Every digit's job depends on where it sits — the same digit 5 can mean five, fifty, or fifty thousand. Once you can read a number's place value, you can write it in words, compare it, and round it with confidence.
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In India, numbers are grouped as ones, thousands and lakhs — commas go after 3 digits, then every 2 digits after that.
4,56,208 broken into places
| Lakhs | Ten-thousands | Thousands | Hundreds | Tens | Ones |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 8 |
The digit 5 sits in the ten-thousands place, so its value is 5 × 10,000 = 50,000 — not just 5!
1 lakh = 1,00,000 = a hundred thousand. After the first comma (from the right, 3 digits), every group after that has only 2 digits.
Break the number into its place-value groups, then say each group's name in order.
| Numeral | Number name |
|---|---|
| 50,700 | Fifty thousand seven hundred |
| 12,045 | Twelve thousand and forty-five |
| 1,28,456 | One lakh twenty-eight thousand four hundred and fifty-six |
First compare how many digits each number has — more digits always means a bigger number.
🪜 How to compare two numbers
Rounding replaces a number with a nearby, simpler one. Look at the digit just after the place you are rounding to.
🎯 The rounding rule
Look at the digit right after the place you are rounding to.
• If it is 5 or more, round up.
• If it is 4 or less, round down (keep it the same).
Example: round 47 to the nearest 10 — the ones digit is 7 (5 or more), so round up to 50.
12 IMO-style questions on place value, number names, comparing and rounding. 🍀
