Convert any number now with the number to words converter.
The basic rules
- Zero to nineteen have their own words: zero, one, two, ... twelve, thirteen, ... nineteen.
- Tens are twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty and ninety. Note that forty has no u.
- Join tens and ones with a hyphen from 21 to 99: twenty-one, sixty-five, ninety-nine.
- Hundreds: say the digit and hundred: three hundred. Hundred stays singular: five hundred, not five hundreds.
- Thousands, millions, billions: say the group and then its name: forty-five thousand, two million.
The word and
British English puts and after hundred and before the last part: one hundred and one, one thousand and five. American English usually leaves it out: one hundred one. Do not use and for the decimal point: write point.
| Number | American style | British style (with and) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | zero | zero |
| 13 | thirteen | thirteen |
| 21 | twenty-one | twenty-one |
| 40 | forty | forty |
| 99 | ninety-nine | ninety-nine |
| 100 | one hundred | one hundred |
| 101 | one hundred one | one hundred and one |
| 110 | one hundred ten | one hundred and ten |
| 999 | nine hundred ninety-nine | nine hundred and ninety-nine |
| 1,000 | one thousand | one thousand |
| 1,001 | one thousand one | one thousand and one |
| 1,999 | one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine | one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine |
| 10,000 | ten thousand | ten thousand |
| 100,000 | one hundred thousand | one hundred thousand |
| 1,000,000 | one million | one million |
Large numbers and the short scale
In English today, a billion is a thousand million (1,000,000,000) and a trillion is a thousand billion. Older British texts used a long scale, where a billion was a million million, but this is no longer common. In the Indian system, large amounts use lakh and crore instead, as in the lakh and crore guide.
Decimals, negatives and years
- Decimals: say point, then each digit: 3.14 is three point one four.
- Money: the part after the point is the sub-unit: 12.50 dollars is twelve dollars and fifty cents.
- Negative numbers: start with minus (or negative): minus seven.
- Years are usually split in two: 1999 is nineteen ninety-nine. 2026 is twenty twenty-six, and 2005 is two thousand five.
When to use words and when to use digits
- Many style guides spell out numbers from one to nine (or to one hundred) in running text, and use digits for larger ones.
- Never begin a sentence with digits. Write Twenty people came, or rewrite the sentence.
- Use words in legal papers, on cheques and in contracts, next to the figures, to avoid mistakes. See cheque amount in words.
Common spelling mistakes
- forty, not fourty
- fifteen and fifty, not fiveteen and fivety
- eighteen and eighty, with one t in each
- ninety, but nineteen: the e in nine is kept in nineteen and dropped in ninety
Tools on this site
- Number to words and words to number.
- Lakh and crore to words and rupees in words.
- Decimal to binary and the octal converter for other number bases.