English NumbersPractice

Large Numbers: Listening Practice

“Three hundred and forty thousand.” Train to write 340,000 while the speaker is already on the next word, and to keep thousand, million and billion apart.

In two minutes

  • English names every group of three digits: thousand, million, billion.
  • “Three hundred and forty thousand” is 340,000: the number before “thousand”, then three more digits.
  • “Two point five million” is 2,500,000: the decimal point moves six places.

Hear it

The same clips the practice sessions use. Nothing is downloaded until you press play.

Practise one thing at a time:

What you will hear

One whole number per clip, from one thousand up to the hundreds of billions. Level 1: round thousands such as “forty-two thousand”. Level 2: full forms with thousands and millions, with “and”. Level 3: short forms with a decimal (“two point five million”), billions, and numbers inside sentences.

Conventions

English counts in groups of three digits and gives each group a name. The comma in the written number sits exactly where a name is said.

WrittenHow it is saidZeros
1,000one thousandthree
10,000ten thousandfour
100,000one hundred thousandfive
1,000,000one millionsix
10,000,000ten millionseven
100,000,000one hundred millioneight
1,000,000,000one billionnine

Groups of three, each with a name

English reads a large number in groups of three digits, from the left, and names each group as it goes: billion, million, thousand. 2,500,000 is “two million five hundred thousand”: the group 2 with the name million, then the group 500 with the name thousand. The last group has no name. Each group is read as an ordinary number up to 999, so nothing new has to be learned inside a group; the work is in the names.

The comma in the written number sits exactly where a name is said. If you write a comma each time you hear “billion”, “million” or “thousand”, the digits fall into place: “forty-nine million four hundred and twenty thousand” is 49, then 420, then an empty last group, so 49,420,000.

Where “and” goes

Australians and the British say “and” after “hundred” inside a group: “three hundred and forty thousand” is 340,000. They also say it before a last part smaller than a hundred: “forty-seven thousand and forty-six” is 47,046, “one thousand and five” is 1,005. “And” never stands for a digit; it only joins. Americans often leave it out, and the number is the same.

Empty groups and zeros

A group that is not mentioned is three zeros. “Two million” is 2,000,000: the thousands group and the last group were not said, so both are 000. “Two million and fifty” is 2,000,050. The most common slip is to drop or add a zero when a group is only partly filled: “seventy thousand and sixty-two” is 70,062, with a zero holding the hundreds place.

The short form with “point”

News, business and everyday talk prefer a decimal with one name: “two point five million” for 2,500,000, “one point two billion” for 1,200,000,000. The digits after “point” are read one at a time, so “five point seven three million” is 5.73 million, which is 5,730,000. To write the number out, move the decimal point six places for million and nine for billion, filling with zeros.

Billion

A billion is a thousand million: 1,000,000,000, nine zeros. That is the only meaning in use today in Australia, Britain and the United States.

How to type a number

Type the digits, with or without commas: 340000 and 340,000 are both read as the same number. On a keyboard with letters you can also type a number with its unit, as you might note it down: 340 thousand, 2.5 million, 2.5m, 1.2bn. A phone opens the number keypad, where the digits are all you need. After every answer the feedback writes the number in its groups with their names, and names the size of what you typed if it did not match, so you can see whether the digits or the size went wrong.

Common mistakes

  • Writing the right digits under the wrong name: “three hundred and forty thousand” written as 340,000,000. Catch the name first; it tells you how many digits follow.Practise this
  • Too many or too few zeros: 34,000 or 3,400,000 for 340,000. After “thousand” come exactly three more digits, after “million” six, after “billion” nine.Practise this
  • Hearing “and” as a new number or as a break. “One thousand and five” is 1,005; “and” only joins the last part.
  • Writing “two point five million” as 2,000,005 or 25,000,000. “Point” is a decimal point: 2.5 × 1,000,000 is 2,500,000.
  • Leaving the unit off a short form: 2.5 for “two point five million”. On its own a decimal is not a whole number; write 2.5 million or 2,500,000.
  • Getting a digit wrong inside a group: write each group of three as you hear its name, then replay and check the groups one at a time.

Tips

  • Listen for the name first: thousand, million or billion sets the size before any digit matters.
  • Write a comma each time you hear a name, then fill each group to three digits, with zeros where nothing was said.
  • For “point” forms, write the decimal first (2.5), then move the point: six places for million, nine for billion.

Questions

How can I type the answer?

As digits, with or without commas: 340000 or 340,000. On a keyboard with letters, a number with its unit also works (340 thousand, 2.5 million, 2.5m, 1.2bn), and so do the Chinese units (34万, 2.5亿). A phone opens the number keypad, where the digits are all you need.

Is a billion a thousand million or a million million?

A thousand million: 1,000,000,000. That is what it means in Australia, Britain and the United States today; the older British billion, a million million, is no longer in use.

Are the figures real?

No. Every number is generated for practice. The populations, prices and budgets in the sentences describe nothing real.

Other topics