Today you’ll learn how to say dates, numbers, years, fractions and percentages in English . Welcome to the two hundred and fiftieth episode of the podcast.

Thank you for all the feedback you’ve been sending. We will get to yours eventually! This podcast is for you, so it really helps when you send feedback and questions.

Audio feedback from Nicolas from Colombia
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Topics mostly come from the audience. We collaborate using Google docs. We record together on 2 separate microphones – we sometimes have problems sometimes with noisy neighbours.

Expose your ears to as many accents as possible. “like the one I’m doing right now”

That was the second audio message that Nicolas has sent us. Second is an ordinal number and two is a cardinal number, but more about that later!

Years
What year are we in? – 2019 – two ways to say it
When did we start podcasting? – 2014
When were you born? 1963, 1970
For the decade 2001 – 2010, say “two thousand and —-” (British English):
2001 – “two thousand and one”
2007 – “two thousand and seven”
2010 + “two thousand and ten” or “twenty, ten”
Last year – the year before last
Next year – the year after next
In the 19 Century
In the 1800s – “in the eighteen hundreds”
In the 1960’s – “in the nineteen sixties”

Dates
The 3rd of March / March (the) 3rd
What’s the date today? (We don’t write the word ‘of’ but we say it)
When’s your birthday? – without year
When’s your DOB (date of birth)? – with year

Numbers
This is episode two hundred and fifty (two fifty in US English)
4 million SINGULAR (not XmillionsX)
What’s the population of Spain? – 46,426,197
What’s the population of Mexico? – 131,791,620

Number Cardinal Ordinal
1 one 1st – first
2 two 2nd – second
3 three 3rd – third
4 four 4th – fourth
5 five 5th – fifth
6 six 6th – sixth
7 seven 7th – seventh
8 eight 8th – eighth
9 nine 9th – ninth
10 ten 10th – tenth
11 eleven 11th – eleventh
12 twelve 12 th – twelfth
20 twenty 20th – twentieth
30 thirty 30th – thirtieth
21 twenty-one 21st – twenty-first
32 thirty-two 22nd – thirty-second
73 seventy-three 73rd – seventy-third
94 ninety-four 94th – ninety-fourth
655 six hundred and fifty-five six hundred and fifty-fifth, etc.

Zero
It depends on the context of the sentence.
We can say zero, nothing, nought, o, nil.
Sport – nil / tennis – love
0C (temperature) = “zero degrees”

‘O’, pronounced ‘oh’ as in the letter O, is used when talking about times, years, phone numbers (in Britain) and decimals (in Britain)

Zero is used more often in America, while in Britain we often use ‘o’. Especially with phone numbers

Decimals
If the number has a decimal, use the word ‘point’
eg) 2.36 – two point three six
14.87 – fourteen point eight seven
3.14159 – three point one four one five nine

Fractions
The top number is a cardinal number. The bottom number is an ordinal number (+ “s” if plural)

1/5 one-fifth/a fifth
1/10 one-tenth/a tenth
3/8 – three-eighths
5/16 – five-sixteenths
7/8 – seven-eighths
1/32 – one thirty-second

There are some exceptions:
1/2 – one-half / a half
1/3, 2/3 – one third, two-thirds
1/4, 3/4 – one-quarter, three quarters in British English. (One-fourth, three fourths in American)

Percentages
Say the number and then “percent:”

34% – thirty-four percent
*You can’t say “a” or “the” + percent. “a twenty percent”, “the twenty percent”

Discussion
Are you good at math (US) / maths (UK)
Do you like numbers?
Have you got a favourite/lucky number?

…and now it’s your turn to practise your English.
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