Numbers are everywhere! We use them every single day, often without thinking. From telling the time to buying things in a shop, numbers help us understand the world.
CEFR A2 Level
Read and understand simple texts that deal with familiar topics.
Understanding Numbers in Daily Life
Let's think about quantities. When we go shopping, we see prices like €5 (five euros) or £10 (ten pounds). We might buy two bottles of milk or a pair of socks. Maybe we need half a kilogram of apples or a 2-litre bottle of lemonade. Shops often have offers, like "buy one, get one free" or "50 percent discount." That's fifty percent – half the price! Understanding these numbers helps us spend our money wisely.
We also use numbers for measurements. Recipes tell us to use 200 grams of flour or 100 millilitres of water. When driving, we see speed limits, like 30 miles per hour or 50 kilometres per hour. We might measure a room and find it is 4 metres long and 3 metres wide. Clothes have sizes, often using numbers like 10, 12, or 40, 42. Even a piece of paper has a size, like A4.
Ordinal numbers tell us the order: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and so on. We use them for dates, like the tenth of May, or to say who finished a race, like she came first!.
Large numbers like hundred, thousand, or even million are used too, perhaps when talking about the population of a city or the cost of a house. We count things – maybe there are twenty pupils in a class or seventy pages in a notebook. Even zero is an important number, especially in maths or when talking about temperature.
Learning about numbers and quantities is a useful part of learning a language. It helps us communicate clearly in many different situations, from the market to the kitchen to the office.