.98

b) Tenth 58.0

Rounding Money Values

Rounding to the nearest “cent” means round to the hundredths place (because there are 100
cents in a dollar.) Rounding to the nearest “dollar” means round to the nearest whole number.

Examples: Round $1.945 to the nearest cent. $1.95

Round $39.75 to the nearest dollar. $40.00

Converting Decimals to Fractions:

The decimal part of the number represents a fraction.
Read the decimal in words, then write as a fraction or mixed number. Reduce to lowest terms.
Examples: Write the decimals as fractions or mixed numbers.

32 8
0.32 →
100 25

5 1
2.05 2 →2
100 20

8 1
10.008 10 → 10
1000 125