How to write numbers in English: 6 common mistakes

Hi there. My name is Emma, and today we are going to look at common mistakes that ESL

students make when they're talking about numbers. Okay? So in this video, we will look at five

different mistakes I hear my students make often and ways to correct these mistakes.

So let's get started. First we're going to look at pronunciation,

the pronunciation of numbers. Okay, so the first mistake I hear often is when students

are talking about time -- or things in general, but often with time -- they're talking about

the month, the week, the night, the year, the day; they often forget to pronounce the

"s" or they pronounce an "s" when they shouldn't. So what do I mean by this? Well, first I have

"one month", "two months". So notice in this case: there's no "s" so I don't pronounce

an "s". In this case there is an "s" so I do pronounce an "s". So even though it's a

pretty simple rule, a lot of people when they speak, they don't do this. I hear students

say all the time: "I've been here for one years." Or "I lived there for five year."

Okay? So be very careful when you say numbers, make sure that the noun that comes after,

if there's more than one: you need an "s" and it's pronounced, the "s" is pronounced.

So what I'd like to do is I'm going to read to you five sentences and I want you to hear

if I'm pronouncing the "s" or not. Okay? Oh, and one other thing I should say. So sometimes

"s" are pronounced as "s'" like "sss", other times they're pronounced like "zzz" like a

"z". So for month: "months", it's pronounced like "sss" like a snake. Week: "weeks". Night:

"nights". Okay? Whereas "year" and "day", when we add an "s", the "s" is pronounced

like a "z". "Years", "days". Okay? So keep that in mind.

Okay, so the first sentence. Listen carefully to see if I pronounce the "s" after the number

or not. "I've been here for one years." Is that a correct sentence?

No, it's not because I said "one", it should have been: "I've been here for one year."

Okay, number two: "Four day ago I saw my aunt."

So what's wrong with this? Is there anything wrong? "Four day ago I saw my aunt."

It should be: "Four days ago". There're four of them

so they need to be plural, so you need to pronounce the "s".

Next one: "I've worked for two months."

Is there a problem with that? "I've worked for two months."

No, that sentence is okay. I pronounced the "s" because there were two

months. Okay, number four: "I must study for five month."

"I must study for five month." Did you hear an "s"?

So that one was incorrect. It should be: "I must study for five months." Last one: "I went to Cuba for one weeks."

What's the problem with this sentence? I pronounced an "s" after "week", but because there's only

one, it shouldn't be "one weeks", it should be "one week". Okay?

So I know this is a simple pronunciation rule, but it's something that it's very important

to be careful with. So even if you have to practice at home: "One year, one year, one

year. Two years, two years, two years." Keep repeating it until it becomes easy and you

don't make that mistake. Okay. So what's our next pronunciation mistake?

Well this is sort of a funny one. A lot of ESL students, when they mean "Thirteen (13)"

they say "Thirty (30)" and vice versa. So I'll ask a student: how many years did they

go to university? Or not university, that would be a bad example. How many years of

schooling did they have? And I'll hear "Thirty (30)" when what they really mean to say is

"Thirteen (13)". Okay? And this is very common when it comes to money. Students, you know,

they'll hear the sum they have to pay incorrectly or they'll say something costs "Thirty (30)"

when it really costs "Thirteen (13)" and vice versa. Same with when you give out your phone

number, this could be a real problem -- or your address.

So how do I pronounce "thirteen (13)" versus "thirty (30)"? Well the easiest thing to do

-- and this goes for all the teen numbers so 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, it also goes

for 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 -- it's important to be aware of stress. So what do I mean by

stress? Well, when we stress something, we say it louder and longer. So when you say

the number "thirteen", the stress should be on "teen". So I should say: "thir-TEEN." It's

very clear if I say "teen" longer and louder. Same with "sevenTEEN", longer and louder.

So the stress, again, is on "teen", that's what you say louder and longer. Whereas with

"thirty", the stress is on the first part. "THIR-ty", so I say the first part very loud

and long, the second part very short. "SEVENty, SEVENty", again, stress is on the first part

and I say the second part quick. Now one thing you may have noticed is that

when I say the "ty", it's pronounced like a "dy". This happens a lot when we speak.

Instead of saying "seventy", it changes to "sevendy" with a "dy". So that's something

else to be aware of. Let's look at some other common number mistakes.

So the next mistake we're going to look at, I see often in student writing. Okay? So we're

going to look at "hundreds", "thousands", "millions", and "billions". These are all

large numbers. Okay? Notice for example: "He stole millions of dollars." So I don't have

a specific amount and I have an "s" here. I don't say: "He stole million of dollars."

"He stole millions of dollars.", "He stole hundreds of dollars.", "He has hundreds of

friends on facebook." So notice there's no specific number here, it's just hundreds in

general? We don't know how many hundreds, we just know somewhere in the hundreds. Same

with millions, we don't know how many millions, we just know he stole millions of dollars.

And in both of these cases, again, they're plural. Same with if we use thousands, billions,

trillions. But "I have 25 million dollars." So what I

see a lot of ESL students do is I see them write an "s" here. "I have 25 millions dollars."

This is incorrect. "I have 25 million dollars." Okay? So if you have a number here, a specific

amount of money and you're talking -- it doesn't really matter what you're talking about -- there

shouldn't be an "s" even though there's more than one. Same with here: "I have two hundred

friends." This is correct. I have seen ESL students... Well I've never seen an ESL student

actually write this specific sentence, but "I have two hundreds friends." It's wrong.

"I have two hundred friends." So keep in mind: if you see a number before billions, millions,

thousands, hundreds - make sure you don't add an "s" to million or hundred.

So the fourth mistake I see very, very frequently is writing numbers. So, a lot of students

and a lot of native speakers get confused when they have to write numbers out. So I

have four example sentences. We'll read them together, and I want you to tell me if these

sentences are correct or incorrect; are they right or are they wrong?

So the first sentence: "I have 9 cats." This isn't true; I'm not a crazy cat lady, but

the sentence is "I have 9 cats." which I think is against the law or the bylaw in my city.

So do you think this sentence is correct or incorrect?

Okay, if you said "incorrect", that's right. So we'll explain the rule in a second.

"I have 125 cats." Okay, so before I had nine, now I'm at 125. I'm starting to lose my mind.

"I have 125 cats." Is this sentence correct?

Yeah, it is. Next one: "5 cats live at the shelter." I didn't realize that it seems like most of

my examples have cats in them. "5 cats live at the shelter." Is this correct?

Nope, this one is incorrect. Last sentence: "I have two sisters."

Okay, is this sentence correct?

Yup, this one's okay.

So we have two correct sentences here, and two incorrect sentences.

So why is this sentence incorrect? Well, so we have the number "9". If a number is a single

number... So what are single numbers? So 1 to... Well they're pretty much one, two, continue.

Thirty is a single number, forty. These are considered single numbers, so there's only

one word that's written. Okay? So if you have a number where it's just one word that you

need to write, you don't write it like this. You would write "nine". "I have nine cats."

Okay? In this case: "125" is not a single number.

If we wrote it, it would be very long: "one hundred and twenty-five". We wouldn't write

this out because it's just too long. So, "nine" is a single number, "125", it's not a single

number. If it was just "one", that would be fine, if it was just "twenty", that would

be fine. But "25", "21", "35" - these are not single numbers; you can write them like

this. Okay, what about this one, what's wrong with

this one? "5 cats live at the shelter." You shouldn't begin a sentence with a numeral.

This should be changed to "five". It should be written out. And if you have a really long

number like: "125 cats live at the shelter", I can't write: "One hundred and twenty-five

cats" here and it's just so long and awkward to write, it's better to change the sentence.

So instead of saying: "125 cats live at the shelter", I could say: "There are 125 cats

at the shelter." Okay? And so for d): "I have two sisters." This

one's correct. 'Two' is a single number, so this is a correct sentence. So again, don't

start a sentence with a numeral, and in terms of single numbers: write with letters.

Okay, so our final number mistake that I see often, this is another one that has to do

with writing and also grammar in terms of pronunciation.

Okay, so I want you to look at the first two sentences. "I have an eight-year-old (son)."

So there're two ways I could say this. I could say: "I have an eight-year-old." and people

will know I'm talking either about a son or a daughter or I could say: "I have an eight-year-old

son." Both are correct. Now compare this to: "I am eight years old." What do you notice?

Well first of all, in "b)", there are no hyphens. What else do you notice? Well, in "eight-year-old"

there's no "s" whereas "eight years old" there is an "s". So why is this?

Well let's look at another example. "I went for four days." So what do you notice? No

hyphen and an "s". "I went on a four-day hike." Okay. So what's the rule that we're looking

at here? Why is it that sometimes we have hyphens with age or with time, and sometimes

we don't, and why sometimes an "s", why sometimes do we not have an "s"? Well, we have to think

about whether or not we're talking about an adjective. So in the first case: "eight-year-old"

is describing something; it's describing the noun "son". And although sometimes we don't

use the word "son", it's still an adjective which is why we use "eight-year-old" with

hyphens. So first rule: if you're using time, either age or number of something as an adjective,

use a hyphen. Okay? Second rule: when you're using time or age

as an adjective, don't add an "s". So there's no "s" on days, no "s" on year. So in d):

"I went on a four-day hike.", "four-day" is the adjective and what is it describing?

The noun "hike" -- or, yeah, sorry --, the noun "hike". So that's a noun. So if it's an adjective:

use the hyphen and don't use an "s". So let's look at two more sentences.

"The twenty-year-old man.", "The man is twenty years old.

" So again, here we have a noun.

"Twenty-year-old" is an adjective; it's describing the man. We could also talk about a ten-year-mortgage.

In this case we would, again, have the hyphens and no "s" after years. Okay? Well what about

for: "I am eight years old"? Any time you're talking about your age or any time you're

not using the adjective, you need the "s". So any time somebody says: "How old are you?"

use the "s". "I am 26 years old.", "I am 14 years old." Okay? So the difference, again,

is whether the number is an adjective or not. Okay, so I want to invite you to come visit

our website at www.engvid.com. Here you'll find a quiz and you can practice all these

different number rules, you can figure out if you make any types of these mistakes, any

of these common mistakes. So I invite you to come visit our website. Until next time,

take care.