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Reading Whole Nunbers


Reading whole numbers may be performed as follows:

1) Starting at the decimal place (or where it would be located if inserted), place commas to the left of every three digits until only three or few numbers remain to the left.
(Note: For numbers less than 1000, this step should be skipped)

2) Read the number in the leftmost group followed by the name of its number group (e.g., million, thousand).

3) Continue Step #2 from left to right until all remaining groups have been read.

Examples:  

  • 2136922281 = 2,136,922,281 is read as: 
two billion, one hundred thirty-six million, nine hundred twenty-two thousand, two hundred eighty-one 
  • 1,342 is read as: 
one thousand, three hundred forty-two
  • 119,203,980 is read as:
one hundred nineteen million, two hundred three thousand, nine hundred eighty


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