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)