Referring to an exact number of things: numbers

2.225 When you want to refer to an exact number of things, you use numbers such as 'two', 'thirty', and '777' which are called cardinal numbers, or sometimes cardinals.

I'm going to ask you thirty questions.

...two hundred and sixty copies of the record.

The cardinal numbers are listed in the Reference Section and their use is explained in paragraphs 2.230 to 2.243.

2.226 When you want to identify or describe something by indicating where it comes in a series or sequence, you use an ordinal number, or an ordinal, such as 'first', 'second', 'fourteenth', or 'twenty-seventh'.

She received a video camera for her fourteenth birthday.

She repeated this escape for the second and last time.

The ordinal numbers are listed in the Reference Section and their use is explained in paragraphs 2.249 to 2.256.

2.227 When you want to indicate how large a part of something is compared to the whole of it, you use a fraction such as 'a third' and 'three-quarters'.

A third of the American forces were involved.

The bottle had been about three-quarters full when he'd started.

Fractions are explained in paragraphs 2.257 to 2.266.

2.228 When you want to refer to a size, distance, area, volume, weight, speed, or temperature, you can do so by using a number or quantifier in front of a measurement noun such as 'feet' and 'miles'.

He was about six feet tall.

I walked ten miles, there and back, to Woodbridge every day.

Measurement nouns are explained in paragraphs 2.267 to 2.274.

If you do not know the exact number, size, or quantity of something, you can give an approximate amount or measurement using one of a group of special words and expressions. These are explained in paragraphs 2.281 to 2.288.

2.229 When you want to say how old someone or something is, you have a choice of ways in which to do it. These are explained in paragraphs 2.275 to 2.288.

Referring to the number of things: cardinal numbers

2.230 If you want to refer to some or all of the things in a group, you can indicate how many things you are referring to by using a cardinal number.

The cardinal numbers are listed in the Reference Section.

By Christmas, we had ten cows.

When you use a determiner and a number in front of a noun, you put the determiner in front of the number.

...the three young men.

...my two daughters.

Watch the eyes of any two people engrossed in conversion.

All three candidates are coming to Blackpool later this week.

When you put a number and an adjective in front of a noun, you usually put the number in front of the adjective.

...two small children.

...fifteen hundred local residents.

...three beautiful young girls.

'one' 2.231 'One' is used as a number in front of a noun to emphasize that there is only one thing, to show that you are being precise, or to contrast one thing with another. 'One' is followed by a singular noun.

That is the one big reservation I've got.

He balanced himself on one foot.

There was only one gate into the palace.

This treaty was signed one year after the Suez Crisis.

It was negative in one respect but positive in another.

'One' can also be used, like other numbers, as a quantifier.

One of my students sold me her ticket.

...one of the few great novels of the century.

I was one of the most experienced organisers on campus.

'One' also has special uses as a determiner and a pronoun. These are explained in paragraph 1.234 and paragraphs 1.157 to 1.160.

2.232 When a large number begins with the figure '1', the '1' can be said or written as 'a' or 'one'. 'One' is more formal.

...a million dollars.

...a hundred and fifty miles.

Over one million pounds has been raised.

talking about negative amounts 2.233 The number 0 is not used in ordinary English to indicate that the number of things you are talking about is zero. Instead the negative determiner 'no' or the negative pronoun 'none' is used, or 'any' is used with a negative. These are explained in paragraphs 4.45 and 4.65 to 4.67.

numbers and agreement 2.234 When you use any number except 'one' in front of a noun, you use a plural noun.

There were ten people there, all men.

...a hundred years.

...a hundred and one things.

2.235 When you use a number and a plural noun to talk about two or more things, you usually use a plural verb. You use a singular verb with 'one'.

Seven guerrillas were wounded.

There is one clue.

However, when you are talking about an amount of money or time, or a distance, speed, or weight, you usually use a number, a plural noun, and a singular verb.

Three hundred pounds is a lot of money.

Ten years is a long time.

Three miles is generally taken to be the boundary of a country's airspace.

90 miles an hour is much too fast.

Ninety pounds is all she weighs.

Ways of measuring things are explained in paragraphs 2.267 to 2.274.

2.236 You can use cardinal numbers with both ordinals (see paragraphs 2.249 to 2.256) and postdeterminers (see paragraph 2.44). When you use a cardinal number with a determiner followed by an ordinal number or a postdeterminer, the cardinal number usually comes after the determiner and the ordinal or postdeterminer.

The first two years have been very successful.

...throughout the first four months of this year.

...the last two volumes of the encyclopedia.

...in the previous three years of his reign.

Note that some postdeterminers can be used like ordinary classifying adjectives (see paragraph 2.44). When they are used like this, the cardinal number comes before them.

He has written two previous novels.

...two further examples.

2.237 When either the context makes it clear, or you think that your listener already knows something, you can use the cardinal number without a noun.

Those two are quite different.

When cardinal numbers are used like this, you can put ordinal numbers, postdeterminers, or superlative adjectives in between the determiner and the cardinal number.

I want to tell you about the programmes. The first four are devoted to universities.

The other six are masterpieces.

The best thirty have the potential to be successful journalists.

2.238 When you use 'dozen', 'hundred', 'thousand', 'million', or 'billion' to indicate exact numbers, you put 'a' or another number in front of them.

...a hundred dollars.

...six hundred and ten miles.

...a thousand billion pounds.

...two dozen diapers.

2.239 When you use 'dozen', 'hundred', 'thousand', 'million', or 'billion' they remain singular even when the number in front of them is greater than one.

2.240 You can use 'dozen', 'hundred', 'thousand', 'million', or 'billion' without 'of' in a less precise way by putting 'several', 'a few', and 'a couple of' in front of them.

...several hundred people.

A few thousand cars have gone.

...life a couple of hundred years ago.

2.241 When you want to emphasize how large a number is without stating it precisely, you can use 'dozens', 'hundreds', 'thousands', 'millions', and 'billions' in the same way as cardinals followed by 'of'.

That's going to take hundreds of years.

...hundreds of dollars.

We travelled thousands of miles across Europe.

...languages spoken by millions of people.

We have dozens of friends in the community.

You can put 'many' in front of these plural forms.

I nave travelled many hundreds of miles with them.

USAGE NOTE 2.242 People often use the plural forms when they are exaggerating.

I was meeting thousands of people.

Do you have to fill in hundreds of forms before you go?

You can also emphasize or exaggerate a large number by using these words in qualifying prepositional phrases beginning with 'by'.

...a book which sells by the million.

...people who give injections by the dozen.

Calculators like this are now selling by the hundred thousand.

numbers as labels 2.243 Cardinal numbers can be used to label or identify things.

Room 777 of the Stanley Hotel.

Number 11 Downing Street.

numbers as quantifiers 2.244 You can also use cardinal numbers as quantifiers linked by 'of' to a noun group referring to a group. You do this when you want to emphasize that you are talking about a part or all of a group.

I saw four of these programmes.

Three of the questions today have been about democracy.

I use plastic kitchen bins. I have four of them.

All eight of my great-grandparents lived in the city.

All four of us wanted to get away from the Earl's Court area.

The clerk looked at the six of them and said, 'All of you?'

I find it less worrying than the two of you are suggesting.

Quantifiers are explained in paragraphs 2.194 to 2.210.

number quantifiers as pronouns 2.245 Cardinal numbers can be used to quantify something without the 'of' and the noun group, when it is clear what you are referring to.

...a group of painters, nine or ten in all.

Of the other wives, two are dancers and one is a singer.

...the taller student of the two.

...breakfast for two.

numbers as qualifiers 2.246 Cardinal numbers can also be used after pronouns as qualifiers.

I am a woman, and you three are not.

In the fall we two are going to England.

numbers in compound adjectives 2.247 Cardinal numbers can be used as part of a compound adjective, (see paragraphs 2.98 to 2.107). The cardinal number is used in front of a noun to form a compound adjective which is usually hyphenated.

He took out a five-dollar bill.

I wrote a five-page summary of the situation.

Note that the noun remains singular even when the number is two or more, and that compound adjectives which are formed like this cannot be as complements. For example, you cannot say 'My essay is five-hundred-word'. Instead you would probably say 'My essay is five hundred words long'.

2.248 Cardinal numbers are sometimes used with general time words such as 'month' and 'week'. You do this when you want describe something by saying how long it lasts. If the thing is referred to with an uncount noun, you use the possessive form (see paragraphs 2.180 to 2.192) of the general time word.

She is already had at least nine months' experience.

On Friday she had been given two weeks' notice.

Sometimes the apostrophe is omitted.

They wanted three weeks holiday and three weeks pay.

The determiner 'a' is usually used when you are talking about a single period of time, although 'one' can be used instead when you want to be more formal.

She's on a year's leave from Hunter College.

She was only given one week's notice.

Cardinal numbers can also be used with general time words as modifiers of adjectives.

She was four months pregnant.

The rains are two months late.

His rent was three weeks overdue.