VOA · Everyday Grammar
Advanced · C1learner speed8:262024-04-25public domain
Everyday Grammar digs into one grammar topic per episode — verb tenses, prepositions, sentence patterns — with plenty of spoken examples. Because you are listening to language about language, it doubles as grammar review while you train your ears.
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01We have a question for you.
02What do countries, economies, mathematics, and the news have in common?
03There are several ways to answer the question, but today we are thinking about this connection, large numbers.
04Large numbers, say a million and up, appear all the time in everyday situations, and especially in news reports.
05These large numbers come along with a kind of noun known as a count noun.
06In today's everyday grammar, we will learn about the history and usage of large numbers.
07We will look at some modern examples and then give you a chance to practice writing about large numbers.
08Let's begin our story with the word million.
09It has a connection with a thousand, as we will see.
10But first, we make a trip to the ancient past.
11We can clean off the dusty books of history and find clues about the beginnings of million.
12We see mille, a Latin word which suggests a thousand.
13We find evidence of mille through time.
14We have the Italian millione and million in Old French.
15We find million in English appearing around the late 1300s with the meaning of a thousand thousands.
16Million serves as the starting point for even larger numbers to come.
17We get a billion, a word that mixes by, a word element that suggests the idea of two, with the word million.
18Later, we get trillion, a word that mixes try, a word element that suggests three, and the word million.
19The story of large numbers in English is complex.
20There are so-called long and short-scale systems.
21But you do not need to worry about such issues.
22For our purposes, we can use the modern American definitions from Merriam-Webster.
23We arrive at these definitions.
24The central idea is to define bigger numbers, like a million, billion, or trillion, based on some relationship with one thousand.
25Now that we have some definitions in mind, we can turn to some questions.
26Why might large numbers matter?
27Here is one answer.
28Large numbers, millions, billions, trillions, appear all the time in the news.
29The large number is often what draws attention, or creates interest.
30You might also be wondering how the discussion of large numbers connects to grammar.
31Here, the idea is less about the numbers themselves, and more about the things, in this case the nouns, that the numbers describe.
32In particular, we use these large numbers to describe count nouns, nouns that we are able to count with numbers.
33And in the news, there are several count nouns commonly used with large numbers.
34Dollars, people, and years.
35Here are a few examples.
36Consider this headline published earlier this year by VOA News.
37U.S.
38national debt hits record $34 trillion as Congress gears up for funding fight.
39Here we have the number, 34 trillion, describing a count noun, dollars.
40The dollar is the official money of the United States.
41But news stories in your country might use other kinds of money, such as the euro, the peso, and so on.
42News stories about trade, finance, and economies are very likely to contain this structure, large number, plus the name of the currency.
43Now consider this section from a science story that recently appeared on the VOA Learning English website.
44Marine reptiles lived in the world's oceans at the same time that dinosaurs lived on the land.
45Ichthyosaurs disappeared 90 million years ago.
46In this example, we have the large number, 90 million, describing the count noun, years.
47Science stories, particularly stories about ancient times and outer space, often center on a point in time long ago.
48So, keep an eye out for this structure, large number, plus years, or years ago.
49Finally, let's consider a short example from another VOA Learning English report.
50The subject this time is an English test.
51We learn about the number of people who took the test.
52The 2023 EF English Proficiency Index, EPI, ranks countries and areas by English proficiency.
53The index is based on test results from 2.2 million people in 113 countries.
54Here, we have the number 2.2 million, describing the count noun, people.
55Stories about studies, elections, populations, and so on, often involve this structure.
56Large number, plus people.
57In today's lesson, we covered a lot of territory.
58We looked into the past and explored the present.
59And, we can report that we used about 800 words to present the subject of large numbers and count nouns.
60We will end today's lesson with a call to action.
61We would like you to link the ideas we have explored with something connected to your country.
62Please write us one to two sentences about a large number, million, billion, or trillion, that connects with an event or situation in your country or area.
63For example, you might write, My country's GDP is around $10 trillion.
64Or, My government spends $100 billion on health care.
65You can send your sentences in an email to learningenglish at voanews.com.
66In a future lesson, we will give feedback on some of the messages we receive.
67I'm John Russell.
68I'm John Russell.
69I'm John Russell.
70I'm John Russell.
71I'm John Russell.
72I'm John Russell.
73I'm John Russell.
74I'm John Russell.
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