Roman Numbers
The numbers that we normally use (1, 2, 3 etc) are called
"Arabic numbers". But we sometimes use another system for writing
numers - "Roman numbers". The Romans used letters of the alphabet
to represent numbers, and you will occasionally see this system
used for page numbers, clock faces, dates of movies etc.
The letters used in Roman numbers are:
- I = 1
- V = 5
- X = 10
- L = 50
- C = 100
- D = 500
- M = 1000
In general, letters are placed in decreasing order of value,
eg XVI = 16. Letters can be repeated one or two times to increase
value, eg XX = 20, XXX = 30. Letters cannot be repeated three
times, so XXXX is not used for 40. In this case, XL = 40 (50
minus 10).
Examples
- The Introduction is on page vii.
= The Introduction is on page 7.
- © MCMXCVII EnglishClub.com
= © 1997 EnglishClub.com
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