Any number written out in British English — plain, ordinal or cheque wording.
Type a number and get it written out properly, with the “and” where British English puts it: one hundred and twenty-three, not one hundred twenty-three. Negatives, decimals and numbers far beyond the trillions all work.
Commas and spaces are ignored, so 1,234.5 and 1234.5 are the same.
one thousand two hundred and thirty-four point five
In words
Anything after the decimal point is read digit by digit, which is how numbers are spoken aloud — 1.25 is “one point two five”, not “one point twenty-five”.
one thousand two hundred and thirty-fourth
As an ordinal
Short form1,234th
Only the last word changes: twenty-four becomes twenty-fourth, and three hundred becomes three hundredth.
One thousand two hundred and thirty-four pounds and fifty pence only
Cheque wording
Capitalised at the start, whole units then the minor units, and “only” at the end to close the line off.
Words back to digits
Type a number in words and get the figure back. Hyphens, commas and “and” are all ignored, and “minus” or “negative” at the front works as you would expect.
2,026
In figures
Without separators2026
How it works
Numbers are split into groups of three digits from the right, and each group is named after its position on the short scale — the one used throughout the UK and US today, where each step is a thousand times the last:
Each group of three is then written as hundreds plus the remainder, and the remainder is either a word from one to nineteen or a tens word with an optional hyphenated unit: 734 → seven hundred and thirty-four.
The "and" rule
This is the part that separates British from American English, and it is where most converters get it wrong. British English inserts and before the final part of a number whenever that part is under a hundred:
123 → one hundred and twenty-three (US: one hundred twenty-three)
1,005 → one thousand and five (US: one thousand five)
1,000,015 → one million and fifteen
It does not appear when the final group has its own hundreds, because the “and” has already been used inside that group: 1,105 → one thousand one hundred and five, with a single “and”, never two.
Worked example
Take 1,234.5. The integer part splits into groups of three: 1 and 234. The higher group is one, in the thousands position, giving “one thousand”. The final group is 234 — two hundreds with 34 left over, so “two hundred and thirty-four”. That group is not under a hundred, so no extra “and” is added between them.
The decimal is read digit by digit, so .5 becomes “point five”. The result is one thousand two hundred and thirty-four point five.
As an ordinal, only the last word changes: one thousand two hundred and thirty-fourth, or 1,234th in figures. On a cheque the decimal becomes minor units instead of spoken digits, and the whole line is capitalised and closed with “only”: One thousand two hundred and thirty-four pounds and fifty pence only.
Writing a cheque
Banks care about the words, not the figures. If the two disagree, UK practice is that the written amount is the one that stands, which is exactly why it is worth getting right.
Start with a capital letter and write the pounds in full, then the pence. Pence are usually given as a number of pence rather than a fraction, so 50p is “fifty pence”. Finish with the word only, and rule a line through any space left over. Both of these mean the same thing and both are accepted:
One thousand two hundred and thirty-four pounds and fifty pence only One thousand two hundred and thirty-four pounds and no pence only (when the amount is a round number)
The point of “only” and the ruled line is to stop anyone adding words after yours. For the same reason, write the amount close to the left of the line and leave no gaps.
Frequently asked questions
Is it "one hundred and twenty-three" or "one hundred twenty-three"?
Both are correct, in different places. British English uses the "and" and always has; American English drops it. This converter follows the British convention throughout, which is also what you want on a UK cheque or in a formal UK document.
How do I write an amount in words on a cheque?
Capitalise the first letter, write the pounds out in full, add the pence, and finish with "only" — for example "One thousand two hundred and thirty-four pounds and fifty pence only". Rule a line through any leftover space so nothing can be added. If the words and the figures disagree, the written amount is normally the one the bank honours.
How are decimals read out?
Digit by digit after the point, which is how they are spoken: 1.25 is "one point two five", not "one point twenty-five". The exception is money, where the decimal is a number of pence rather than separate digits — that is what the cheque tab does.
What is the short scale, and is a billion a thousand million?
Yes. On the short scale, used in the UK and US today, a billion is a thousand million (10⁹) and a trillion is a thousand billion (10¹²). Britain used the long scale until the 1970s, where a billion meant a million million, so older British sources can mean something different by the same word.
How do I turn a number into an ordinal?
Change only the last word: twenty-four becomes twenty-fourth, forty becomes fortieth, three hundred becomes three hundredth. A few are irregular — one, two, three, five, eight, nine and twelve give first, second, third, fifth, eighth, ninth and twelfth. The Ordinal tab does this for you and shows the short form too.
How large a number can it handle?
Up to 36 digits, which is the end of the short-scale names at decillions. Digits are handled as text rather than as ordinary numbers, so nothing is lost to rounding no matter how long the number is.