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Number
- Disambiguation: see grammatical number.
A number is a mathematical object used for counting, measuring and labelling.[1]
Meaning[edit | edit source]
Numbers in English come in three main types, and a marginal third type, as documented in the table below:
| Type of number | Examples | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Cardinal numbers | one, two, three, four, five, etc. | Express quantity. |
| Ordinal numbers | first, second third, fourth, fifth, etc. | Express position in a list, and fraction of a whole. |
| Latinate ordinal numbers | primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, etc | |
| Numeral adverbs | once, twice, thrice. | Express absolute frequency. |
1 billion used to be 1,000,000,000,000, but the Americans changed it to be merely 1,000,000,000. But they haven’t told the Europeans, where 1,000,000,000 is a milliard (or similar). See large number.
Others:
- 12 is a dozen
- 20 is a score.
Form[edit | edit source]
- We say 99.94 is "ninety-nine point nine four"
Note, Americans tend to say "one hundred thirty-two" rather than "one hundred and thirty-two"
Europeans often use different number separators so that "1,234.5" or "1 234.5" is written as "1.234,5"[2]
The word number is a homograph, as it’s also the spelling for the comparative form of numb, which is pronounced /ˈnʌmə/.[3]
Pedagogy[edit | edit source]
EFL leaners often need to practise thinking of numbers in English, as they will naturally default back to L1 thinking when reading numbers.
