Lakh, crore, arab and million
South Asia groups large numbers differently from the rest of the world. After the first thousand, the Indian and Pakistani systems group digits in twos, so 1,00,000 is one lakh and 1,00,00,000 is one crore. The international system groups in threes, so the same amounts are one hundred thousand and ten million.
| Figure | Indian / Pakistani | International |
|---|---|---|
| 1,00,000 | One lakh | One hundred thousand |
| 10,00,000 | Ten lakh | One million |
| 1,00,00,000 | One crore | Ten million |
| 1,00,00,00,000 | One arab (Pakistan) or one hundred crore (India) | One billion |
In Pakistan, amounts above 99 crore are often said in arab and kharab. In India the usual style keeps counting in crore, so a billion is written as one hundred crore. Pick the system your bank or office expects.
Writing an amount on a cheque
Banks compare the amount in words with the amount in figures, and the words decide the matter if the two differ. A few habits make a cheque harder to alter:
- Start writing at the far left of the line and finish with Only, then draw a line through any space left over.
- Write paisa or paise as words, such as and Fifty Paisa, or leave them out if the cheque is for whole rupees.
- Use the same number system as the figures box, and do not mix lakh with million.
- Do not overwrite or correct an amount. Most banks will return a cheque with changes, so write a new one.
How the words are formed
Numbers from 21 to 99 take a hyphen, as in Forty-Five, and the word and is not added inside numbers, which matches common cheque and invoice style. With Title Case, small joining words such as and stay in lower case. The tool accepts up to 15 digits before the decimal point, and money amounts can have at most two decimal places, because paisa and paise only go to 99.
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