LISTEN TO NUMBERS: NUMBER CONVENTION
Telephone numbers:
These are usually spoken as individual numbers.
Example:
273 458 would be spoken as ‘two seven three four five eight.’
Sometimes, British or Australian speakers may say double or triple or treble when a digit is repeated in a phone number.
Example:
A British person might say the phone number 020 7766 3444 as `oh two oh…double seven, double six… three, treble four.’
When a group of a numbers is given, the intonation rises before the pause to indicate an unfinished group. At the end of the last group, the intonation of the speaker falls.
Decimal numbers:
These are indicated with the word point, and then each decimal number is spoken individually.
Example:
The number 12.75 would be spoken as ‘twelve point seven five.’
Prices
When talking about prices, the word point is not usually used. Instead, the decimal numbers are usually combined and indicated with and.
Example:
£15.99 would be spoken as ‘fifteen pounds ninety-nine’ or ‘fifteen pounds and ninety-nine pence.’
Sometimes, the currency is also left out. For example, £15.99 could be spoken as `fifteen ninety-nine’ and listeners need to guess the currency basing on the context.
Fractions
With the exception of ‘a half,’ a quarter’ and ‘a third,’ fractions are expressed with —th(s) at the end.
Example:
The fraction 5/6 would be spoken as ‘five-sixths’ and 9/10 would be spoken as ‘nine-tenths.’
Thousands
It is possible to express thousands as the equivalent number of hundreds.
Example:
1,700: ‘seventeen hundred,’ 2,700: ‘twenty-seven hundred’
1,123: ‘eleven hundred twenty-three.’
Dates
In British English, the day comes before the month, and periods are often used to separate elements.
Example:
The date May 16, 1976 could be written as 16.05.76 or 16.5.1976.
In American English, the month comes first, and slashes are often used to separate elements.
Example:
May 16, 1976 could be written as 05/16/76 or 5/16/1976.
⁂ For IELTS Listening, HALO recommends writing dates as 4 July or 4 July 1776 (when it is necessary to include the year). The answers can also be written as 4th July or 4th July 1776.
Sample Test
