Видеоучебник / Английский язык / Подготовка к ЕГЭ по английскому языку. Часть 2 / Cardinal and ordinal numbers

Cardinal and ordinal numbers

Урок 31. Подготовка к ЕГЭ по английскому языку. Часть 2

В этом уроке учащиеся поговорят про количественные и порядковые числительные. В конце урока ребята смогут закрепить полученные знания на практике.

Конспект урока "Cardinal and ordinal numbers"

Numbers in English are one of the first things that students will learn when they begin studying the language. We use numbers every day to talk about the time, quantities of items, dates and days of the month, temperature and measurements.

Since most languages around the world use Arabic numbers, many non-native English speakers can write numbers in English without learning any new information. But some situations require numbers to be written out as words. This can complicate things. Fortunately, once you learn the basic rules for written numbers, it’s easy to know when and how to write numbers in English.

So, today in the lesson we will:

● talk about cardinal and ordinal numbers;

● discuss how to write numbers in English;

And

● put the knowledge into practice.

English numbers in general can be divided into two groups. And these groups are…

Cardinal numbers

For example:

Christopher invited twenty-five people to dinner.

And

Ordinal numbers

For instance:

Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States.

Now let’s talk about cardinal and ordinal numbers in detail.

Cardinal numbers are used to count or to say how many of something there are. They can be simple, derived and composite.

The cardinal numbers from 1 to 12 as well as 100, 1,000 and 1,000,000 are simple.

For example:

I’ve already asked him three times.

The numbers from 13 to 19 are derived. They are formed by adding the suffix -teen to the corresponding number of units. They have two stresses: on the first syllable and on the suffix. When followed by a stressed syllable, they lose the stress on the suffix.

For instance:

Children under fourteen should be accompanied by a parent.

The cardinal numbers indicating tens are also derived. They are formed by adding the suffix -ty to the corresponding number of units.

For example:

Jessica is over eighty now, but she is still as fit as a fiddle.

The numbers consisting of tens and units as well as those containing hundreds, thousands and millions are composite. The numbers consisting of the tens and the units are spelt with a hyphen.

For instance:

After twenty-five years as a teacher, he’s decided to call it quits.

In the composite numerals denoting numbers greater than 100, the conjunction “and” is used before the tens or before the units if there are no tens.

For example:

Four thousand and seventy-two people responded to the offer for the free tickets.

Pay attention! When saying large cardinal numbers such as 100, 200, 1,000, etc., we don’t add the ending -s to the words “hundred”, “thousand” and “million”.

For instance:

There were about two hundred people at the meeting.

However, we use the plural forms “hundreds”, “thousands” and “millions” with the preposition “of” and the noun to refer to large, non-specific numbers.

For example:

The computer can do millions of calculations each second.

Now let’s talk about ordinal numbers.

Ordinal numbers are used to tell the position of something in a list.

The ordinal numbers are formed by adding the suffix -th to the corresponding cardinal number. We most commonly use ordinal numbers as determiners. In this case, they stand in front of nouns. When we use ordinal numbers as determiners, we commonly use other determiners such as articles (a, an, the) and possessives (my, your, his, etc.) in front of them.

For instance:

It’s her twenty-seventh birthday, and she is spending it with friends in Malaysia.

(In this sentence “twenty-seventh” is the ordinal number, which is followed by the noun “birthday” and is preceded by the possessive determiner “her”.)

The numbers 1, 2 and 3 are exceptions, because when we form the ordinal numbers from them, we don’t follow the common rule. That’s why we need to memorize them.

If the cardinal number is “one”, the ordinal number will be “the first”.

Number “two” becomes “the second” and “three” becomes “the third”.

For example:

This was the third science exam that he had failed.

In cardinal numbers “five” and “twelve” the ending –ve is changed into -f.

For instance:

That’s the fifth time I have seen him today.

When we form the ordinal number from the cardinal number “nine”, we should omit the letter “e”.

For example:

His office is located on the ninth floor.

There are some cardinal numbers in English, which end with the letter “y”. To form the ordinal numbers from them, we need to change “y” to “ie” and add the ending -th.

For instance:

Jack and Kim celebrated their twentieth wedding anniversary in January.

(The ordinal number “twentieth” is formed from the cardinal number “twenty”.)

When we form ordinal numbers from composite cardinal numbers, we only need to change the final element.

For example:

He was the twenty-third out of two hundred runners.

The ordinal numbers can be used to refer to dates. We usually write them in abbreviated form and often in superscript (above the line). When we speak, we use the words “the” and “of”, but we often omit them in writing.

For instance:

What are you doing on 25^th [the twenty-fifth of] May? Do you want to join us at the cinema?

When you can’t use whole numbers, you’ll need to use fractions. They work much like ordinal numbers. These numbers are almost always hyphenated when they are adjectives, but they are not hyphenated when treated as nouns.

Let’s look at some examples of fractions:

one half (or a half)

one third (or a third)

two thirds

three fifths

five twelfths

one and a half

two and one fourth (or two and a quarter)

six and two thirds

And so on.

Now compare the following examples:

It’s a twenty-three-and-a-quarter-hour journey.

Benjamin ate two thirds of the turkey.

(As you can see, in the first sentence we’ve written the fraction using a hyphen, because it is used as an adjective. However, in the second sentence we’ve written the fraction without a hyphen, because it is used as a noun.)

Guys, we’ve talked about cardinal and ordinal numbers. Now…

Do the sums and write the results using numbers and words!

Twenty-two plus forty-five equals…

Four hundred and seventy-two minus ninety-seven equals…

Five thousand and eighty-three minus three thousand and twenty-five equals…

One hundred and sixty-seven plus seventy-three equals…

Three thousand and twenty-nine plus seventeen equals…

Seven thousand eight hundred and forty-two minus six thousand nine hundred and eighteen equals…

Thirty-four plus twenty-nine equals…

Eight hundred and seventeen minus three hundred and thirteen equals…

Let’s check the right answers!

Sixty-seven