Learn English – How to pronounce long numbers

In the UK, we always put the "and" in after the hundreds in plain numbers. Commas appear to be put after every "power of 1000" term ("thousand", "million", "billion" and so on); I'm not sure whether that's a requirement or just a good idea. However, not even the most knee-jerk believer in Oxford Commas would put a comma after the hundreds. So it is:

One thousand, two hundred and ten.

In the US, they seem to always leave the "and" out, but use commas in the same way:

One thousand, two hundred ten.

There is another alternative, though. With a number like this between one and two thousand, in the UK at least we might still talk about it hundreds:

Twelve hundred and ten.

This is very much dependent on context and personal preference, but it does happen so you shouldn't be surprised by it.

On a check – which is one of the few places where you see such numbers written out in their long form – you might see any of the following conventions used:

• Twenty-three thousand four hundred twenty-eight dollars & thirty-two cents
• Twenty-three thousand four hundred twenty-eight dollars and 32 cents
• Twenty-three thousand four hundred twenty-eight dollars and 32/100

I don't believe too many people would use the top one, though – not when they were writing out the number in longhand – although you might see the number of cents spelled out on a computer-printed check.

In the case where the dollar amount is even, you might see:

• Twenty-three thousand four hundred twenty-eight dollars and no cents
• Twenty-three thousand four hundred twenty-eight dollars and no/100
• Twenty-three thousand four hundred twenty-eight dollars & 0/100
• Twenty-three thousand four hundred twenty-eight dollars only

I think the last one is relatively uncommon, although I've personally used it for decades. (I first saw it as a teenager, thought it was a cool, quirky way to write checks in even amounts, and so I adopted the practice.) Sometimes I'll even use the word exactly, when the dollar amount is more even:

• Twenty-three thousand four hundred dollars exactly

although I don't usually write checks in that large an amount.