Numbers (dates, decimals, prices, quantities)

Explanation and Exercises

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DATES (1)
British English In British English, the day is usually put before the month. If you wish, you can add the ending of the ordinal number. The preposition of before the month is usually dropped. You can put a comma before the year, but this is not common anymore in British English. Ex: 5(th) (of) October(,) 2004 American English
In American English the month is usually put before the day. If you wish, you can put the definite article before the day. It is common to write a comma before the year. Ex: October (the) 5(th), 2004

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DATES (2) Using digits You can also write the date by using numbers only. The most common forms are: Ex: 5/10/04 or 5-10-04 Note, however, that 5/10/04 usually means 5 October 2004 in British English and May 10, 2004 in American English. To avoid any possible confusion, you should spell out the month or use the abbreviation.

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Dates (3) as we have seen, in English, we can say dates either with the day before the month, or the month before the day: Ex. The first of January / January the first. Remember to use ordinal numbers for dates in English! (The first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the twenty-second, the thirty-first etc.)

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Years: For years up until 2000, separate the four numbers into two pairs of two: 1965 = nineteen sixty-five 1871 = eighteen seventy-one 1999 = nineteen ninety-nine

For this decade, you need to say "two thousand and -" when speaking British English: 2001 = two thousand and one 2009 = two thousand and nine

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Exercise: How to say the date in English Exercises (1)
1) 22 NOV - the twenty-second of November 2) 1 JAN - the first of January 3) 12 JUL - the twelfth of July 4) 5 SEP - the fifth of September 5) 21 MAR - the twenty-first of March

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Exercises (2)
6) 4 OCT - the fourth of October 7) 2 APR - the second of April 8) 12 JUN - the twentieth of June 9) 3 MAY - the third of May 10) 9 FEB the ninth of February

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Large numbers
Divide the number into units of hundreds and thousands: Ex. 400,000 = four hundred thousand (no s plural) If the number includes a smaller number, use "and" in British English: Ex. 450,000 = four hundred and fifty thousand Ex. 400,360 = four hundred thousand and three hundred and sixty

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Fractions, ratios and percentages: = one half 1/3 = one third = one quarter 1/5 = one fifth 1/ 6 = one sixth etc. 3/5 = three fifths 1.5% = one point five percent 0.3% = nought / zero point three percent 2:1 = two to one

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Saying 0 Depending on the context, we can pronounce zero in different ways:
2-0 (football) = Two nil 30 0 (tennis) = Thirty love 604 7721 (phone number) = six oh four 0.4 (a number) = nought point four / zero point four 0C (temperature) = zero degrees

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Talking about calculations in English
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Being able to say calculations in English is very useful. Maths is used not only in business, but also in everyday life. It is very common that people learn the vocabulary of calculations when they are starting to learn English, but then forget it because most calculations are written on paper and not spoken. In this exercise ,we will look at the English vocabulary of calculations, focusing on what the symbols used are called and how to explain and say basic calculations.

+ (plus)

2 + 1 = 3 (two plus one equals three)

- (minus / take away) 5 3 = 2 (five minus three equals two / five take away three equals two) x (multiplied by / times) 2 x 3 = 6 (two multiplied by three equals six / two times three equals six) / (divided by) 6 / 3 = 2 (six divided by three equals two)

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- Exercises with Numbers 0 1000 and Fractions (1)
1) 1,000 - one thousand 2) 3/4 - three quarters 3) 3.1 - three point one 4) 555 - five hundred and fifty-five 5) 1,000,000,000 - one billion 6) 5/8 - five eights

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- Exercises with Numbers 0 1000 and Fractions (2)
7) 444,000 four hundred and forty-four thousand 8) 3 1/3 three and one third 9) 133 one hundred and thirty-three 10) 0 zero 11) 3,033 three thousand and thirty-three 12) 1/2 one half 13) 1,000,000,000,000 one trillion 14) 3,75% three point seven five per cent 15) 103,006 one hundred and three thousand and six

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Time is also divided in a similar way: Ex. 12:58 is said twelve / fifty-eight Americans often say large numbers in phrases of two digits. For example: 267 (long way) two hundred sixty-seven (short way) two / sixty seven

4381 (long way) four thousand three hundred eighty-one (short way) forty-three / eighty-one

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Decimals and Prices Remember that in English, we divide prices at the decimal point.
Example: $4.59 - four dollars (and) fifty-nine cents (long way) - four / fifty nine (short way)

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PRICES
$1,200 16,486 one thousand two hundred dollars sixteen thousand four hundred and eighty-six pounds

$25.35

twenty-five dollars thirty-five

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MONEY
45p 1 1.50 2 2.55 100 115.99 250 2,682.74 forty-five p or forty-five pence one pound one pound fifty or one fifty two pounds two pounds fifty-five or two fifty-five a/one hundred pounds a hundred and fifteen pounds, ninety-nine p/pence two hundred and fifty pounds or two fifty pounds two thousand six hundred and eighty-two pounds, seventy-four p/pence

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PHONE NUMBERS Phone numbers are said as series of numbers, with pauses between the groups of numbers. For example , 09071 759082 as oh nine oh seven one, (pause) seven five nine oh eight two. For phone numbers like 1088, people often say one oh double eight. For numbers like 10888, people often say one oh treble eight or one oh eight double eight. Some people also use two-digit phrasing with telephone numbers: 565-8347 five-six-five // eighty-three / forty-seven

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How to Say Calculations
Read the following conversation between Peter and Juan, where Peter helps Juan with English vocabulary for calculations and maths:
Juan: I know I should know this, but how do you say this symbol ' - ' in a calculation in English? Peter: In English we call the ' - ' symbol minus, for example, 6 minus 3. You can also say the same calculation in a different way by using a verb and saying subtract 6 by 3. Juan: And the ' + ' symbol? Peter: The ' + ' symbol is called plus, for example, 7 plus 2 is 9. You can also say the same calculation in a different way by using the verb add, for example, add 7 to 2. Another type of calculation is division, which is represented by the symbol ' '. But when you use it in the middle of a calculation, you say divided by. For example, 6 divided by 3 equals 2. Another way to say this calculation is by saying divide 6 by 3. Juan: I know that the ' ' symbol is called times in a calculation, like 2 times 4 equals 8. But what is the verb? Peter: We normally use multiply as the verb, for example, multiply 2 by 4. You use these verbs when you are instructing somebody to do a calculation or explaining to them how you did it. Juan: There are a few other things that I'd like to check with you. How do you say a number below zero, for example, -1.052? Peter: You would say minus 1 point zero five two. You need to remember that in English when you say the number that comes after the decimal point '.', you say each number individually. For example, you would say the number 14.315, fourteen point three one five. Juan: Thanks. The last question I have is, say I eat 20 apples in June, 22 apples in July and 26 apples in August. Is there a better of saying, I normally eat 23 apples each month? Peter: Yes, there is. Instead of say normally, you could say average. So, on average I eat 23 apples per month.

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Calculations Quiz: Below is a quiz with definitions of words/phrases from the previous text (1):
1. A word that has a meaning similar to 'medium', is _______ - average 2. When you use the ' ' symbol in a calculation, you say ___ - times 3. The verb for ' - ' in calculations, is ________ - subtract 4. When you use the ' ' symbol in a calculation, you say ____ - divided by 5. The name of the ' - ' symbol when a number is below zero, is___ - minus

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Calculations Quiz (2)
6. The verb for ' + ' in calculations, is _________ - add 7. When you use the ' - ' symbol in a calculation, you say _______ - minus 8. The way to say ' . ' in numbers like 1.5, is _________ - point 9. When you use the ' = ' symbol in a calculation, you say ______________ - equals 10. The verb for ' ' in calculations, is _____________________ - multiply 11. When you use the ' + ' symbol in a calculation, you say ____________________ - plus

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SOURCES:
http://www.english-at-home.com/pronunciation/saying-dates-and-numbers-inenglish/ http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/various/date_pronunciation.htm http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/various/numbers0-1000.htm http://www.eslgold.com/speaking/american_numbers_prices.html http://www.cristinacabal.com/pre-intermediate/numbers.pdf http://www.blairenglish.com/exercises/numbers_figures/exercises/calculations/calcul ations.html

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