I received emails from two people last week asking about the word million. Both people asked the same question:
”What is the plural of million?
Is it millions, or is it million (without ‘s’)?”
The answer is that million, like the words hundred, thousand and billion, has two possible plural endings. Sometimes we say million, sometimes millions.
Without the plural ending -s
1. We don’t add ‘s’ when we give an exact number:
- two million pounds
- two thousand years
- three hundred
- four billion.
2. We don’t add ‘s’ when we use a quantifier like several or a few:
- several million years
- a few thousand dollars
- a few hundred.
With the plural ending -s
Add ‘s’ if you don’t give an exact number:
- hundreds of people
- thousands of years
- millions of dollars.
That’s the rule. It’s nice and simple!
On the subject of dollars and amounts of money, there is another common question worth answering: which of the following is correct?
1. There is a hundred dollars in my wallet.
or
2. There are a hundred dollars in my wallet.
The first sentence is correct. We see an amount of money as a whole thing, and so we use is, not are.
Here are some more examples:
Give me back that ten pounds you owe me. (not those ten pounds)
and
Two million euros is difficult to earn. (not are difficult)
Do you have a question about this grammar? Do you have any more examples? Please leave a message below in the comments section.
If you found this article useful, please click the ‘like’ and ‘+1′ buttons below and share it with friends. Thanks.
About 