NUMERALS, MATHEMATICAL

SYMBOLS AND OPERATIONS

Extra material
 NUMERALS – DEFINITION AND TYPES
Numerals are words that “name” numbers and figures. They thus very much
resemble nouns, in the sense that they denominate a very particular category
of things and (like nouns, which can be countable our uncountable) they can
or cannot be counted themselves:
three – two threes, zero – five zeroes, a third – six thirds
one hundred – four hundred, a million – ten million
In another way, numerals resemble adjectives: they very frequently describe
nouns, i.e. they say how many things or people there are, in what quantities,
distinguish them according to order etc. However, like pronouns, they can also
stand alone, especially if we use them in mathematics, but not exclusively:
Three researchers at Rice University conducted an experiment.
Three plus three equals six.
Three have left the room.
A distinction that is specific to numerals is the difference
between cardinal and ordinal numerals:
■ cardinal numerals denominate numbers and figures as
such, showing how many items or what quantity of a certain
thing there is:
one piece, two barrels, three kilos, thirteen trucks, sixty
people, one thousand five hundred and thirty-eight pounds
■ ordinal numerals denominate numbers and figures placed
in a certain order or distinguish their determiners according
to a certain order:
the first piece, the second barrel, the third kilo, the thirteenth
truck, the sixtieth person, the one thousand five hundred and
thirty-eighth pound
 CARDINAL NUMERALS
• Cardinal numerals simply denominate numbers. Note that numerals bigger than 12 and
up to 99 are constructed on the first thirteen numerals in the list. Numerals between
101 and 999 are built again on the first 1000 numerals in the list, while numerals from
1001 to 999999 rely in the first 1000000 numerals in the list and so on. Units are
preceded by a dash (-) after tens, while units and tens are preceded by “and” in
standard and British English after figures larger than 100.
thirty-two, ninety-eight, a hundred and eleven, five hundred and five
• The general rule is that numerals between 13 and 19 (inclusively) end in the suffix “-
teen”, while tens from 20 onwards end in “-ty”. If you want a trick to help you avoid
mixing them up, try to remember that the suffixes under 20 are “teens” (i.e., teenagers,
for they’re the right age, aren’t they?), while the others are not (or not any more in
their “teens”). The origin of the word “teen” has in fact very much to do with those
numerals and ages under 20, for in English a person can be “in their thirties” and
likewise, another can be in his/her “teens” (i.e., aged 18, 17, 13, 19 and so on).
• Also note that when constructing numerals on lesser numbers, there might be slight
changes in the spelling of the “root numeral” besides the simple application of the rule.
 List of Key Cardinal Numerals

• You will find the most unpredictable numerals in capitals in 20 twenty

the list below:
21 twenty-one
0 zero
1 one 22 twenty-two
2 two 23 twenty-three
3 three 24 twenty-four
4 four 25 twenty-five
5 five 26 twenty-six
6 six 27 twenty-seven
7 seven
28 twenty-eight
8 eight
29 twenty-nine
9 nine
10 ten
30 thirty
11 eleven 40 FORTY
12 twelve 50 FIFTY
13 thirteen 60 sixty
14 fourteen 70 seventy
15 FIFTEEN 80 eighty
16 sixteen 90 ninety
17 seventeen
100 one hundred
18 eighteen
1,000 one thousand
19 nineteen
1,000,000 one million
1,000,000,000 one billion
 Also remember that:

■ decimals are indicated by a dot, “.”, which is read “point”.

After the point, each number is read separately; the zero after
the decimal point is usually read “nought” (Br.E.), “o” or “zero”
(Am.E.). On the contrary: hundreds, thousands, millions, billions
may be marked by a comma, which isn’t pronounced at all.
29.375 = twenty-nine point three seven five
29,375 = twenty-nine thousand three hundred and seventy-five
■ “0” can be spoken in many different ways:
- zero
- nil
- o (especially in phone numbers)
- nought/ naught
- love (in tennis)
■ the basic arithmetic operations are spoken as follows:
- addition: 2+2=4 two plus two equals four/ is four
- subtraction: 3-2=1 (three minus two equals 1/ is 1)
- multiplication: 2x3=6 (two multiplied by three/three times two equals six)
- division: 5:5=1 (five divided by five equals one/ is one)
■ superscripts are spoken as:
62 six squared, 83 eight cubed/ eight to the power of three, 9 4 nine to the
power of four, 10n ten to the power of n
■ the words hundred, thousand, million, billion cannot be used in the plural if preceded
by a quantity:
ten hundred people; a couple million dollars.
…But in they are not preceded by a quantity word or expression, we say:
hundreds / thousands / millions of people
■ in telephone numbers, each figure is spoken separately, except for double or treble
figures:
0756 887 239 = o seven five six double eight seven two three nine
■ in English, numbers that cannot be divided evenly by two are called odd numbers,
and those that can are called even numbers:
three is an odd number; four is an even number
 ORDINAL NUMERALS

• Ordinal numerals express the thing or person’s position in a

sequential order.
• Ordinal numbers corresponding to cardinals from 4 to 8 except
for five, from 10 to 11 and from 13 to 19 are constructed by
adding the suffix –th to the cardinal numeral:
sixteenth, fourth, eleventh
• For multiples of ten, the same principle applies, but with
terminal -y changed to –ieth:
sixtieth, twentieth, sixtieth
• For numbers made out of tens and units, the elements of the
cardinal number are used, with the last word replaced by the
ordinal:
twenty-sixth, five hundred and twenty-eigth (Br.E.) / five hundred
twenty-eigth (Am.E.)
 List of Key Ordinal Numerals
• As with cardinal numbers, you will find the slightly “unruly”
18th eighteenth
ordinals in capitals in the list below:
19th nineteenth
1st FIRST 20th twentieth
2nd SECOND 21st twenty-first
3rd THIRD
22nd twenty-second
4th fourth
5th FIFTH 30th thirtieth
6th sixth 40th FORTIETH
7th seventh 50th fiftieth
8th eighth 60th sixtieth
9th NINTH
70th seventieth
10th tenth
11th eleventh 80th eightieth
12th TWELFTH 90th ninetieth
13th thirteenth 100th hundredth
14th fourteenth 101st hundred and first
15th fifteenth
1000th thousandth
16th sixteenth
17th seventeenth
 Also remember that:
■ “the” normally precedes ordinal numerals:
the second student, the ninth wife, the third box
■ when written in figures, the last two letters of the word
are compulsorily added to the number:
first= 1st
second= 2nd
third = 3rd
fourth = 4th
twenty-fifth=25th
thirtieth = 30th
■ titles of kings are written in Roman figures, and read using
ordinal numerals:
James VI – James the Fifth
■ days of the month are expressed in dates by ordinal numerals and can be written
in a variety of ways:
May 9/ May the 9th /May 9th / 9 May / 9th of May
…BUT even if written dates use cardinal numerals, they are read as ordinal:
5 November 1983 = the fifth of November 1983
April 2 = April second
When written out in full with "of", the suffix is always retained:
the 30th of December = the thirtieth of December
■ when reading fractions other than ½ (a half) and ¼ (a quarter), we use a
combination of cardinal and ordinal numerals:
1/5 a/one fifth
4/5 four fifths
1/10 a /one tenth
8/10 eight tenths
With bigger numbers, fractions can also be read like this:
15/20 = fifteen over twenty/ divided by twenty.
 A GLOSSARY OF BASIC MATH SYMBOLS AND
OPERATIONS
• Since numerals are mostly used in mathematics and
in other sciences relying on mathematical calculus
and geometry, what follows is a selected list of basic
mathematical symbols and operations adapted from
http://www.rapidtables.com/ that might come in
handy when you give a presentation in English or
work with an English colleague or partner.
• --. Rapid Tables. Online Reference and Tools. “Math
Symbols”, --. Retrieved: July 27, 2016.
http://www.rapidtables.com/math/symbols/Basic_
Math_Symbols.htm
= equals sign, equality
≠ not equal sign, inequality
> greater than, strict inequality
< less than, strict inequality
≥ greater than or equal to, inequality
≤ less than or equal to, inequality
( ) parentheses, calculate expression inside first
[ ] brackets, calculate expression inside first
{ } braces, set
+ plus sign, addition
− minus sign, subtraction
* asterisk, multiplication
× times sign, multiplication
∙ multiplication dot, multiplication
÷ division sign / obelus, division
/ division slash, division
– horizontal line division / fraction, division
mod modulo, remainder calculation
. period, decimal point, decimal separator
√a square root
3√a cube root
4√a fourth root
n√a nth root (radical)
% per cent (Br.E.), percent (Am.E.)
‰ per-mille
ppm per-million
ppb per-billion
ppt per-trillion
f (x) function of x, maps values of x to f(x)
(a,b) open interval
[a,b] closed interval
{a,b} set
det(A) determinant, determinant of matrix A
a∈A element of set A, set membership
x∉A not element of set A, no set membership
∫ integral, opposite to derivation
∬ double integral, integration of a function of 2 variables
∠ angle
| perpendicular, perpendicular lines (90º angle)
|| parallel, parallel lines
π pi constant, ratio between the circumference and diameter