NumbersHow to write numbers in words: rules and spelling
Writing a number in words looks easy until you have to fill in a cheque, a form or an exam answer. Then small doubts appear. Is it forty or fourty? Is there a hyphen in twenty one? Do I write "and"? This page gives the rules used in Indian schools and offices, with the spellings people get wrong most.
The building blocks
You need only a few dozen words: one to nineteen, the tens (twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety), and the names hundred, thousand, lakh, crore, or million and billion. Every number name is made from these.
Seven rules
- Hyphen between tens and ones. Numbers from 21 to 99 take a hyphen: twenty-one, forty-five, ninety-nine.
- No hyphen elsewhere. Write "three hundred", "five thousand", "two lakh" as separate words.
- No plural after a number. It is "three hundred", "five thousand", "two lakh", "six crore", never "three hundreds" or "two lakhs" inside a number name.
- "And" is optional. British and Indian usage often says "four hundred and five". Most Indian school books leave it out: "four hundred five". Never use "and" anywhere else in a whole number.
- Read period by period. 3,45,678 is three lakh | forty-five thousand | six hundred seventy-eight.
- Skip empty periods. 5,00,020 is "five lakh twenty".
- No commas are needed in the words, though some writers put them between periods.
Spellings to watch
| Number | Right | Often written wrongly as |
|---|---|---|
| 4, 14, 40 | four, fourteen, forty | fourty |
| 5, 15, 50 | five, fifteen, fifty | fiveteen, fivety |
| 8, 18, 80 | eight, eighteen, eighty | eightteen, eightty |
| 9, 19, 90 | nine, nineteen, ninety | ninteen, ninty |
| 12 | twelve | twelv, tweleve |
| 13, 30 | thirteen, thirty | threeteen, thirtey |
| 100,000 | lakh | lac, lack (lac is seen on old forms, but lakh is the standard spelling) |
A helpful pattern: four keeps its "u" in fourteen but loses it in forty. Nine keeps its "e" in nineteen and ninety.
Worked examples
- 40: forty
- 99: ninety-nine
- 114: one hundred fourteen
- 890: eight hundred ninety
- 1,005: one thousand five
- 12,012: twelve thousand twelve
- 90,090: ninety thousand ninety
- 4,50,800: four lakh fifty thousand eight hundred
- 70,05,409: seventy lakh five thousand four hundred nine
- 11,00,00,011: eleven crore eleven
Numbers with decimals
Say "point" and then read each digit singly: 3.14 is "three point one four", not "three point fourteen". For money, name the units: ₹12.50 is "twelve rupees and fifty paise".
Years, phones and other special cases
- Years are usually read in pairs: 1947 is "nineteen forty-seven". Years from 2000 are read either way: "two thousand twenty-six" or "twenty twenty-six".
- Phone numbers are read digit by digit.
- Ordinals (first, second, third) have their own forms. See the ordinal numbers page.
When to use figures and when words
In ordinary writing, small numbers (one to nine or ten) are usually spelled out and larger ones written in figures. Do not start a sentence with a figure. On cheques and legal papers, amounts are written both ways so that one checks the other: see writing an amount on a cheque.
The converter spells out any number up to 15 digits, in both systems and in Hindi. The full list from 1 to 100 in words is good for checking spelling.