Morphological composition

The Cardinals

§ 229. Among the cardinals there are simple, derived, and compound words.

The cardinals from one to twelve, hundred, thousand, million are simple words; those from thirteen to nineteen are derived from the corresponding simple ones by means of the suffix -teen; the cardinals denoting fens are derived from the corresponding simple ones by means of the suffix -ty.

Note:

Mind the difference in the spelling of the stem in three and thirteen (thirty), four and forty, five and

fifteen (fifty).

The cardinals from twenty-one to twenty-nine, from thirty-one to thirty-nine, etc. and those over hundred are compounds.

In cardinals consisting of tens and units the two words are hyphenated:

In cardinals including hundreds and thousands the words denoting units and tens are joined to those denoting hundreds, thousands, by means of the conjunction and:

103 - one hundred and three,

225 - two hundred and twenty-five,

3038 - three thousand and thirty-eight,

9651 - nine thousand six hundred and fifty-one.

Note:

If not part of a composite numeral the words hundred, thousand and million in the singular are always used with the indefinite article; a hundred pages, a thousand ways; in composite numerals both a and one are possible, but one is less common; a (one) hundred and fifty pages.

The words for common fractions are also composite. They are formed from cardinals denoting the numerator and substantivized ordinals denoting the denominator. If the numerator is a numeral higher than one, the ordinal in the denominator takes the plural form. The numerator and denominator may be joined by means of a hyphen or without it:

1/3 - one-third (one third),

2/7 - two-sevenths (two sevenths), etc.

In mixed numbers the numerals denoting fractions are joined to the numerals denoting integers (whole numbers) by means of the conjunction and:

3 1/5 - three and one-fifth,

20 3/8 - twenty and three-eighths.

In decimal fractions the numerals denoting fractions are joined to those denoting whole numbers by means of the words point or decimal:

0.5 - zero point (decimal) five,

2.3 - two point (decimal) three,

0,5 - zero decimal five,

0,005 - zero decimal zero zero five.

The ordinals

§ 230. Among the ordinals there are also simple, derivative and compound words.

The simple ordinals are first, second and third.

The derivative ordinals are derived from the simple and derivative cardinals by means of the suffix -th:

four-fourth, ten-tenth, sixteen-sixteenth, twenty-twentieth, etc.

Before the suffix -th the final у is replaced by ie:

thirty - thirtieth, etc.

Mind the difference in the spelling of the stems in the following cardinals and ordinals:

five-fifth, nine-ninth.

The compound ordinals are formed from composite cardinals. In this case only the last component of the compound numeral has the form of the ordinal:

twenty-first, forty-second, sixty-seventh, one hundred and first, etc.