ECONOMIC ENGLISH FOR UPPER INTERMEDIATE UNIT 1 USING NUMBERS CORRECTLY OBJECTIVES: make sure that the students use figures and numbers correctly in oral and written form orrect use of figures and numbers in financial mathematics and professional c presentations a). Saying numbers correctly is pronounced oh: after a decimal point: 6.06 = six point oh six when dictating or indicating a telephone number: 0944532680 - oh nine double four five three two six eight oh a room number: 303: three oh three a bus number : l05 one oh five years: l909 nineteen oh nine; 2003: two thousand oh three nough: before the decimal point: 0.00l% - nough point oh oh one zero - for the number zero 0 temperature - 5 - fiver degrees below zero nil: sports scores: Romania won the match five nil love: in tennis: The score is thirty love after the break. b) The decimal point Point, not comma is used for decimals in English. Comma is used for writing thousands, but it is not used by computers. When reading, all the figures after a decimal are separate. l0.33 - ten point three three (double three) but not ten thirty three 0.25 nough point two five l0.002 ten point oh oh two l0,002 ten thousand and two Units of money are read like 5.25 five pounds twenty five. (when doing business, pronounce each figure separately, carefully) 0.250 nough point two five oh c) Percentage When dealing with rates, in percentage, bear in mind the following reading: 0.3% - one third of one percent 0.25% - a quarter of a percentage point d) Hundreds, thousands and millions British English: two hundred and twenty five American English: two hundred twenty five 1,999: one thousand ninety nine year 1999: nineteen ninety nine year 2000: two thousand year 2005: two thousand and five year 20l0: two thousand and ten or, twenty ten l,000,000: million, or ten to the power six (10 )

1,000,000,000: a billion or ten to the power nine (10) e) Squares, cubes, roots 52 five squared 53 five cubed 5 the square root of 5 f) Fractions Fractions are usually similar to ordinal numbers: a half, a fifth, a quarter, 2/3 (two thirds), 3/4 (three quarters) g) Foreign currency 1. How many lei-s are there to the dollar? 2. How many German marks shall we get per dollar? 3. The current rate is 19,000 lei to the dollar. h) Numeric Adjectives Numbers can be used as adjectives before a noun: l. A fifteen minute meeting but never a fifteen minutes meeting. 2. A twenty dollar allowance, but never a twenty dollars allowance. i) Mathematical symbols 1. 2+5=7 two plus five equals seven 2. 8-3 eight minus three 3. 7x6 seven times six 4. 12:3 twelve divided by three 5. A>B A is more than B; A is greater than B 6. A