This is the last post in a series of four posts that have looked at numbers in English. So far we have looked at some special numbers (i.e. the number 7), different names for certain numbers, and tips for remembering how to use ordinal numbers and spell some tricky numbers. Now, we are going to look at “empty numbers” or numbers that don’t even exist!

In everyday English there are a few suffixes and a prefix that can be combined to indicate “empty numbers.” Empty numbers are non-specific numbers. We use them when there is uncertainty about what the number is or when the exact number is not important. Empty numbers indicate a range of possible numbers. In English there are three empty number suffixes and one empty number prefix, which I have listed below.

Suffixes:

-teen: used to talk about non-specific numbers between 10 and 20

-ty: used to talk about non-specific numbers between 20 and 100

-illion:  used to talk about non-specific numbers above 1,000,000 (or just to indicate that something is very large)

The prefix:

ump-: This prefix is added to either of the suffix –teen or –ty. It is not ever added to the suffix –illion. Other prefixes are added to -illion, which I’ll tell you about below.

Now, let’s look at how these suffixes and prefixes fit together to make empty numbers.

Here are some examples:

“I called the store umpteen times before someone answered the phone.”

“There were umpteen people in front of her in line when she started waiting.”

In both of these sentences we know the number the speaker is talking about is between 10-20, but we don’t know what the exact number is, and we don’t need to know.

“There are umpty some ways to get there from here.”

The word “umpty” is used very rarely in English; it is used much less compared to the use of umpteen. I wanted to introduce it here, but I would recommend you focus more on using “umpteen” as an empty number when it is appropriate.

Now, let’s look at the suffix –illion. This suffix is often used to indicate really, really big numbers or the idea of really big numbers. It is also used to exaggerate something and it is used emphatically. The suffix –illion is used to talk about some real numbers as well, such as ‘billion’ and ‘million.’ It is also used with the number ‘zillion,’ which usually means anything greater than a billion.  The -illion suffix is also used with some made-up prefixes, which people create to indicate really large amounts.  Words with –illion at their end are used as adjectives, i.e. modifying nouns.  The indefinite article “a” is always used right before an a word ending in –illion.

Here are some examples:

“I swear there are a babillion people here!”

“There must be a gazillion stars in the sky.”

Usually when people use the suffix –illion to create an empty number they just make-up a prefix (i.e. gag-, baz-, tr-) to put in front of the suffix –illion, just like in the examples above.

Here is one last example, which uses two empty numbers at once:

“There were umpteen zillion people at the concert.”

In this example you can be sure the speaker is trying to let you know there were a lot of people. Also, note ‘a’ is not used in front of ‘zillion’ because it immediately preceded by the empty number umpteen, which does not need to have the article ‘a’ preceding it.

Lastly, another way to create nonspecific numbers in English is to say the word “some” before or after a rounded number. A rounded number is one that ends in 0 (i.e. 30, 100, 2,000, 120,000). When using the word some in this way, it usually comes after a rounded number that is less than 1,000 and before a rounded number that is more than 1,000. This is not a hard and fast rule, but a good generalization.

Here are some examples:

“After 30-some years I am reuniting with my best friend from elementary school.”

“I attended high school with some-1,000 other people.”

“James has 400-some friends on Facebook.”

In summary, empty numbers are used to talk about a non-specific range of numbers; they are generally used informal and emphatically; and they are fun to play around with!

I hope you have enjoyed this short series of posts on English numbers. If you have any questions about this or any other posts in this series, please ask them by posting a comment below.