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HUNDREDS, THOUSANDS, AND MILLIONS
Unit 1 Numbers and You
Most people working in finance, whether it is in accountancy, banking, broking, investment, insurance, or whatever, spend a lot of time dealing with numbers. Reading, hearing, saying, writing, numbers in a foreign language generally requires practice.
When do you need to work with numbers?
1. I work in......................
2. I need the English of Finance for..............
I regularly read numbers in English in:
1. textbooks 4. accounts
2. newspapers 5. company documents
3. magazines and journals 6..................
I hear numbers spoken in English when.......
I have to use numbers in English:
1. in the classroom 3. on the phone
2. in meetings 4.................
in order to:
Tick which of the following you have to do in English:
1. buy goods or services over the telephone
2. describe graphs
3. discuss accounts
4. discuss customers' bank accounts
5. discuss projects with colleagues
6. discuss the market price of securities
7. draw up budgets
8. negotiate with producers, customers, brokers, etc.
9. present accounts and results to managers, colleagues, shareholders
10. present products or services to customers
11. sell products or services over the telephone
12. talk with technicians
Saying Numbers
1. OH, ZERO, LOVE, NOUGHT, NIL!
The above are all ways of saying 0 in English.
We say oh after a decimal point 5.03 five point oh three
in telephone numbers 67 01 38 six seven oh one three eight
in bus numbers No. 701 get the seven oh one
in hotel room numbers Room 206 I'm in room two oh six.
in years 1905 nineteen oh five
We say nought before the decimal point 0.02 nought point oh two
We say zero for the number 0 the number zero
for temperature -5°C five degrees below zero
We say nil in football scores 5-0 Spain won five nil.
We say love in tennis 15-0 The score is fifteen love.
Now say the following:
1. The exact figure is 0.002.
2. Can you get back to me on 01244 249071? I'll be here all morning.
3. Can you put that on my bill? I'm in room 804.
4. Do we have to hold the conference in Reykjavik? It's 30 degrees below 0!
5. What's thescore? 2-0 to Juventus.
THE DECIMAL POINT
In English, we use a point (.) and not a comma (,) for decimals. We use commas in figures only when writing thousands.
10,001 is ten thousand and one.
10.001 is ten point oh oh one.
When accounts are prepared on computer, commas are not used. The number appears as 82103.
In English all the numbers after a decimal point are read separately:
10.66 ten point six six Not ten point sixty six
0.325 nought point three two five
0.001 nought point oh oh one or 10, ten to the power minus three
You will also hear people say:
0.05 zero point oh five or oh point oh five
But if the number after the decimal point is a unit of money, it is read like a normal number:
£12.50 twelve pounds fifty € 2.95 two Euros ninety five
NB. This is very important. When you do business on the phone, say nought point three seven five (0.375) and not nought point three hundred and seventy five. If the listener missed the word point, you might lose a lot of money. Say the digits separately after thepoint.
Now say the following:
1. It's somewhere between 3.488 and 3.491.
2. Look, it's less than 0.0001! It's hardly worth worrying about.
3. I changed all those yen into sterling and I only got £13.60!
4. That's about 14.50 in Swiss francs.
5. Did you say 0.225 or 0.229?
6.The dollar is at 1.95.
7.No, I meant 15.005 not 15,005.
PER CENT
The stress is on the cent of per cent ten perCENT
Notice the following when talking about interest rates:
0.5 % a half of one per cent
0.25% a quarter of a percentage point
For example:
The Bank of England raised interest rates this morning by a quarter of a percentage point.
Now say the following:
1. What's 30% of 260?
2. They have put the rate up by another 0.5%.
3. 0.75% won't make a lot of difference.
HUNDREDS, THOUSANDS, AND MILLIONS
In British English you hear a hundred and twenty three.
In American English you usually hear a hundred twenty three.
The number 1,999 is said one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine
The year 1999 is said nineteen ninety nine.
The year 2000 is said the year two thousand.
The year 2001 is said two thousand and one.
The year 2015 is said two thousand and fifteen or twentyfifteen.
Note: It is likely that different people will refer to the early years of the 21st century in different ways
Remember that the year 1066 is always referred to as ten sixty six - not one thousand and sixty six.
1,000,000 is a millionor ten to the power six. (106)
1,000,000,000 is a billionor ten to the power nine. (109)
This is now common usage. British English used to be that a billion was ten to the power twelve (1012) but now everyone has accepted the current American usage.
Now say the following:
1. Why do you say 175 in Britain? In the States we usually say 175.
2. It's got 1001 different uses.
3. Profits will have doubled by the year 2000.
4. Thanks. You're one in 1,000,000!
5. No, that's 2,000,000,000 not 2,000,000!