Conventions for Writing and Saying Numbers
Reading Time: < 1 minute
Thank you to faculty member Swati Juthani for pointing out the differences in number conventions between Canadian and Indian English. Your students from India may be making mental adjustments for the first while when listening to or reading the higher numbers.
Here is a chart that Swati and I put together. I wrote a list of English numbers, and Swati showed what the equivalent would be in Indian English.
| Canadian English convention | Indian English convention | |
| Notation | 1 through 100 | Same |
| Terminology | One through one hundred | Same |
| Notation | 1,000 | Same |
| Terminology | One thousand | Same |
| Notation | 2,500 | Same |
| Terminology | Two thousand, five hundred OR twenty-five hundred | Two thousand, five hundred only. Another one is not used |
| Notation | 20,000 | Same |
| Terminology | Twenty thousand | Same |
| Notation | 22,000 | Same |
| Terminology | Twenty-two thousand | Same |
| Notation | 100,000 | 1,00,000 |
| Terminology | One hundred thousand | One lakh |
| Notation | 125,000 | 1,25,000 |
| Terminology | One hundred twenty-five thousand | One lakh, twenty-five thousand |
| Notation | 1,000,000 | 10,00,000 |
| Terminology | One million | Ten lakhs |
| Notation | 10,000,000 | 1,00,00,000 |
| Terminology | 10 million | One crore Sometimes called one hundred lakh |
| Notation | 1,000,000,000 | (not written with zeros as it creates visual / counting issue of zeros) |
| Terminology | One billion | One hundred crore or ten thousand lakh |
