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This question regards the numbers from 1 to 999. We can ignore commas, hyphens, and spaces. What I'm interested in is when and where to use the word "and".

There are a few interesting cases:

1) 20 < n < 100

Is it "twenty and one", or "twenty one"?

2) 100 < n < 120

Is it "one hundred and eleven"? "One hundred and one"? Or is it "one hundred one", "one hundred eleven"?

3) n = 190 (for example)

Is it "one hundred and ninety"? Or "one hundred ninety"?

4) n = 191 (for example)

I'm assuming it's "one hundred and ninety one"... Or is it "one hundred ninety and one"?

Thanks so much... I'd be very grateful if someone could answer these 4 cases :-)

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    Under 100: no and, simply a hyphen. Over 100: use and immediately before the number under 100. So twenty-one, one hundred and eleven, one hundred and one, one hundred and ninety, one hundred and ninety-one, twenty-two thousand three hundred and thirty-one. Note that and is sometimes left out in casual speech. Note also that one at the beginning may change into a depending on context. Lastly, the hyphen is not always written, so it may not be compulsory, but I think all style books recommend that you use it.
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Apr 19, 2013 at 5:03
  • I agree with @Cerberus – unless you are writing these as amounts on a check, in which case the and is omitted.
    – J.R.
    Commented Apr 19, 2013 at 7:55
  • @Cerberus is correct. General rule is and only before numbers below 100. But J.R., in British usage, it's a cheque, and we still keep the and unless space is tight.
    – njd
    Commented Apr 19, 2013 at 12:33
  • 1
    I was taught to reserve the word and for expressing decimal points. Is that an American thing?
    – user13141
    Commented Apr 19, 2013 at 18:51
  • @onomatomaniak Yes. David's answer below is correct for BrE.
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Apr 19, 2013 at 18:53

1 Answer 1

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  • 21: twenty-one
  • 111: a hundred and eleven (or "one" hundred and eleven)
  • 101: a hundred and one
  • 190: a hundred and ninety
  • 191: a hundred and ninety-one
  • 206: two hundred and six
  • 1,002: a thousand and two
  • 15,726: fifteen thousand, seven hundred and twenty-six
  • 276,521: two hundred and seventy-six thousand, five hundred and twenty-one
  • 1,000,001: a million and one

All the numbers over a hundred have "and" in them where some other units are added after the "hundred". In fact, US English "a hundred one" strikes me as grammatically incorrect, as I can't agree that US English is just as correct as British English.

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