GENERAL ENGLISH 1

Lecturer: Yessy Purnamasari, S.S., M.Hum. Skill Focus: Speaking

Politeknik Negeri Duration: 4x50’ Topic: Describing numbers and simple

Bandung calculation

Equipment:
Whiteboard, board marker, handout, projector, screen, laptop

Objectives: After completing this lesson, students are expected to be able to:
1. Identify cardinal numbers and ordinal numbers.
2. Identify dates and years.
3. Identify fractions, roots, decimals, percentages, and exponents.
4. Saying ‘0’.
5. Compose basic processes of arithmetic.

Student’s name Date:

1. Introduction
Numbers can be found everywhere. You will find it in a hotel room number, a telephone number,
a sports score, or a price of a bag. In English, there are certain rules in saying the numbers, so you
will not make any misleading information.

2. Cardinal vs Ordinal Numbers

A cardinal number refers to a number that shows how many of something there are, such as one,
two, three, four, or five. An ordinal number refers to a number that shows the position of
something in a list, such as first, second, or third. Here is the comparison table of cardinal versus
ordinal numbers.

Cardinal How to Say It Ordinal How to Say It

Numbers Numbers
1 One 1st First
2 Two 2nd Second
3 Three 3rd Third
4 Four 4th Fourth
5 Five 5th Fifth
6 Six 6th Sixth
7 Seven 7th Seventh
8 Eight 8th Eight
9 Nine 9th Ninth
10 Ten 10th Tenth
11 Eleven 11th Eleventh
12 Twelve 12th Twelfth
13 Thirteen 13th Thirteenth
14 Fourteen 14th Fourteenth
15 Fifteen 15th Fifteenth
16 Sixteen 16th Sixteenth
17 Seventeen 17th Seventeenth
18 Eighteen 18th Eighteenth

DESCRIBING NUMBERS AND SIMPLE CALCULATION| 1

 19 Nineteen 19th Nineteenth
20 Twenty 20th Twentieth
21 Twenty-one 21st Twenty-first
100 One hundred 100th Hundredth
1,000 One thousand 1,000th Thousandth
100,000 One hundred thousand 100,000 One hundred thousandth
1,000,000 One million 1,000,000 One millionth
1,000,000,000 One billion

Notes:
• For numbers larger than 20, use a hyphen between the compound numbers.
89 = eighty-nine
68 = sixty-eight
• For numbers larger than 100, use a hyphen between compound numbers and the word
or either the definite article ‘a’ or ‘one’ for 100.
124 = a/one hundred and twenty-four
367 three hundred and sixty-seven
• For numbers larger than 1000, use a hyphen between compound numbers and the word
or either the definite article ‘a’ or ‘one’ for 1000. Separate three digits using a comma (,).
1,124 = a/one thousand one hundred and twenty-four
4,367 = four thousand three hundred and sixty-seven

3. Saying ‘0’
There are many ways to say the number 0. Here are the examples:

Term Explanation Examples

Oh Single digits • My postal code is 48908.
• My phone number is 0876 778 123
Zero Measurement It’s -100 C here.
(Temperature) (It’s ten degrees Celsius below zero here)
Naught/ Figure ‘0’ in British English 10 – 10 = 0
Nought (Ten minus ten leaves naught)
Nil Result in sports The match ended 2-0.
(The match ended two-nil)

4. Dates and Years

Here is how we express a year in English.

How we write the year How to say the year

2021 • Two thousand and twenty-one
• Twenty twenty-one
1900 Nineteen hundred
1862 Eighteen sixty-two
1960s Nineteen sixties
2000 BC Two thousand Before Christ

DESCRIBING NUMBERS AND SIMPLE CALCULATION| 2

 Here is how we express a date in English.

How we write the date How to say the date

1st January 2022 The first of January two thousand and twenty-two
03/08/1998 The third of August nineteen ninety-eight (general)
The eight of March nineteen ninety-eight (US)
(The month comes first)
June 12, 2001 June the twelfth, two thousand and one

The use of prepositions in saying the date can be various. Pay attention to these examples.
• She was born on May 6th, 1990.
• They left the town on the ninth of July.
• He launched the product in March.
• The new class will start in February.

How to ask the day or the date How to answer

What day is it? It’s Thursday.
What date is it, please? It’s the twenty-ninth of April.
What is the date today, please? Today is July the third.

5. Fractions, Roots, and Exponents

In read fractions, we use the cardinal number for the numerator and the ordinal number for the
denominator. The ordinal number will be in plural if the numerator is larger than 1. This applies
to all numbers except for the number 2, which is read as "half" when it is the denominator, and
"halves" if there is more than one.

3 = numerator (number of parts we have)

_

5 = denominator (total parts in whole)

Example of Fraction How to say it Type

1 One-third
3

1 One-fourth / a quarter
4

2 Two-thirds
3

3 Three-fourths/ three quarters

4
2 Two-halves
2
14 Fourteen twentieths Large fraction
20 Fourteen over twenty
Fourteen divided by twenty
4 Two and four sevens Mixed fraction
2
7

DESCRIBING NUMBERS AND SIMPLE CALCULATION| 3

 The square root of a number is a value, which on multiplication by itself gives the original number.
The square root is an inverse method of squaring a number. Hence, squares and square roots are
related concepts.

Radical symbol
Root or solution

2
√81 = 9
Root index

Radicand

Notes: the use of root index is optional on square roots.

Look at the examples of how we read the square root:

Example of Roots How to say it

2
√25 = ? What is the square root of 25?
3
√64 = ? What is the cube root of 64?
4
√81 = ? What is the fourth root of 81?
5
√32 = ? What is the fifth root of 81?

Exponent refers to how many times to use a number in a multiplication. In other words, it is
also called power.

Exponent or power

82

Base number

Look at the examples of how we read the exponent:

Example of Exponents How to say it

82 • Eight to the power two
• Eight to the second power
• Eight squared
53 • Five to the power three
• Five to the third power
• Five cubed
24 • Two to the power four

DESCRIBING NUMBERS AND SIMPLE CALCULATION| 4

 • Two to the fourth power
• Two to the fourth

6. Decimals and Percentages

In saying a decimal, we pronounce the decimal point as ‘point’, then read the digit individually.
Remember, it does not apply to the sum of money. Pay attention to these examples:

Example of Decimals How to say it

0.012 Zero point zero one two
Naught point zero one two
3.490 Three point four nine zero
58.1 Fifty-eight point one

Saying a percentage is easy. You just have to say the number and add the word ‘percent’. Pay
attention to these examples:

Example of Percentages How to say it

6% Six percent
31% Thirty-one percent
98.73% Ninety-eight point seven three percent
100% One hundred percent
A hundred percent

7. Basic process of arithmetic

Types Examples How to say it
Addition (+) 5+6 = 11 Five plus six is eleven.
Subtraction (-) 81-2 = 79 Eighty-one minus two is seventy-nine.
Multiplication (x) 20 x 5 = 100 Twenty times five is a hundred.
Division (÷) 24÷3 = 8 Twenty-four divided by three is eight.

8. Games
a. Make a group consisting of three or four students.
b. Create 5 questions about numbers. Each question will be given to another group to be
answered. The point will be yours when the opponent cannot answer your group’s question.
c. The game will end when all groups have presented the questions.

9. Exercises
a. Fill in the blanks with the correct cardinal or ordinal number.
1. What a game! I feel so relieved to know that my daughter is in the __________ (2) position.
2. He invested all his money ________ (3) times bigger than other investors.
3. Do you know that Indonesia is the ________ (9) polluted country in the world based on the
World Population Review website?
4. As the ______ (1) children in the family, Lisa is very excited to welcome her new sister.
5. There are _________ (4) of us who will represent the university in the national competition.
6. The committee requires ________ (2) reviewers to assess the article.
7. Hey! Who will be the ________ (1) volunteer to try this food?

DESCRIBING NUMBERS AND SIMPLE CALCULATION| 5

 8. The company will donate _________ (15) laptops to the school as part of its CSR program.
9. My mom asked me to buy __________ (6) burgers for dinner.
10. This building has a magnificent rooftop in its ___________ (7) floor.

b. Write down the numbers in a form of words.

Bangladesh is the most polluted country in the world, with an average PM2.5 (1)
concentration of 77.10 (2), which is nonetheless a decrease from 83.30 (3) in 2019 (4) and
97.10 (5) in 2018 (6). The country's primary environmental pollutants are air and water
pollution, groundwater contamination, noise pollution, and solid waste. Dhaka City is one of
the most polluted cities in the world. In terms of air pollution, Bangladesh's largest source is
its brickmaking industry, which employs one million people and creates 23 billion bricks every
year. The kilns used in brickmaking burn wood or coal and create mass amounts of smoke and
dust. Due to increased demand for bricks, the brickmaking industry is only expected to grow
more, leading to more air pollution.
Source: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-polluted-countries

1. ___________________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________________
4. ___________________________________________________________________________
5. ___________________________________________________________________________
6. ___________________________________________________________________________

c. Match the numbers with the correct type on the right.

1. 90 + 81 = 171 a. date
2. It’s the fourth of July. b. fraction
3. 20% of new students come from West Java. c. decimal
4. You must add 1.2 points to get the A score. d. addition
5. Only 1/3 of the seats are sold to the customers. e. percentage

d. Write down the numbers in a form of words.

Question How we say it?
2
√25 = 5

67.901

12%

23

2
5
1
7
2

DESCRIBING NUMBERS AND SIMPLE CALCULATION| 6

References
-

DESCRIBING NUMBERS AND SIMPLE CALCULATION| 7