How to say and write numbers in English

This article gives information about how to say and write numbers in English. It also outlines some of the differences in the use of numbers between British and American English.

Numbers from one to a million

Saying a instead of one

You can say a hundred and fifty (150), but NOT two thousand a hundred and fifty (2,150). Say two thousand one hundred and fifty. People often use a instead of one in conversation, but it is better to use one in technical contexts.

Ways of saying the number 0

In a series of numbers:
You can pronounce 0 like the letter o, when you are giving a series of numbers such as a credit card number or a flight number.

In dates:
Say oh in giving the name of a year, such as 1904 ('nineteen oh four').

In mathematics, science, and technical contexts:
British English: Say nought or zero.
American English: Say zero.

In temperatures:
British English: Say zero to refer to freezing point (0° Celsius or -32° Fahrenheit).
American English: Say zero to refer to 0° Fahrenheit.

In sports, for scores of 0:
British English: Say nil.
American English: Say zero or nothing.
In tennis: Say love.

Fractions and decimals

Fractions

Decimals

Writing full stops and commas in numbers

Use a full stop (.) to separate the main part of a number from the decimal part (the part less than 1). 2.031 means 'two point nought three one'.

Say point to refer to the full stop. You can use a comma (,) in large numbers to separate the hundreds, thousands, and millions. 2,031 means 'two thousand and thirty-one'. In British English, spaces are sometimes used instead of commas (2 031).

Remember: Speakers of some other languages use (.) and (,) the other way around.

Dates

Days and months:
British English: Write 3 June/3rd June/June 3/June 3rd. Say 'the third of June' or 'June the third'.

American English: Write June 3/June 3rd. Say 'June third'.

Writing dates as numbers
3/6 (or 03/06) means 3 June in British English, and March 6 in American English. British and American speakers put the month and day in different orders.

Saying the numbers of years

Money

These are some common ways of saying amounts of money. British speakers talk about money in the following way:

American speakers talk about money in the following way:

Phone numbers

Say phone numbers as series of numbers, with pauses between the groups of numbers. For example, say 08081 570983 as oh eight oh eight one, five seven oh nine eight three.

British English: For phone numbers like 5155, people often say five one double five. For numbers like 1555, people often say one treble five or one five double five.

American English: People often say 'area code' before the first part of the number, which represents the area where they live; for example, area code five five five, six three two, nine eight two one (=(555) 632-9821).

Route and road numbers

These are some common ways of saying the numbers of routes or roads.

British English
M1	/em/ one
M62	/em/ sixty-two
A5	/e/ five
A34	/e/ thirty-four
B1562	/bi/ one five six two

American English
101	one oh one
280	two eighty
1	highway one
5	/a/ five, interstate five