Categories: Numerals

Numerals: Cardinal and Ordinal Numbers

Table Of Contents:

Cardinal numerals
Ordinal numbers
Spelling of ordinal numbers

A numeral is a figure, a symbol, a word (or their combinations) representing a number.
It denotes the number of objects, their number, and also the order when counting objects. There are cardinal and ordinal numbers.

I have two apples.
There are twenty-five pencils in the box.
I’ve already asked him three times.

Cardinal numerals

We use cardinal numbers to count or to say how many of something there are.

Five plums.
Forty cars.
One million dollars.
I ate ten apples.

Cardinal Numerals
1 One	2 Two	3 Three	4 Four
5 Five	6 Six	7 Seven	8 Eight
9 Nine	10 Ten	11 Eleven	12 Twelve
13 Thirteen	14 Fourteen	15 Fifteen	16 Sixteen
17 Seventeen	18 Eighteen	19 Nineteen	20 Twenty
21 Twenty-one	22 Twenty-two	23 Twenty-three	24 Twenty-four
25 Twenty-five	26 Twenty-six	27 Twenty-seven	28 Twenty-eight
29 Twenty-nine	30 Thirty	40 Forty	50 Fifty
60 Sixty	70 Seventy	80 Eighty	90 Ninety
100 One hundred	1,000 One thousand	1,000,000 One million	1,000,000,000 One billion

Compound numerals, (numbers consisting of two words), from 21-99 should be hyphenated.

We invited twenty-five people to the dinner.

For higher numerals, we can add ‘and’ between the second last word and the final word.

He requested nine hundred and ten plates.
Where did you get all four hundred and fifty-five of these?

When saying large cardinal numerals we don’t add ‘-s’ to the words ‘hundred’, ‘thousand’ and ‘million’:

There are two hundred eight (208) pupils in our school.
There are five thousand eight hundred thirty (5,830) kilometers between New-York and Paris.

To avoid misunderstandings with certain similar-sounding cardinal numerals, always stress the correct syllable when pronouncing them.

Thirteen (13) → Thirty (30)
Fourteen (14) → Forty (40)
Fifteen (15) → Fifty (50)
Sixteen (16) → Sixty (60)
Seventeen (17) → Seventy (70)
Eighteen (18) → Eighty (80)
Nineteen (19) → Ninety (90)

Watch this video and find out about small and big numbers:

Ordinal numbers

We use ordinal numerals to express position or rank of something in a sequential order of size, chronology, importance, etc.

The first song was beautiful, but the second was rather dull.
The thousandth passenger received a reward.
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States.
He came in fourth (4th) in the race.

Spelling of ordinal numbers

We can write ordinal numbers in two ways – a numerical form or in written, word form.

In the numerical form, we add the suffix ‘-th’ to most ordinal numbers. However, 1, 2, and 3, have special suffixes: ‘-st’ (first), ‘-nd’ (second), and ‘-rd’ (third).

1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
10th
15th
20th
21st

The written form follows the same rules except we add the suffixes to the word.

First
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Sixth
Tenth
Fifteenth
Twentieth (note the change in spelling from ‘y’ to ‘ie’)
Twenty-first (note the hyphen is still necessary)

In some cases, the spelling of the numeral is modified to accommodate the suffix:

one – first
two – second
three – third
five – fifth
eight – eighth
nine – ninth
twelve – twelfth

Additionally, for cardinal numbers ending in ‘-y’ we change it to ‘-ie’ in ordinal numbers:

twenty – twentieth
forty – fortieth
sixty – sixtieth

In compound numerals ‘-th’ is added to the last word.

one million – one-millionth
two hundred – two-hundredth

Ordinal Numerals
1st First	2nd Second	3rd Third	4th Fourth
5th Fifth	6th Sixth	7th Seventh	8th Eighth
9th Ninth	10th Tenth	11th Eleventh	12th Twelfth
13th Thirteenth	14th Fourteenth	15th Fifteenth	16th Sixteenth
17th Seventeenth	18th Eighteenth	19th Nineteenth	20th Twentieth
21st Twenty-first	22nd Twenty-second	23rd Twenty- third	24th Twenty-fourth
25th Twenty-fifth	26th Twenty- sixth	27th Twenty- seventh	28th Twenty-eighth
29th Twenty-ninth	30th Thirtieth	40th Fortieth	50th Fiftieth
60th Sixtieth	70th Seventieth	80th Eightieth	90th Ninetieth
100th One-hundredth	1,000th One-thousandth	1,000,000th One-millionth	1,000,000,000th One-billionth