NumbersHow the names are built
Only 28 different words are needed for 1 to 100: one to nineteen, the eight tens from twenty to ninety, and hundred. From 21 onwards, a number name is the tens word and the ones word joined by a hyphen: twenty-one, thirty-two, ninety-nine.
Spellings to learn by heart
- Forty, not fourty. Four and fourteen keep the "u", forty drops it.
- Fifteen and fifty, not fiveteen or fivety.
- Eight, eighteen, eighty: only one "t" in eighteen and eighty.
- Nine, nineteen, ninety keep the "e". There is no "ninty".
- Twelve and twenty begin with "tw", like two and twice.
- Thirteen and thirty come from three, but are spelt "thir".
The "teen" and "ty" pairs
Thirteen and thirty, fourteen and forty, and so on up to nineteen and ninety sound alike, and children often mix them when listening. The "teen" numbers are 13 to 19 and are said with weight on "teen". The "ty" numbers are the tens and are said with weight on the first part.
Hundreds up to one thousand
100 is one hundred, 200 is two hundred, 300 is three hundred, 400 is four hundred, 500 is five hundred, 600 is six hundred, 700 is seven hundred, 800 is eight hundred, 900 is nine hundred, 1000 is one thousand. For the numbers between, say the hundreds and then the rest: 345 is "three hundred forty-five", or "three hundred and forty-five" in British and Indian speech.
Ways to practise
- Cover the words, point at a number and spell it aloud. Then cover the numbers and read the words.
- Write the ten numbers ending in the same digit (4, 14, 24 and so on) and notice what stays the same.
- Have a short spelling test of the tricky ones: 8, 12, 15, 18, 40, 50, 80, 90.
For larger numbers use the number to words converter. For ordinal names (first, second, third) see ordinal numbers, and for Hindi see Hindi numbers 1 to 100. Printable practice: number names worksheets.