How to write numbers in English. How to learn to think in English How we think

Good afternoon, English film lovers! In my previous article, I told you about how to make watching movies in English enjoyable and useful. Today, as promised, we will discuss subtitles and useful resources on the Internet for English learners from movies and series.

So, you have decided on the film, prepared a notebook for recording new expressions. It remains only to download the movie. But the question arises: to download a movie with English or Russian subtitles, or maybe you should watch a movie without subtitles at all. There are several options.
1. If your language level does not yet allow you to watch movies without subtitles, you can use English subtitles. Be sure to check that they are in sync with the dialogue in the movie, otherwise it will be terribly distracting and just annoying. Most often, subtitles can be found in a torrent with a movie, but if they are not, I advise the excellent site http://www.tvsubtitles.net/. There you can find subtitles in many languages ​​of the world, not only in English. When watching a movie with subtitles, try to read them as little as possible, and follow the picture and speech of the characters more. After a few views, it will become much easier for you, and you will be able to use subtitles, only to recognize and record unfamiliar words.
2. If you feel pretty confident in the language, try watching a movie or series without subtitles at all. Yes, perhaps the first 20-30 minutes will be unusual for you and not everything is clear, but over time, you will adapt and will get maximum pleasure and benefit. It is also very useful to record small dialogues of the characters, and try to do this without resorting to subtitles. Stop the movie after a few words, write down what you hear, and then check the entire episode and try to reproduce the resulting dialogue or monologue. Choose situations that are interesting to you: whether it is a dialogue in a clothing store (if you are into fashion) or a bright speech by a politician (if you are interested in it), etc.
Over time, you will realize that you will not only learn new words, understand native speakers more easily, but also expand your knowledge about the culture, traditions, and humor of English-speaking countries. But just imagine what pleasure you will get if you see a similar situation or hear a word written by you in real life, on a journey.
As for watching movies with Russian subtitles, I don't think it's effective. You will automatically read more understandable, native speech, thus you will not be able to concentrate on English. Therefore, this option, even for beginners to learn the language, is better to exclude.
And now I present the top 5 sites for learning English from movies and TV shows:
1. https://puzzle-english.com/ - This source is simply a must-have for all English lovers. You can take a language test, play various games, and, of course, you will find many ready-made small lesson episodes from famous TV shows and films, with vocabulary analysis, double subtitles and comprehension tasks.
2. http://film-english.com/blog/ - A selection of short films, cartoons, plus lesson plans for them for all levels of learning. Under each film it is signed for which level of English proficiency it is suitable.
3. http://englishfilms.com/ - Great site, here you can find a lot of films on English language, as well as films with English and Russian subtitles. All films are divided by genre for easy search, the site has a pleasant interface and ease of use.
4. http://www.filmeducation.org/ - Watch trailers, clips from hundreds of films, complete suggested tasks and read articles about the film! Informative and helpful!
5. www.hamatata.com - Here at alphabetical order you will find many movies and series in their original language. The site provides an excellent opportunity - by clicking on any word in the subtitles while watching a movie, you will immediately receive options for its translation into Russian!
I really hope that these links will help you in your further development of English. Good luck and keep in touch, moviegoers!
Leave your questions and comments below, I will be happy to answer them.
Svetlana Erina,
Movie Night project moderator at iSpeakCity

Not a day goes by without numbers. Find out what time it is; write down the phone number of a business partner or a girl you like; dictate the delivery address for sushi or pizza - everywhere you need to know the number in English. As in Russian, British vocabulary has its own characteristics depending on the scope of use. Let's take a look at them.

Writing numbers in words

Many painfully remember the school lessons of the Russian language on the topic "Numerals". How many there were rules, exceptions and reservations! How difficult the numerals declined. But English numbers, like many other aspects, are much simpler.

Initially, you need to memorize 13 basic numbers:

zero - zero or nought
one - one
two - two
three - three
four - four
five - five
six - six
seven - seven
eight - eight
nine - nine
ten - ten
eleven - eleven
twelve - twelve

Most likely, these words are familiar to everyone, as they are often used in popular songs, and are also part of school curriculum in English.

To continue counting in English, you need only two suffixes: - teen and - ty, which are attached to the root of one of the 13 basic numbers. Teen used for numbers from 13 before 19 . For education dozen(twenty, thirty, forty, etc.) the suffix is ​​​​used - ty.

For example, to write the number 13, we take the root of the number three - thir and add the suffix to it - teen — thirteen. And for 30 in English you need the same root thir, but already the suffix ten - ty — thirty.

By ear, the suffixes -teen and -ty are very similar, so confusion arises. But there is a tricky hint that once and for all will help put everything in its place. Remember who they are teenagers? Once again, simple English gives a hint for all time. age- age, teen- suffix of numerals " transitional» age - from 13 to 19. For other numbers in English, you need the suffix -ty. We hope this trick will forever help to sort out the confusion between how 17 will be in English - seventeen or seventy. We remember about teenagers - and voila!

For use in any field of linguistic communication, you only need to remember 2 points: there are two types or classes of numerals in English speech - ordinal and quantitative.

Ordinal, based on the name, indicate what the subject is in order. For example, first in line or forty-ninth on the list.

Quantitative, therefore, answer the question "how much?" and indicate the total. For example: one house, three horses, a thousand things.

Numbers in English, as in Russian, have the same root. All but the first three. But if in our grammar there are several suffixes for the formation of an ordinal number from a quantitative one, but in English it is only one - th.

The table below shows how easy and simple it is to form an ordinal number from a quantitative one. The only thing to keep in mind is definite article « the", which must be placed before ordinal numbers.

Writing numbers in digits

The English-speaking population uses the same number system as we do - Arabic, so there should not be any difficulties with writing cardinal numbers. Pay attention to the use of ordinal numbers, where the following abbreviations are used:

the first-1st
the second-2nd
the third-3rd
the fourth-4th
the eleventh-11th
the twenty first-21st

As you can see, the general principle of reduction is to discard the article and add the last two letters of the ordinal number written in words to the number. Despite the fact that the article is dropped in writing, when reading the number in English, you still need to add the article.

1st prize -the first prize

Numbers in addresses

The numbers in English as part of the address, in general, are no different from the spelling of our addresses. Cardinal numbers are used to indicate the number of a house, building, apartment or office. If the name of the street or enterprise contains an ordinal number, then the abbreviation from the previous section should be used:

1st avenue - 1st Avenue

To save space on the envelope, numbers are written numerically rather than capitalized. But it is worth paying attention that the building number in the English version is indicated before the street name, and not after, as we have. You can read more about writing an address in English.

Numbers in years and months

A common mistake when writing the day of the month in English is to use a cardinal number instead of an ordinal number. That is, not 21 -e(what?) March, eh 21 (How many?) March. lean on native language when translating dates:
22 -e April(which in order is a quantitative numeral) - 22nd April.

Twenty second of April - the twenty-second of April

Please note that when writing abbreviated version of the date, the article is omitted the and preposition of indicating the genitive case. When reading abbreviated dates must be added article and pretext. Otherwise, it will turn out not “April 22nd”, but “April 22nd”. Alternatively, the date can be written like this:

April 22, 2017 - the twenty second of April twenty seventeen

When reading the year, it is customary to divide a four-digit number in English into two pairs. In the case of the beginning of the 2000s, from 2001 to 2009, the Russian analogue is used - two thousand and one, two thousand and nine. But not everything is analogous to native speech in the language of Shakespeare. The word "year" is not added at the end of the phrase:

March 8, 2029 - the eighth of March twenty twenty nine.

If it is necessary to indicate the period before our era or, conversely, after the birth of Christ, the following abbreviations are used: B.C. - before Christ - before the birth of Christ (before our era); A.D. - Anno Domini (lat.) - from the birth of Christ (AD).

Numbers in hours and minutes

The British use the European time system, which consists of 24 hours, but the Americans prefer two to twelve hours - before noon and after noon. Before noon, that is, starting With 00:00 and until 12:00, denoted by letters a.m. (ANTE MERIDIEM - from Latin until noon). Beginning from lunch and until midnight numbers are used p.m. (POST MERIDIEM - from Latin in the afternoon).

Most often, simplifying life for themselves and for us, the English-speaking population first calls hours, then minutes, using cardinal numbers:

It's 5:15 - it's five fifteen.

But true gentlemen, like the Russian intelligentsia, can use the following phrases in their speech:

It's quarter to ten. - A quarter to ten.
It's half past nine. - Half past ten.
It's ten past eleven. - Ten past eleven.

To easily navigate in such phrases, you need to remember only three words:

quarter- quarter
past- after
to- before

We have already studied the rest of the numbers in English above.

Thus, any similar expression can be constructed. A quarter of an hour is 15 minutes. Consequently, a quarter to two(that is, 15 minutes left to two) in English will sound it's quarter to two. If now quarter past seven(that is, 15 minutes passed after six in the evening), then in English we say it's quarter past six.

Often the indication of half an hour causes confusion. In Russian, we use half of the next hour - half past nine - 8:30. The British rely on facts - what has already been: 8:30 - thirty minutes after eight - It's half past eight.

Identification numbers

Identification numbers include any numbering of objects, phenomena, and even people. It would seem that numbering implies the use of ordinal numbers, but in reality this is not always the case.

If we are talking about people, then it is customary to use ordinal numbers with the article:

Peter I - Peter the First

Speaking of events, use a cardinal number:

Second World War - world war two

In other cases, quantitative numbers are most often used:

Channel 9 - Channel Nine, platform 9 3/4 - Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

A similar principle should be used when identifying buildings and structures, wagon numbers, and so on. The addition of the word " number» when numbering objects: car No. 13 - carriage number third/carriage third.

Numbers in fractions and percentages

We use numbers in English in fractions and percentages similarly to Russian:

1/2 - one second part. This phrase uses a cardinal number (one), ordinal (second).

1/2 - one second part - one second

One part is often called a different numeral. 1/2 - half, 1/3 - third, 1/3 - quarter, etc. In English, for this, the number "one" is replaced by the article "a":

1/2 - half - a half
1/3 - third - a third
1/4 - quarter - a forth

If the parts will two, then in Russian it will sound already in plural number, so we use the plural in foreign:

2/9 - two ninths - two ninths

Percentages are transmitted using decimal fractions, and here the British implement what Russian math teachers everywhere forbid - they simply call the numbers before and after the dot! At the same time, the very word dot" sounds like " point».

1.11 - one point one one
12.842 - one two point eight four two
999.209 - nine nine nine point two nought nine/ nine nine nine point two o nine

Zero in mathematics most often sounds like " nought", but in everyday life it is acceptable to use " zero" and " o". If zero comes before the point, it can be omitted:

0.4 - nought point four/point four
0.02 - nought point nought two / point nought two / point o two
0.34 -nought point three four/point three four

Chapter and page numbering

In books, numbers in English are used according to the principle of identifying objects - a cardinal number is placed after the name of the object:

Chapter I (Chapter One) - Chapter I (chapter one)

Page 487 (page four hundred and eighty seven) - page 487 (page four hundred and eighty seven)

Spelling large numbers

Large numbers in English are written similarly to our numerals:

two thousand four hundred and seventy two two thousand four hundred and seventy two
Three million fifteen thousand two hundred two three million fifteen thousand two hundred and two

If the number can be reduced to half, then the word " half»:

Seven and a half billion people live on earth. - There are seven and a half billion people on earth.

Important: indicating the exact amount, ending " s" for plural not added to words hundred, thousand,million, billion etc. The plural is used only when it is necessary to emphasize the mass character without specifying the exact number in English:

There were hundreds of people there. - There were hundreds of people there.

Remember: between hundreds and tens in large numbers, it is customary to add the union " and».

Numbers in business documents

English numerals in documents are used according to general rules, but require mandatory duplication in written and digital equivalent:

17200 (seventeen thousand two hundred) inconsistencies were identified. - There were 17,200 (seventeen thousand and two hundred) discrepancies found.

Numbers in statistics

Similar to official papers, numbers in English are used in statistics. Here it is allowed not to use duplication, but it is required maintaining uniformity: either all data are in numbers, or everything is spelled out.

Numbers at the beginning of sentences

It is not customary to use English numbers at the beginning of a sentence, they should be replaced with uppercase numbers:

10 Negro went for dinner. - Ten piccaninnies went out to dine.

Combined numbers

Combined numbers include the use of both alphabetic and digital equivalents of numerals. According to the ethics of writing, it is preferable to use only one of the options in the entire text. But in the case when an abundance of numbers can interfere with the perception of information, the use of words and numbers is allowed:

In West Virginia, 15 two-story buildings burned to the ground last night. - Last night fifteen 2-storied buildings burnt down to ashes in West Virginia.

Conclusion

Despite the vastness of the topic "Numbers in English", remembering the basic rules is not difficult. The key to success in using a language is constant practice. Take your old school math notebooks and try to translate examples and problems into English. Read newspapers and periodicals with statistical data. And best of all, go to the "Series" section and watch Sillicon Valley, where you are guaranteed to meet large sums and abundant statistics, which will help you remember the numbers in English forever! Well, or sign up for our individual lessons via Skype!

Big and friendly family EnglishDom

Hello friends, we continue to learn to borrow beautiful phrases from classical and modern English literature, thereby enriching our writing and learning the great science of English collocation (phrases). Today let's look at an excerpt from Arthur K. Doyle's story "The Beryl Coronet" (well, I love Doyle's work and I love Sherlock Holmes in particular :). We will highlight a few mouth-watering phrases and try to understand how you can insert them into almost any of your essays on any topic. In the excerpt below, these beautiful collocations are highlighted in color and in italics.

“I think that this should do,” he said, glancing into the glass above the
fireplace. “ I only wish that you could come with me , Watson, but I fear
that it won't do. I may be on the trail in this matter or I may be following
a will-o'-the-wisp , but I shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be
back in a few hours.” He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the
sideboard, sandwiched between two rounds of bread , and thrusting this
rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition .
I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently excellent
spirits , swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his hand. He chucked it
down into a corner and helped himself to a cup of tea .
“I only looked in as I passed,” he said. “I am going right on.”
“Where to?”
“Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time before I get back . .”
“How are you getting on?”
“Oh, so so. Nothing to complain about. I have been out to Streatham since
I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a very sweet little
problem, and . However, I must
not sit gossiping here, but must get these disreputable clothes off and
.”

Now the highlighted phrases are in a separate list:

By the way, those parts of phrases that we can replace with other words without much risk, we highlight in green:

1.

2. I may be on the trail , or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp

3. he

4.

5. evidently excellent spirits

6. He chucked it down into a corner

7.

8.

9. Don't wait up for me in case I should be late

10. I would not have missed it for a good deal

11. I must return to my highly respectable self

If you noticed, not every single phrase has elements highlighted in green. This means that I recommend that you use this phrase in its entirety without changing anything much, otherwise this phrase may lose its original meaning or even sound unnatural in English.

Now let's look at these phrases individually, and I'll show you how you can modify them a little depending on the topic of our essay. I'm just giving examples of changes - you can make your own changes, just be careful not to overdo it - try to combine the original sound of the phrase with reasonable changes to some of its parts. After each phrase, I give its approximate translation.

1. I only wish that you could come with me “How I wish you would come with me!” or What a pity you can't come with me!

I only wish that you could study well! I only wish that our salaries were higher! I only wish that I were the president of the company!

2. I may be on the trail , or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp “I can follow the right path, or follow my illusions. - We leave this phrase as it is, and insert it into the essay in its entirety.

3. he sandwiched between two rounds of bread - He placed (put) it between two pieces of bread.

He sandwiched it between two slices of meat. He sandwiched it between two books, so that noone see it.

4. he started off upon his expedition - He went on his journey.

We started off upon our journey. They started off upon their assignment.

5. evidently excellent spirits - obviously in a good mood / mood

She was evidently in excellent spirits. He was evidently in low spirits. (in a bad mood).

6. He chucked it down into a corner – He threw/thrown her into a corner

I chucked my book down into a corner. She chucked her shoes carelessly into the closet.

7. He helped himself to a cup of tea He made / poured himself a cup of tea.

We helped ourselves to some beer. He helped himself to a glass of soda. She helped herlesf to a cake.

8. It may be some time before I get back “I probably won't be back anytime soon.

It mat be some time before she finishes her homework. It may be a long time before he leaves.

9. Don't wait up for me in case I should be late - Don't wait for me if I'm late/late.

Don't wait up for the guests in case they should be late.

10. I would not have missed it for a good deal “I wouldn’t miss it for anything!” AT this case you can increase the value by changing for a good deal to for the world.

I would not have missed it for the world!

11. I must return to my highly respectable self - (with humor) I must regain my noble appearance (by changing clothes, washing, etc.)

We have shared 2 steps to help you start thinking in English. Now we will touch on this topic in more detail.

In this article, we will analyze the process of "thinking" in any language. You will learn how a person who starts learning English can immediately start thinking in it, and how to learn it!

How do we think?

Let us first clarify what we mean by the word "think". We say that we "think in any language" when we can fully formulate in our head what we want to say. For example, if a person thinks in English, then he can easily formulate a sentence and say it. Let's consider this process in more detail.

The process of "thinking" in any language consists of two parts: what and how.

1. "WHAT"

When we talk, we always think what to say, that is, we formulate our thought, select words, think over the content.

2. "HOW"

And here we decide how right to say what we want. How to build a sentence correctly, what time to use and what endings to put.

In Russian, our " how" brought to automatism. We do not think about how to build a sentence, how to put an ending, etc. In Russian, we think only about WHAT to tell.

For example, you want to ask a friend to help you. You think over what exactly you will tell him so that he agrees, and select arguments. None of us will sit and think what kind of ending we should put in a word.

And how do people who learn it think in English?

English is not so familiar to us. We have there is no automatism in how it is correct to say this or that thought. So we have to think not only what say, but how do it grammatically. As a result, the process of "thinking" looks like this.

This is what causes problems in English, because we need time to think through all this. And your interlocutor has to wait until you can finally give him an answer in English.

For example, a person comes up to you on the street and asks: "How to get to Red Square?" To give an answer in Russian, you need to orient yourself and think about which route to send it to (the "what to say" process). It takes a few seconds, and you can already give the answer: "You need to go to the end of the street, turn right and continue straight ahead."

If you hear such a question from a foreigner, then you have to perform two actions. First, think over the route: go to the end of the street, turn right and go straight on ("what to say"). When you put it together, you have to think how translate it all into English ("how to say"): you remember English words and how to build a proposal. All this takes a lot of time.

As a result, a foreigner may not wait for your answer. He will simply decide that you cannot help him and turn to someone else.

How to achieve automatism?

That is what it was dedicated to. In it, we talked about 2 steps that will help you to ensure that the phrase you want to say is automatically built in English in your head. By following them, you will gradually be able to discard " how". But the next question immediately arises: when exactly can you start using these steps?

At what level can you start thinking in English?

There is a myth that you can think in English only after reaching a certain level: “teach yourself calmly, and you will start thinking and speaking in the language when the time comes.” But when will that time come? In a month? In a year? In 10 years or never? Will you wake up in the morning and realize that you can think in English? Sounds unbelievable, doesn't it?

In the last article, we discussed that "thinking", as well as "speaking", is a skill that needs to be trained. And the sooner you start doing this, the better. That's why you can and should think in English from the very beginning of learning.

"But how am I going to think in a language I don't know?" - you ask. Now I will tell you.

How to train "thinking" in English?

When we start thinking and speaking in a language, we go through several steps. The language with which we express our thoughts is gradually evolving. We start with the simplest, then we build sentences more and more complex, and, in the end, we can fully express our thoughts. So let's go through this process step by step.

Stage 1. Words.

When we start learning any language, we start with words. So it was with our native Russian language and with any other. How can you think in a language if you only know the word? Now I will tell you.

For example, you learned a new word - table (table). Now you can start thinking using this word. Just replace our Russian word "table" with the English "table".

The books are on table.

On my table everything is always tidy.

The cat jumped on table.

Every time you look at the table, mentally make sentences. No need to invent anything - just think about what you see. The point is that when you look at the table, table will pop up in your head, and not the usual Russian word.

Students of our courses who have studied from the first level know that this is very effective. If at the beginning of the training they build sentences starting from this exercise, then after 6 weeks they can speak plain English!

Stage 2. Simple sentences

At the next stage, we learn how to build sentences, analyze the most basic and simple rules. And simple sentences are already forming in our head.

And at this stage, you do not need to worry about the correctness of these proposals. That is, if you don’t know the preposition (sit at or near) or don’t know some words (for example, “my”), you simply insert this word in Russian into the sentence.

This is my table.

I sit next to the table.

That is, we simply combine steps 1 and 2.

Stage 3. Complex sentences.

At first, you will do this at a slow pace. But over and over again, faster and faster.

This is how you will gradually go through all the stages and in the end you will be able to freely formulate your thoughts in English.

Starting to think in English is not such a simple and quick thing. However, if you follow the tips given in our two articles, you will be able to do just that. The main thing to remember is that you don’t have to wait for a “special time” to start thinking in English. Start using your knowledge right now! And in the end, you will get the result you dreamed about.