MILLIONS and BILLIONS and how to pronounce large numbers

£10.5bn

$4bn

$2.5m

£0.5m

MILLIONS and BILLIONS

AND HOW TO PRONOUNCE FIGURES THAT INCLUDE THEM

pronoucing large figures and prices (1)

- Ex 1 = £3m = £3,000,000 : m is the abbreviation of million - Ex 2 = $50bn = $50,000,000,000 bn is the abbreviation of billion

In "three million pounds", "million" is an ADJECTIVE* so NO "s" at the end of "million" In "fifty billion dollars", "billlion" is an ADJECTIVE* so NO "s" at the end of "billion" * the NOUN is "pounds" or "dollars"

The letter k is often used to mean a thousand, especially when speaking about someone's wages/salary Ex: "She is on 50k a year" means she earns 50,000 (pounds/dollars/euros...) a year.

pronoucing large figures and prices (2)

- Ex 3 = $6.5bn = $6,500,000,000You can say: "six point five billion dollars" or "six billion, five hundred* million dollars"- Ex 4 = £4.05m = £4,050,000 - Ex 5 = $9.23m = $9,230,000

*Be very careful when you only have 1 or 2 digits after the decimal point: you need to mentally add zeros to end up with 3 digits after the decimal point. Ex = £5.5m = £5.5(00)m = £5,500,000

decimal point (.) or comma (,)?- When you use the abbreviation for million of billion, use the decimal point - When you do not use the abbreviation, use commas every 3 digits (from the right)

LET'S PRACTISE!

Pronounce the figures below. Then click on the recording and check your answers. You need to master the two different ways of pronouncing each figure!

A/ $23.5m B/ £9.07bn C/ $45.78bn D/ £3.9m E/ $10.01bn F/ £8.45m