2.222 When you use dozen, hundred, thousand, million, or billion they remain singular even when the number in front of them is greater than one.
2.223 You can use dozen, hundred, thousand, million, or billion without of in a less precise way by putting several, a few, and a couple of in front of them.
…several hundred people.
A few thousand cars have gone.
…life a couple of hundred years ago.
approximate quantities
2.224 When you want to emphasize how large a number is without stating it precisely, you can use dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions, and billions in the same way as cardinals followed by of.
That’s going to take hundreds of years.
…hundreds of dollars.
We travelled thousands of miles across Europe.
…languages spoken by millions of people.
We have dozens of friends in the community.
You can put many in front of these plural forms.
I have travelled many hundreds of miles with them.
2.225 People often use the plural forms when they are exaggerating.
I was meeting thousands of people.
Do you have to fill in hundreds of forms before you go?
You can also emphasize or exaggerate a large number by using these words in phrases beginning with by.
…a book which sells by the million.
…people who give injections by the dozen.
Videos of the royal wedding sold by the hundred thousand.
numbers as labels
2.226 Cardinal numbers are used to label or identify things.
Room 777 of the Stanley Hotel.
Number 11 Downing Street.
numbers as quantity expressions
2.227 You can also use cardinal numbers as quantity expressions linked by of to a noun phrase referring to a group. You do this when you want to emphasize that you are talking about a part or all of a group.
I saw four of these programmes.
Three of the questions today have been about democracy.
I use plastic kitchen bins. I have four of them.
All eight of my great-grandparents lived in the city.
All four of us wanted to get away from the Earl’s Court area.
The clerk looked at the six of them and said, All of you?
I find it less worrying than the two of you are suggesting.
Quantity expressions are explained in paragraphs 2.176 to 2.193.
number quantity expressions as pronouns
2.228 Cardinal numbers are used to quantify something without the of and the noun phrase, when it is clear what you are referring to.
…a group of painters, nine or ten in all.
Of the other wives, two are dancers and one is a singer.
…the taller student of the two.
…breakfast for two.
numbers after subject pronouns
2.229 Cardinal numbers are also used after subject pronouns.
In the fall we two are going to England.
You four, come with me.
numbers in compound adjectives
2.230 Cardinal numbers can be used as part of a compound adjective (see paragraphs 2.94 to 2.102). The cardinal number is used in front of a noun to form a compound adjective that is usually hyphenated
He took out a five-dollar bill.
I wrote a five-page summary of the situation.
Note that the noun remains singular even when the number is two or more, and that compound adjectives that are formed like this cannot be used after a linking verb. For example, you cannot say My essay is five-hundred-word. Instead you would probably say My essay is five hundred words long.
numbers with time expressions
2.231 Cardinal numbers are sometimes used with general time words such as month and week. You do this when you want to describe something by saying how long it lasts. If the thing is referred to with an uncountable noun, you use the possessive form (see paragraphs 1.211 to 1.222) of the general time word.
She’s already had at least nine months’ experience.
On Friday she had been given two weeks’ notice.
Sometimes the apostrophe is omitted.
They wanted three weeks holiday and three weeks pay.
The determiner a is usually used when you are talking about a single period of time, although one can be used instead when you want to be more formal.
She’s on a year’s leave from Hunter College.
He was only given one week’s notice.
Cardinal numbers are also used with general time words as modifiers of adjectives.
She was four months pregnant.
The rains are two months late.
His rent was three weeks overdue.
Referring to things in a sequence: ordinal numbers
2.232 If you want to identify or describe something by saying where it comes in a series or sequence, you use an ordinal number.
Quietly they took their seats in the first three rows.
Flora’s flat is on the fourth floor of this five-storey block.
They stopped at the first of the trees.
Note that you can also use following, last, next, preceding, previous, and subsequent like ordinal numbers to say where something comes in a series or sequence.
The following morning he checked out of the hotel.