How To Pronounce Dates and Numbers in English Dates In English, we can say dates either with the day before the month, or the month before the day: The first of January / January the first. Remember to use ordinal numbers for dates in English. (The first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the twenty-second, the thirty-first etc.) Years For years up until 2000, separate the four numbers into two pairs of two: 1965 = nineteen sixty-five 1871 = eighteen seventy-one 1999 = nineteen ninety-nine For this decade, you need to say "two thousand and —-" when speaking British English: 2001 = two thousand and one 2009 = two thousand and nine Large numbers Divide the number into units of hundreds and thousands: 400,000 = four hundred thousand (no s plural) If the number includes a smaller number, use "and" in British English: 450,000 = four hundred and fifty thousand 400,360 = four hundred thousand and three hundred and sixty Fractions, ratios and percentages ½ = one half 1/3 = one third ¼ = one quarter 1/5 = one fifth 1/ 6 = one sixth etc 3/5 = three fifths 1.5% = one point five percent 0.3% = nought / zero point three percent 2:1 = two to one Saying 0 Depending on the context, we can pronounce zero in different ways: 2-0 (football) = Two nil 30 – 0 (tennis) = Thirty love 604 7721 (phone number) = six oh four… 0.4 (a number) = nought point four / zero point four 0C (temperature) = zero degrees Talking about calculations in English + (plus) 2 + 1 = 3 (two plus one equals three) - (minus / take away) 5 – 3 = 2 (five minus three equals two / five take away three equals two) x (multiplied by / times) 2 x 3 = 6 (two multiplied by three equals six / two times three equals six) / (divided by) 6 / 3 = 2 (six divided by three equals two) |