IELTS Listening Practice – Telephone Numbers
In the Listening section of the IELTS exam, you may need to write down a telephone number as an answer. This usually happens in the section 1 of the listening test.
Writing down telephone numbers happens in real life which is why one of the answers in the listening section may be a phone number.
Saying phone numbers in English may be different from how you say them in your own language, so I recommend watching our video about how to say phones in English before beginning the practice test.
The phone numbers you will hear in the IELTS listening test are not said slowly for English learners. No, you will hear them at the normal speed a native speaker would say them.
Something to be aware of is that the number ZERO is normally pronounced as OH, just like the letter O.
Also when TWO numbers appear consecutively, like two fives together, we normally say DOUBLE five.
Something similar happens when THREE numbers appear consecutively, we normally say TRIPLE five.
Don’t try to remember the whole phone number. You should try to write each number at the same time you are listening them.
What are the different ways of speaking numbers?
There are number of ways to say a number. For example, let’s take a telephone number 0200 7896
This number can be said as:
Zero two double zero seven eight nine six
Zero two zero zero seven eight nine six
Oh two oh oh seven eight nine six
Different ways of saying “zero”
Did you notice the difference in there? Zero is also spoken as “oh” in English like an alphabet “o”
The two consecutive numbers can be spoken as “double zero”
There is also another variation of saying zero in English. That is “nil” but usually it is spoken in scores and probably marking criteria.
Manchester United won the football match by three – nil (3-0)
It is always better if you know all the different ways of speaking a number because in IELTS exam, you may get any of these methods.
Here are some more examples of numbers.
0256 9850 (oh two five six nine eight five oh)
2286 9956 (double two eight six double nine five six)
9875146 (nine eight seven five one four six)
0.05% (nought point nought five percent)
0226 5600 (oh double two six five six double oh)
Writing numbers in words
– Another variation of speaking larger numbers
When describing larger numbers it may be spoken as one huge number or simply as million or billion.
400000 can be spoken as four hundred thousand or simply nought point four million.
1904 – nineteen oh four
1. The number is
2. The number is
3. The number is
4. The number is
5. The number is .
Complete the given exercises now which is based on the audio below.
- Flight number: _____
- Flight number: _____
- Reference number: _____
- Reference number: _____
- Surname: _____
- Surname: _____
- Address: _____ _____
- Address: _____ _____
- Telephone number: _____
- Telephone number: _____
Sources: Many