Decimals are read digit by digit.
Check the amount in words against the figures before you sign a check or contract. Banks and offices may have their own format.
This number to words converter spells out any number up to the quadrillions as cardinal words, ordinals, money amounts and years. It writes check amounts such as One thousand two hundred thirty-four and 56/100 dollars, and it handles English plus Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Japanese, Russian and Korean with each language's grammar.
How to use
- Type a number. Commas and spaces as thousand separators are fine; use a dot or comma for decimals.
- Pick the output language and a mode: words, ordinal, currency or year.
- In Currency, choose the currency to get the amount in words and the check style, such as “One thousand two hundred thirty-four and 56/100 dollars”.
- Tap any row to copy it.
- English uses the short scale: billion = 10⁹, trillion = 10¹². Spanish, French and German use the long scale (mil millones / milliard / Milliarde = 10⁹, billón / billion / Billion = 10¹²).
- Grammar is applied per language: Spanish and Portuguese agree with the gender of the currency (doscientas libras), French follows the vingt/cent plural rules, German writes numbers under a million as one word, Russian picks the right case (2 рубля, 5 рублей).
- Japanese shows kanji, the kana reading and daiji, the formal characters used on receipts and checks (壱, 弐, 参, 拾).
- The year mode reads 1999 as “nineteen ninety-nine” in English and „neunzehnhundertneunundneunzig“ in German.
How English numbers are spelled
Write the groups of three digits from left to right and add the scale word after each group: 3,405,017 is three million four hundred five thousand seventeen. Tens and units between 21 and 99 take a hyphen (forty-two), and American usage leaves out and after hundred, while British English writes one hundred and five.
English uses the short scale, so a billion is 10⁹ and a trillion 10¹². Spanish, French and German use the long scale, where billón, billion and Billion mean 10¹² and 10⁹ is mil millones, milliard or Milliarde.
Writing amounts on checks and invoices
On a US check, the dollars go in words and the cents as a fraction over 100: $2,500.75 is Two thousand five hundred and 75/100 dollars. Start at the far left of the line and draw a line through the unused space so nothing can be added. Other countries have their own forms, such as euros y céntimos, reais e centavos, or Korean 일금 …원정, and the converter follows each one.
Ordinals and years
Ordinals change only the last word: twenty-one becomes twenty-first and one hundred becomes one hundredth. Years are read in pairs in English, so 1999 is nineteen ninety-nine and 2024 twenty twenty-four.
Frequently asked questions
How do you write 1,500 in words?
One thousand five hundred. In informal US English you may also hear fifteen hundred, but checks and contracts use one thousand five hundred.
Should I write and in numbers like 105?
In American English, one hundred five is standard on checks; British English writes one hundred and five. Both are understood.
When do numbers need hyphens?
Compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine take a hyphen, including inside larger numbers: three hundred forty-two.
How do I write the cents on a check?
Write the cents as a fraction of 100 after the dollars: 1,234.56 becomes One thousand two hundred thirty-four and 56/100 dollars. With no cents, write and 00/100.
How many zeros does a billion have?
In English a billion has 9 zeros (10⁹). In Spanish, French and German the word billion means 10¹², with 12 zeros.
How do I spell ordinal numbers?
Change the last word to its ordinal form: one → first, two → second, three → third, five → fifth, twelve → twelfth, and the rest add -th, so 40 is fortieth and 1,000 thousandth.