English Cardinal Numerals
Cardinal Numerals:
Here is a table of cardinal numerals in English: (table 1)
| Number | Numeral |
| 0 | Zero |
| 1 | One |
| 2 | Two |
| 3 | Three |
| 4 | Four |
| 5 | Five |
| 6 | Six |
| 7 | Seven |
| 8 | Eight |
| 9 | Nine |
| 10 | Ten |
| 11 | Eleven |
| 12 | Twelve |
| 13 | Thirteen |
| 14 | Fourteen |
| 15 | Fifteen |
| 16 | Sixteen |
| 17 | Seventeen |
| 18 | Eighteen |
| 19 | Nineteen |
| 20 | Twenty |
| 30 | Thirty |
| 40 | Forty |
| 50 | Fifty |
| 60 | Sixty |
| 70 | Seventy |
| 80 | Eighty |
| 90 | Ninety |
| 100 | One hundred |
| 1,000 | One thousand |
| 1,000,000 | One million |
| 1,000,000,000 | One billion |
| 1,000,000,000,000 | One trillion |
Some of these numerals can be combined to form larger numbers.
For example:
23 is twenty-three.
567 is five hundred sixty-seven.
In English, cardinal numerals can be formed using both simple and compound forms:
Simple cardinal numerals:
are formed by using a single word to represent a number.
Examples include one, two, three, and so on.
Simple numerals can be used by themselves, as in I have three cats, or they can be combined with other words to form more complex expressions, such as three cups of flour.
Compound cardinal numerals:
are formed by combining two or more simple numerals to create a new number.
In English, compound numerals are formed using a hyphen between the individual numerals.
For example: twenty-four is a compound numeral that is formed by combining the simple numerals twenty and four.
Other examples of compound numerals include thirty-five, sixty-eight, and one hundred twenty-three.
Irregularities in forming compound numerals:
There are a few irregularities in the formation of compound numerals.
For example: the compound numeral for 21 is twenty-one, not two-ten-one.
Similarly, the compound numeral for 31 is thirty-one, not three-ten-one.
These irregularities are simply conventions of the English language and must be memorised.
Formation using suffixes:
Cardinal numerals in English can also be formed using suffixes.
Here are some examples: -teen: This suffix is added to the numbers 13–19 to create the numbers from 13 to 19.
For example: thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, etc.
–ty: This suffix is added to the multiples of 10 (20, 30, 40, etc.) to create the numbers from 20 to 90.
For example: twenty, thirty, forty, etc.
-th: This suffix is added to cardinal numerals to form ordinal numerals.
For example: first, second, third, etc.
-fold: This suffix is added to cardinal numerals to create multiplicative expressions.
For example, twofold means double or twice as many, threefold means triple or three times as many, etc.
-illion: This suffix is added to the number one to create large numbers.
For example: million, billion, trillion, etc.
Some suffixes can be combined to form more complex expressions.
For example, twenty-third is a compound ordinal numeral formed by combining the simple cardinal numerals twenty and three and adding the ordinal suffix -rd.
Similarly, thirty-fivefold is a multiplicative expression formed by combining the simple cardinal numerals thirty and five and adding the suffix -fold.
Hundred thousand and million are both numerical expressions representing large numbers in English.
Hundred thousand refers to the number 100,000, which is the product of 100 multiplied by 1,000.
It can be written in numeral form as 100,000 or in words as one hundred thousand.
Million refers to the number 1,000,000, which is the product of 1,000 multiplied by 1,000.
It can be written in numeral form as 1,000,000 or in words as one million.
A million is a standalone numerical term, whereas a hundred thousand is typically used as part of larger numerical expressions.
For example: the number 250,000 can be expressed as two hundred fifty thousand,
and the number 3,500,000 can be expressed as three million five hundred thousand.
Usage of the ending S with numerical expressions:
The use of the ending s with these numerical expressions depends on the context in which they are used.
When used as a noun, both hundred thousand and million can take the plural form and have an s added to the end.
For example: I have millions of dollars or There are thousands of people at the concert.
However, when used as an adjective to modify a noun, they do not take the plural form and do not have an s added to the end.
For example, He earned a million dollars or The house is worth several hundred thousand dollars.
When amillion is used to indicate a quantity, it can be singular or plural,depending on the context.
For example, one million dollars is a lot of money versus Millions of people attended the event.
In the first sentence, million is singular because it refers to a specific quantity,
whereas in the second sentence, millions is plural because it refers to an unspecified large number of people.
Compound cardinal numerals:
with three or more parts are formed by combining simple numerals and place value words (such as hundred, thousand, million, etc.) in a specific order.
For example: the number 2,098 is a compound numeral that is formed by combining the simple numerals two, zero, and nine and the place value word hundred.
The order of the parts is as follows:
Thousands: The first part of the numeral is the number of thousands, if any.
In this case, there are no thousands, so this part is omitted.
Hundreds: The second part of the numeral is the number of hundreds, if any.
In this case, there are two hundreds, so the numeral starts with two hundred.
Tens and Ones: The final part of the numeral is the number of tens and ones.
In this case, there are zero tens and nine ones, so the numeral ends with nine.
Putting it all together, the numeral 2,098 is expressed as two hundred ninety-eight in words.
Other examples of compound cardinal numerals with three or more parts include:
5,672: five thousand six hundred seventy-two.
123,456: one hundred twenty-three thousand four hundred fifty-six.
6,789,012: six million seven hundred eighty-nine thousand twelve.
Irregularities with numbers:
While the order of the parts is generally consistent, there are some irregularities, particularly with numbers that have multiple zeros.
For example: the number 1,000,000 is expressed as one million, not one thousand thousand.
However, these irregularities can be easily memorised with practice.