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Large Numbers Around Us

Reading a large number out loud

Read 1,23,45,678 digit by digit: "one, two, three..." That is not how you say the number.

The number: 1,23,45,678.
Step 1 of 6
  1. The number: 1,23,45,678.
  2. Group "1" → crore.
  3. Group "23" → lakh.
  4. Group "45" → thousand.
  5. Group "678" has no label.
  6. Say it: one crore, twenty-three lakh, forty-five thousand, six hundred seventy-eight.

The rule

The Indian commas cut the number into groups. A group's label is its name: crore, lakh or thousand. The group before the last comma is the thousands. Before that is the lakhs. Before that is the crores. The last three digits carry no label at all. This works for numbers up to nine digits.

Read each group as an ordinary number, then add its label. Say nothing for a group that is all zeros.

Watch out!

3,00,45,000 is not "three lakh forty-five thousand." The lakh group is 00, so it says nothing. The 3 is still in the crore group. It is three crore, forty-five thousand.

Tap each group in the lab to give it a label. Make the reading right.

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This track

  1. 0 Start here
  2. 1 Past the thousands column
  3. 2 Two ways to group the same digits
  4. 3 Reading a large number out loud
  5. 4 Which large number is bigger
  6. 5 Rounding to a place you choose
  7. 6 Estimate before you compute
  8. 7 How big a lakh really is
  9. 8 Round which way?
  10. 9 Estimates on one side of the answer
  11. 10 Quick times 5, 25 and 125
  12. 11 Checkpoint: rounding and quick times
  13. 12 The big picture
  14. 13 Track quiz

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