(一)基数词的基本用法

1.定语

Fifty thousand London dockers are out on strike.

2.主语

数词作主语，谓语动词用单数。

如： Two months is quite a long time.

Five is an odd number.

3.宾语或介词宾语

How many do you want? -----Eight, please.

The city has a population of four million.

4.表语

We are altogether fourteen.

Five plus seven is twelve.

5.同位语

What work are you to assign us three?

Is there room for us two?

6.基数词＋单数名词＋形容词构成合成形容词。如：一个五岁的男孩a five-year-old boy；一座800米长的桥an 800-metre-long bridge；女子400米接力girls'400-metre relay race。

7.句型：主语＋is ＋about(大约)／ over ＝more than(超过)／nearly(接近)＋具体数词＋metre(s)／kilometre(s)／kilo(s)long ／ high ／tall ／deep ／away等。如：长江长6300公里。

The Changjiang River is 6，300 kilometres long.

8.表示“。。。。。。十”的数词的复数形式可以用来表示人的岁数或年代：

He is in his early thirties.

He died still in his forties.

This took place in the 1930s.

(二)序数词的基本用法

1.序数词主要用作定语，前面一般要加定冠词(或物主代词)：

Tom is their second son.

They celebrated the 10th anniversary of the founding of the republic.

I will never give up, not even on the 1,000th or 10,000th try.

2.有时前面可以加一个不定冠词来表示“再一”， “又一”这样的意思：

We’ll have to do it a second time.

Shall I ask him a third time?

When I sat down, a fourth man rose to speak.

3.First,second 等有时可用来表示“第一个人(批)”“第二个人”等：

She was among the first to come and settle in Dujiashan.

You will be the second to speak.

4.如果数字较长，序数词总避免使用，而且读的方法也常常简化：

第201房间：　Room 201

第319面：　page 319

第一拖拉机厂：the Number I Tractor Works

第六号车厢：Carriage No.6

南京路1490号：1490 Nanjing Road

电话号码55――2347：telephone number : 55—2347

5. 在谈编了号的东西时，我们可以用基数词表示顺序：

the first part------part one

the third squad------squad three

the twenty-third section----section twenty-three