NumbersHow to use the chart
Write your number so that its last digit sits in the ones row and each earlier digit one row lower. The row a digit lands in tells you its place, and the digit times the value of that row is its place value. For 4,68,253 the digit 4 lands in the lakhs row, so its place value is 4 × 1,00,000 = 4,00,000.
The same number in both systems
| Ten crores | Crores | Ten lakhs | Lakhs | Ten thousands | Thousands | Hundreds | Tens | Ones |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
The number shown is 54,32,16,789.
| Hundred millions | Ten millions | Millions | Hundred thousands | Ten thousands | Thousands | Hundreds | Tens | Ones |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
The number shown is 543,216,789.
What the chart shows
- The first four places have the same names in both systems: ones, tens, hundreds, thousands.
- From the sixth digit the names differ. The Indian system brings in a new name every two places (lakh, crore). The international system brings one in every three (million, billion, trillion).
- The value of each place is ten times the one before it. That is true in both systems and is the heart of the decimal number system.
- Lakh has no single-word partner in the international system, and million has none in the Indian one: 1 million is 10 lakh.
Periods
In the Indian system the periods are ones (3 places), thousands (2), lakhs (2) and crores (2 or more). In the international system they are ones, thousands, millions, billions and trillions, with 3 places each. Commas mark where one period ends and the next begins, which is why Indian commas follow a 3, 2, 2 pattern and international commas a 3, 3, 3 pattern.
Tips for learning it
Copy the chart once by hand. Then take a phone number or a number from a newspaper, write it into the rows, and read it aloud in both systems. Five numbers a day for a week is enough for most children. A common classroom trick is to remember the Indian places in pairs: "ten thousand, thousand", "ten lakh, lakh", "ten crore, crore".
Read more: the Indian number system, the international number system, place value and face value. Or type a number into the converter to see the place of every digit.