Roman Numerals Pronounced Americans Section Talk Ivan Numbers

Usually, Americans use "Arabic numerals" (0, 1, 2, 3...) when they write down numbers and numerical "concepts" (ideas; ways of understanding something). However, in some cases they use "Roman numerals" (I, II, III, IV, V...). Roman numerals are most often seen in the "introductory" (beginning part of a novel, before the actual story begins) section of books, or in "appendices" (the sections that follow the main part of a book or report). Roman numerals are sometimes seen on buildings to show the year when they were built. Many "clock faces" (the front of a clock, where numbers are) "display" (show) Roman numerals.

Roman numerals are often used to talk about "monarchs" (people with royal blood; kings and queens). For example, we would write "George III" and "Ivan IV." In these cases, the Roman numerals are "pronounced" (spoken) as "ordinal" (showing order) numerals, and not "cardinal" (not showing order, just stating the number) numbers. For example, Ivan IV is pronounced as "Ivan the Fourth," but never "Ivan Four."

Sometimes Americans use Roman numerals to "refer to" (talk about) "centuries" (groups of 100 years), although this isn't very common. Americans could talk about the 1900s as the 20th century, for example. As with the monarchs, centuries are pronounced with ordinal numbers, and not cardinal numbers, so "XX century" would be pronounced as "the twentieth century."

We also use Roman numerals to "indicate" (show) sections in legal contracts and written "policies" (rules and regulations). For example, you might hear a lawyer talk about Section IV, Paragraph III. In this case, the section headings are pronounced as ordinal numbers, but not cardinal numbers. The lawyer would say "Section Four, Paragraph Three," not "Section the Fourth, Paragraph the Third."