Numbers 1–100 & How many…?

Rules

• Rule 1: 0 to 12

  The first thirteen numbers each have their own name. Learn them by heart: zero (0), one, two, three … ten, eleven, twelve. In American English we say zero for 0.

  Pattern: 0 zero · 1 one · 2 two · … · 11 eleven · 12 twelve

  Example: I am nine years old.

  Example: My sister is eleven.

• Rule 2: -teen or -ty?

  13 to 19 end in -teen: thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. 20, 30, 40 … end in -ty: twenty, thirty, forty, fifty. Careful: “four” has a u, but forty does not!

  Pattern: 13 thirteen ↔ 30 thirty

  Example: Ten plus four is fourteen.

  Example: There are forty kids in the gym.

• Rule 3: 21 to 100

  Say the ten first, then the one, with a hyphen (-) in between. 100 is one hundred (we can also say a hundred).

  Pattern: twenty + - + one = twenty-one · 100 = one hundred

  Example: My grandma is sixty-eight.

  Example: The book has ninety-two pages.

• Rule 4: One or more?

  With one, the noun is singular. With any number bigger than one, the noun is plural (it usually gets -s).

  Pattern: one cat · two cats · ten cats

  Example: I have one brother and two sisters.

  Example: She has five pencils.

• Rule 5: How many…?

  To ask for a number, use How many + a plural noun. You can answer with just the number or with a full sentence.

  Pattern: How many + plural noun + are there / do you have?

  Example: How many apples are there? — Four.

  Example: How many friends do you have? — I have ten friends.

Common mistakes

• I have two cat. → I have two cats.

  After a number bigger than one, the noun is plural.

• How much books do you have? → How many books do you have?

  For things we can count, we use How many.

• fourty → forty

  “four” has a u, but forty (40) does not.