Number to Words Converter

Why documents spell numbers out

Cheques, contracts and legal instruments write the amount in both figures and words because words are far harder to alter. A digit can be changed or a decimal point moved; "four thousand two hundred" cannot be tampered with invisibly. Where the two disagree, most jurisdictions and banking conventions treat the written words as controlling, which is why getting them right matters more than it appears.

Billion means two different numbers

Short scale, used in the US and now standard in British English, makes a billion a thousand million. Long scale, still used across much of continental Europe and in Latin America, makes a billion a million million — a thousand times larger. The difference is not academic in a contract or a translated financial statement, and it is why international documents often write the figure out in full rather than using the word at all.

The word "and"

British usage inserts "and" before the final part below a hundred: one hundred and twenty-three. American usage omits it: one hundred twenty-three. On cheques, "and" is conventionally reserved for separating the whole amount from the fractional part — "four thousand two hundred and 50/100" — which is a third convention distinct from both.

Hyphenation follows a rule

Compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine are hyphenated. Larger constructions are not: two hundred, three thousand. So the correct form is "one hundred twenty-three thousand four hundred fifty-six", with hyphens appearing only in the two-digit compounds.

Cheque conventions

The amount begins at the far left with no leading space, and the remaining line is struck through so nothing can be appended. Cents are written as a fraction over 100 rather than in words. Zero cents is written 00/100, not omitted. These conventions exist for the same reason as the words themselves — every one of them closes a way to alter the instrument after signing.

Ordinals and years read differently

Ordinals take their own forms: first, second, third, twenty-first. Years are commonly read in pairs rather than as full numbers — 1984 as nineteen eighty-four — but this breaks for the 2000s, where 2005 is read as two thousand five rather than twenty oh five. A converter producing the cardinal form is correct for money and wrong for a date read aloud.