When numbers are written in words, they make more sense and they are easy to understand.

When you say a number, you don't read out the digits, you say it by its value.

For example:

• Sheena has 382 stamps. You say, Sheena has three hundred and eighty two stamps. You don't say she has three-eight-two stamps.
• Your family bought a house for $1 000 000. Someone asked you how much you paid for the house. You are more likely to answer that you bought the house for one million dollars, rather than one-zero-zero-zero-zero-zero-zero dollars.

Some exceptions to this rule where you don't say numbers by their value are:

• Phone numbers
• Pin numbers
• Zip codes

To write a number in words, you place the digits in their respective place values as follows:


Step 1: Group the digits in groups of 3 starting from the right.

Step 2: The 3 digits in orange are in the least important place value; they are read as seven hundred and twenty-three.

Step 3: The next three digits are in the thousands group; they are read as seventy-six thousand.

Step 4: The last three (in our case, only two) are in the millions group; they are read as fifty million.

So the number becomes, from left to right, fifty million, seventy-six thousand, seven hundred and twenty-three.

So, in words, 7 329 498 mangoes is seven million, three hundred and twenty-nine thousand, four hundred and ninety-eight mangoes.