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.
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
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
= one half
1/3 = one third
= 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 = Two nil
30 0 = Thirty love
604 7721 = six oh four
0.4 = nought point four / zero point four
0C = zero degrees
Talking about calculations in English
+
2 + 1 = 3
-
5 3 = 2
x
2 x 3 = 6
/
6 / 3 = 2