Numbers in English

When it comes to numbers in English, we have both Cardinal, Ordinal and Roman numbers. All of which are useful and serve their own purpose. In today’s lesson, we will take a look at all of them and their use cases.

Cardinal numbers

In English and mathematics, cardinal numbers are the numbers themselves in plain and simple form: 4, 1 15, 1345, 66, 87, 18, 56, 3, etc.

These numbers indicate how many elements there are in an assemblage. Generally, it’s best to write the letter form of the number in writing and not the numeral form.

• 76, 86 98, 1034, 54
• I have twenty-five children accompanying me.
• How many pigeons were on the window sill this morning? There were three.
• I know about four guys who can help you.
• He’s thirty-eight years old.

Ordinal numbers  

Ordinal numbers are used to designate a place in English, such as; third, second, first, eighth, twenty-first, seventh, one-hundredth, eighty-ninth etc. We use them to show the position of something or someone in a series.

• My brother came first (1st) in the running race.
• I bet him to second (2nd) place.
• I was ninety-ninth (99th) out of one hundred competitors, so not such a bad effort.
• According to my results, I placed twenty-fourth (24th) out of the thirty-three members.
• It’s not always about coming first (1st) place.
• Prizes will be allocated to first (1st), second (2nd) and third (3rd) placed competitors.

Roman numbers

In English, we mainly use the standard Arabic numbers for mostly everything and more importantly, mathematics.

Nevertheless, we do use Roman numbers also, for things such as; clocks numbers, naming historical events or statues, films, monuments etc. They are still used for historical reasons, and they also look very aesthetic and classy. It is frequent to use Roman numbers for stylistic purposes.

• I = 1
• V= 5
• X = 10
• L = 50
• C = 100
• D = 500
• M = 1000

Upper case (capital letters) or lower case (small letters) can be used to form the numbers. 

Usually, letters are ordered in the decline of the order of value, i.e., ‘XV’ = 15 (10+5). Letters can be repeated to increase value, i.e., ‘XX’ = 20, ‘XX’ = 30.

Letters cannot be repeated more than three times, so ‘XXXX’ is not used for 40. In this case, ‘XL’ = 40 (50 takeaway 10).

Roman numbers

Roman numerals	Arabic numerals
upper-case (capital letter)	lower-case (small letter)
I	i	1
II	ii	2
III	iii	3
IV	iv	4
V	v	5
VI	vi	6
VII	vii	7
VIII	viii	8
IX	ix	9
X	x	10
XI	xi	11
XII	xii	12
XIII	xiii	13
XIV	xiv	14
XV	xv	15
XVI	xvi	16
XVII	xvii	17
XVIII	xviii	18
XIX	xix	19
XX	xx	20
XXI	xxi	21
XXII	xxii	22
XXIII	xxiii	23
XXX	xxx	30
XL	xl	40
L	l	50
LX	lx	60
LXX	lxx	70
LXXX	lxxx	80
XC	xc	90
C	c	100
CC	cc	200
CCC	ccc	300
CD	cd	400
D	d	500
M	m	1000

See also