English Learning: Numbers Beyond 1000
Dialogue
Alice: Hey, Bob! What are you staring at on your phone so intently?
Bob: Oh, Alice! You won’t believe this. My new game score… it’s huge!
Alice: How huge? Is it like, fifty points? A hundred?
Bob: No, no! Much bigger! It’s one thousand five hundred and fifty!
Alice: Wow, that’s pretty good, Bob! One thousand five hundred and fifty. Or you could say ‘fifteen hundred fifty’ too.
Bob: Really? Fifteen hundred fifty? Cool! And look at this other number… the gold coins I collected. It’s… four thousand three hundred seventy-five!
Alice: Four thousand three hundred and seventy-five? That’s a lot of gold coins! You’re practically a digital millionaire.
Bob: I know, right? But my friend, Alex, he has even more. He said he has twenty-eight *thousand* coins!
Alice: Twenty-eight thousand? That’s impressive! That’s like twenty-eight piles of a thousand coins each.
Bob: Exactly! And my other friend, Emily, she said her score was… one hundred *thousand*!
Alice: Whoa! One hundred thousand? That’s a *really* big score! Are you sure?
Bob: Yes! One hundred thousand, zero, zero, zero. That’s how she wrote it.
Alice: Ah, so that’s one hundred thousand. You can also say ‘a hundred thousand’. Very cool.
Bob: So, if I got a truly, truly gigantic score, like… a *million*, how would I say that?
Alice: A million? Well, that’s ‘one million’. It’s a thousand thousands! Imagine that!
Bob: Whoa, a thousand thousands! My head just spun. That’s a number for superheroes.
Alice: It certainly is! Maybe one day you’ll reach it. Keep practicing those finger taps!
Bob: I will! Thanks, Alice! Now I can finally understand these super big numbers.
Alice: Anytime, Bob! Good luck with your game, and remember those numbers!
Current Situation
Numbers beyond 1000 are all around us every day! Whether you’re checking prices for electronics, looking at a country’s population, seeing how many followers someone has on social media, or reading statistics, you’ll encounter large numbers. Understanding how to read and say them correctly is a fundamental skill for everyday English communication, especially in today’s data-rich world.
Key Phrases
- One thousand (1,000): The city has a population of one thousand people.
- Two thousand five hundred (2,500): The concert hall can hold two thousand five hundred fans.
- Ten thousand (10,000): I need ten thousand steps to reach my daily fitness goal.
- One hundred thousand (100,000) / A hundred thousand: The book sold a hundred thousand copies in the first month.
- One million (1,000,000) / A million: That video has over one million views!
- How much…? (used for uncountable things like money): How much money do you need for the new game?
- How many…? (used for countable things like coins, people, items): How many coins did you collect in the game?
- That’s a lot! / That’s huge! / That’s impressive! (expressions of surprise or approval): Wow, a million points? That’s huge!
Grammar Points
1. Reading Numbers Over 1,000
- Thousands: We say the number of thousands followed by “thousand.”
- 1,000: one thousand
- 5,000: five thousand
- 28,000: twenty-eight thousand
- Thousands and Hundreds: Combine the thousands with the hundreds, tens, and units.
- 1,550: one thousand five hundred fifty (or informally, fifteen hundred fifty)
- 4,375: four thousand three hundred seventy-five
- Hundreds of Thousands:
- 100,000: one hundred thousand or a hundred thousand (both are common)
- 500,000: five hundred thousand
- 120,000: one hundred twenty thousand
- Millions:
- 1,000,000: one million or a million
2. Using Commas (,)
In English, we use commas to separate groups of three digits when writing large numbers, starting from the right. This makes them much easier to read!
- 1,000 (one thousand)
- 28,000 (twenty-eight thousand)
- 100,000 (one hundred thousand)
- 1,000,000 (one million)
3. “One/A” vs. Other Numbers
When the number of thousands or millions is exactly one, we can use “one” or “a.”
- You can say “one thousand” or “a thousand.”
- You can say “one hundred thousand” or “a hundred thousand.”
- You can say “one million” or “a million.”
- However, for other numbers, we use the specific number: “two thousand,” “five hundred thousand,” “ten million.” (We don’t say “a two thousand”).
Practice Exercises
- Read these numbers aloud (or write them in words):
- 3,000
- 7,500
- 15,000
- 250,000
- 2,000,000
- Write these numbers using digits:
- Eight thousand
- Six thousand four hundred twenty
- Ninety thousand
- Three hundred thousand
- Five million
- Fill in the blank with the correct word for the number:
- The mountain is over ten ________ feet tall. (10,000)
- My phone storage has one hundred twenty-eight ________ megabytes. (128,000)
- A large company might have one ________ employees. (1,000,000)
- The ticket price is one ________ five hundred dollars. (1,500)
Answers
- Read these numbers aloud (or write them in words):
- 3,000: Three thousand
- 7,500: Seven thousand five hundred
- 15,000: Fifteen thousand
- 250,000: Two hundred fifty thousand
- 2,000,000: Two million
- Write these numbers using digits:
- Eight thousand: 8,000
- Six thousand four hundred twenty: 6,420
- Ninety thousand: 90,000
- Three hundred thousand: 300,000
- Five million: 5,000,000
- Fill in the blank with the correct word for the number:
- The mountain is over ten thousand feet tall. (10,000)
- My phone storage has one hundred twenty-eight thousand megabytes. (128,000)
- A large company might have one million employees. (1,000,000)
- The ticket price is one thousand five hundred dollars. (1,500)
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