He was about six feet tall.
It’s four miles to the city centre from here.
Measurement nouns are explained in paragraphs 2.250 to 2.257.
If you do not know the exact number, size, or quantity of something, you can give an approximate amount or measurement using one of a group of special words and expressions. These are explained in paragraphs 2.264 to 2.271.
age
2.212 When you want to say how old someone or something is, you have a choice of ways in which to do it. These are explained in paragraphs 2.258 to 2.263.
Talking about the number of things: cardinal numbers
2.213 If you want to talk about some or all of the things in a group, you can show how many things you are talking about by using a cardinal number.
The cardinal numbers are listed in the Reference Section.
By Christmas, we had ten cows.
When you use a determiner and a number in front of a noun, you put the determiner in front of the number.
…the three young men.
…my two daughters.
Watch the eyes of any two people engrossed in conversation.
All three candidates are coming to Blackpool later this week.
When you put a number and an adjective in front of a noun, you usually put the number in front of the adjective.
…two small children.
…fifteen hundred local residents.
…three beautiful young girls.
one
2.214 One is used as a number in front of a noun to emphasize that there is only one thing, to show that you are being precise, or to contrast one thing with another. One is followed by a singular noun.
That is the one big reservation I’ve got.
He balanced himself on one foot.
There was only one gate into the palace.
This treaty was signed one year after the Suez Crisis.
It was negative in one respect but positive in another.
One is also used, like other numbers, as a quantity expression.
One of my students sold me her ticket.
…one of the few great novels of the century.
It’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen.
One also has special uses as a determiner and a pronoun. These are explained in paragraph 1.249 and paragraphs 1.158 to 1.161.
2.215 When a large number begins with the figure 1, the 1 can be said or written as a or one. One is more formal.
…a million dollars.
…a hundred and fifty miles.
Over one million pounds has been raised.
talking about negative amounts
2.216 The number 0 is not used in ordinary English to say that the number of things you are talking about is zero. Instead the negative determiner no or the negative pronoun none is used, or any is used with a negative. These are explained in paragraphs 5.49 and 5.69 to 5.71.
numbers and agreement
2.217 When you use any number except one in front of a noun, you use a plural noun.
There were ten people there, all men.
…a hundred years.
…a hundred and one things.
2.218 When you use a number and a plural noun to talk about two or more things, you usually use a plural verb. You use a singular verb with one.
Seven guerrillas were wounded.
There is one clue.
However, when you are talking about an amount of money or time, or a distance, speed, or weight, you usually use a number, a plural noun, and a singular verb.
Three hundred pounds is a lot of money.
Ten years is a long time.
Twenty six miles is a long way to run.
90 miles an hour is much too fast.
Ninety pounds is all she weighs.
Ways of measuring things are explained in paragraphs 2.250 to 2.257.
numbers with ordinals and postdeterminers
2.219 You can use cardinal numbers with both ordinals (see paragraphs 2.232 to 2.239) and postdeterminers (see paragraph 2.40). When you use a cardinal number with a determiner followed by an ordinal number or a postdeterminer, the cardinal number usually comes after the determiner and the ordinal or postdeterminer.
The first two years have been very successful.
…throughout the first four months of this year.
…the last two volumes of the encyclopedia.
…in the previous three years of his reign.
Note that some postdeterminers can be used like ordinary classifying adjectives (see paragraph 2.40). When they are used like this, the cardinal number comes before them.
He has written two previous novels.
…two further examples.
numbers as pronouns
2.220 When either the context makes it clear, or you think that your listener already knows something, you can use the cardinal number without a noun.
These two are quite different.
When cardinal numbers are used like this, you can put ordinal numbers, postdeterminers, or superlative adjectives in between the determiner and the cardinal number.
I want to tell you about the programmes. The first four are devoted to universities.
The other six are masterpieces.
The best thirty have the potential to be successful journalists.
expressing large numbers
2.221 When you use dozen, hundred, thousand, million, or billion to indicate exact numbers, you put a or another number in front of them.
…a hundred dollars.
…six hundred and ten miles.
…a thousand billion pounds.
…two dozen diapers.