Image by Robbie Sproule on Flickr.com.

Today I have some tips for you for tricky aspects of numbers in English. I want to start by looking at English ordinal numbers. Ordinal numbers are the numbers we use to talk about something’s position, such as first place, second place or third place, in a competition. You might have noticed that ordinal numbers don’t always end with the same suffix or ending, i.e. first, second, and third, fourth. In these, four numbers you can see the four suffixes that English ordinal numbers end in: -st, -nd, -rd, and –th. Now, here is my tip for knowing which of these suffixes to use, with what numbers.

If the tens digit of the number is ‘1,’ always use the suffix –th.

Examples: thirteenth (13th), one hundred and seventeenth (117th), two thousand four hundred and fifteenth (2,415th)

If the tens digit of the number is not ‘1,’ then look at the ones digit of the number to figure out which ending to chose, and use this chart:

0 = th
1 = st
2 = nd
3 = rd
4 = th
5 = th
6 = th
7 = th
8 = th
9 = th

Examples:
one hundredth (100th)
one hundred and first (101st)
twenty-second (22nd)
fifty-third (53rd)
five thousand one hundred and twenty-fourth (5,124th)
fifty-fifth (55th)
etc.

My next tip about number is related to spelling. There is definitely some tricky spelling when it comes to numbers in English. Take a look at these numbers that are commonly misspelled and be careful next time you write them out.

twelfth – although this number comes from the root number twelve instead of being spelled with a ‘v’ it is spelled with an ‘f’
ninth – although this number comes from the root number nine there is no ‘e’ in this number
fifteen and fifty – although both of these numbers come from the number ‘five’ neither of them have a ‘v’ in them, instead they have an ‘f’ (note “f”, not “v”)
eighteen and eighty –both of these numbers come from the number ‘eight’ and when they are spoken it sounds like we are saying eight-teen and eight-ty, but there is only one ‘t’ in the spelling of these words
forty – although this number comes from the number four, there is no ‘u’ in it like its base number

Lastly, here are some helpful number adverbs for talking about how often something happens:

one time = once
two times = twice
three times = thrice
four times = four times
five times = five times
six times = six times
etc. – Only the first three numbers have a special adjective for talking about number of times.

Examples:
Gail thinks seeing the dentist once a year is enough.
I have gone to see the new Brad Pitt movie twice.
Katelyn has been back to the store thrice today.
He checked his email four times before lunch.

That is the end of my number know-how tips for today. Check back soon for my last post in this November Numbers series!