Numbers with hundred's and thousand's
Hi people, I've got problems with numbers with "hundred's" and "thousand's" in English.
I know 15,000 is "fifteen thousand", so how do you say 1,500? Do you say "one thousand five hundred" or "fifteen hundred"?
I learned the former at school but the latter seems more common.
Is there any rules as to these numbers?
Thanks in advance.
<<I know 15,000 is "fifteen thousand", so how do you say 1,500? Do you say "one thousand five hundred" or "fifteen hundred"?>>
"One thousand five hundred" is the "official", formal version. "Fifteen hundred" is the informal version, which I think would be the more commonly heard form in casual conversation.
Yeah, along those lines. Use whichever you like ... that's the best rule I could give you. "Fifteen hundred" is a damn sight less of a mouthful. Why not unless you be speaking to Her Majesty ... and then even still.
"hundreds and thousands"
Also the name of very very small lollies that you sprinkle
over ice cream and cake.
"hundreds and thousands"
Also sprinkled on sliced white bread.
"fifteen hundred" is considered correct and can be used in virtually all situations.
Any number from 1000 to 9999 can start with "XX-hundred", with the exceptions of the ones that have a zero in the hundreds column.
ie: 10XX, 20XX, 30XX, etc. should always be one-thousand-XX, two-thousand-XX and three-thousand-XX; never ten-hundred-XX, twenty hundred-XX and thirty-hundred-XX.
Numbers that fall into the above categore, such as "3025" or "5082", can sometimes be referred to as "thirty-twenty-five" or "fifty-eighty-two" , but this is only acceptable when referring to addresses and dates
ie: "I live at thirty-twenty five Clarence Street" is acceptable. "The television costs thirty-twenty-five dollars" is not accepted.
Dates are a slightly different story. Before the year 2000, dates were almost exclusively referred to the same way addresses were - "1981" is "nineteen-eighty-one" "1642" was "sixteen-forty-two" This was mostly because saying dates like this is much less of a mouthful than saying the number mathematicly.
After the year 2000, things changed a bit. Most people seem to say years from the current decade as "two-thousand and one" "two-thousand-six" instead of "twenty-o-one" and "twenty-o-six" Saying these dates either way has the same number of syllables, so it doesn't save any time using either one. When 2010 rolls around, common usage may change to "twenty-ten" "twenty-thirty five". This still only saves you from saying one lousy syllable though. I guess we won't really find out what people will adopt until after 2010.
Although it's likely we'll all be long dead by then, after 2100, I expect people will go back to saying "twenty-one-fifteen" and such.