First Course Technical English

Hassiba Benbouali University of Chlef 2022/2023
Department of Process Engineering/ Department of Mechanical Engineering

Technical English Course
First course:
Numbers, Dates and Arithmetic
We use numbers in our day-to-day life. They are often called numerals. Without numbers, we cannot
do counting of things, date, time, money, etc. Sometimes these numbers are used for measurement and
sometimes they are used for labelling.
A number is an arithmetic value used for representing the quantity and used in making calculations.
❖ Cardinal and ordinal numbers

A Cardinal Number: are used to talk about the quantity of items (e.g. there are six apples in the bag)
so is a number that says how many of something there are, such as one, two, three, four, ….
An Ordinal Number: are used to talk about the distribution or order of items (e.g. ‘her apartment
was on the third floor’). so that tells the position of something in a list, such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, …etc.
Most ordinal numbers end in "th" except for:
one ⇒ first (1st), two ⇒ second (2nd), three ⇒ third (3rd)
Examples:
➢ There are four shapes in the row.
➢ The yellow circle is the second shape from the left.
➢ The green arrow is the fourth shape in the row.
➢ The red triangle is the first shape in the row.
➢ The pink star is the second shape from the right.
➢ The yellow circle is the third shape from the right.
Table 1 : Cardinal and Ordinal numbers

Cardinal numbers Ordinal numbers
0 zero ---
1 one 1st first
1
2 two 2nd second
3 three 3rd third
4 four 4th fourth
5 five 5th fifth
6 six 6th sixth
7 seven 7th seventh
8 eight 8th eighth
9 nine 9th ninth
10 ten 10th tenth
11 eleven 11th eleventh
12 twelve 12th twelfth
13 thirteen 13th thirteenth
14 fourteen 14th fourteenth
15 fifteen 15th fifteenth
16 sixteen 16th sixteenth
17 seventeen 17th seventeenth
18 eighteen 18th eighteenth
19 nineteen 19th nineteenth
20 twenty 20th twentieth
21 twenty-one 21st twenty-first
22 twenty-two 22nd twenty-second
23 twenty-three 23rd twenty-third
30 thirty 30th thirtieth
40 forty 40th fortieth
50 fifty 50th fiftieth
60 sixty 60th sixtieth
70 seventy 70th seventieth
80 eighty 80th eightieth
90 ninety 90th ninetieth
100 a/one hundred 100th a/one hundredth
1,000 a/one thousand 1,000th a/one thousandth
10,000 ten thousand 10,000th ten thousandth
100,000 a/one hundred thousand 100,000th a/one hundred thousandth
1,000,000 a/one million 1,000,000th a/one millionth
1,000,000,000 a/one billion 1,000,000,000th a/one billionth
2
Be careful with the number 13 and the number 15. While all the other ‘teen’ numbers in English simply
add the word ‘teen’ to the regular number (e.g., four-teen, six-teen, seven-teen, nine-teen) 13 uses ‘thir’
and 15 uses ‘fif’. For an added complication, the number 18 only has one ‘t’ (eighteen).
even numbers: The numbers which are exactly divisible by 2, are called even numbers. These can be
positive or negative integers such as -42, -36, -12, 2, 4, 8 and so on (the number 5,917,624 is even
because it ends with a 4).
odd Numbers: The numbers which are not exactly divisible by 2, are called odd numbers. These can
be both positive and negative integers such as -3, -15, 7, 9, 17, 25 and so on. Odd numbers end in 1, 3,
5, 7, 9.
❖ We have the following number classifications:

I. Natural Numbers: are known as counting numbers that
contain the positive integers from 1 to infinity. The set of natural
numbers is denoted as “N” and it includes N = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
……….}.
II. Whole Numbers: are known as non-negative integers and it
does not include any fractional or decimal part. It is denoted as
“W” and the set of whole numbers includes W = {0,1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
……….}
III. Integers: are the set of all whole numbers but it includes a negative set of natural numbers also.
“Z” represents integers and the set of integers are Z = { -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3}.
3
IV. Rationals Numbers: Any number that can be written as a ratio of

one number over another number is written as rational numbers. This
means that any number that can be written in the form of p/q. The
symbol “Q” represents the rational number.
V. Irrational Numbers: The number that cannot be expressed as the
ratio of one over another is known as irrational numbers and it is
represented by the symbol ”P”.
Here is a chart for you to learn how to read the most used math symbols aloud:
4
❖ Date:
Writing and Saying the Date in British English
Rule: Day – Month – Year
Writing: 1st February, 2011
Saying: The first of February twenty eleven
Writing and Saying the Date in American English
Rule: Month – Day – Year
Writing: February 1st, 2011
Saying: February first twenty eleven
5
Format British American
A The Fourteenth of March, 2016 March the Fourteenth, 2016
B 14th March 2016 March 14th, 2016

First Course Technical English

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

First Course Technical English

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

First Course Technical English

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Hassiba Benbouali University of Chlef 2022/2023

Department of Process Engineering/ Department of Mechanical Engineering

❖ Cardinal and ordinal numbers

Table 1 : Cardinal and Ordinal numbers

1 one 1st first

2 two 2nd second

3 three 3rd third

4 four 4th fourth

5 five 5th fifth

6 six 6th sixth

7 seven 7th seventh

8 eight 8th eighth

9 nine 9th ninth

10 ten 10th tenth

11 eleven 11th eleventh

12 twelve 12th twelfth

13 thirteen 13th thirteenth

14 fourteen 14th fourteenth

15 fifteen 15th fifteenth

16 sixteen 16th sixteenth

17 seventeen 17th seventeenth

18 eighteen 18th eighteenth

19 nineteen 19th nineteenth

20 twenty 20th twentieth

21 twenty-one 21st twenty-first

22 twenty-two 22nd twenty-second

23 twenty-three 23rd twenty-third

30 thirty 30th thirtieth

40 forty 40th fortieth

50 fifty 50th fiftieth

60 sixty 60th sixtieth

70 seventy 70th seventieth

80 eighty 80th eightieth

90 ninety 90th ninetieth

100 a/one hundred 100th a/one hundredth

1,000 a/one thousand 1,000th a/one thousandth

10,000 ten thousand 10,000th ten thousandth

100,000 a/one hundred thousand 100,000th a/one hundred thousandth

1,000,000 a/one million 1,000,000th a/one millionth

1,000,000,000 a/one billion 1,000,000,000th a/one billionth

❖ We have the following number classifications:

IV. Rationals Numbers: Any number that can be written as a ratio of

Format British American

A The Fourteenth of March, 2016 March the Fourteenth, 2016

B 14th March 2016 March 14th, 2016

You might also like