Expressing yourself with numbers can be tricky business in English but the first thing to remember is that there will be rules to apply just as there are in your own language and that these are not always going to be similar. In other words if you are a native French speaker you can appreciate distinguishing between ordinals and regular numbers just as you would in your own language. Telling the time on the other hand is going to be another challenge because concepts behind reading a clock are somewhat different between the two languages.
When learning numbers remember that referring to a date will be different than when talking dollars and cents. A date will usually be read with the first two numbers together and then the last to. That was until the year 2000 though. Until 2009, the year will be read as two thousand and then the final digit; we are now in two thousand and eight. If there were a decimal between the two zeros and I was talking about a price, I would say 20 dollars and eight cents.
Ordinals are used to show the order of things and how they are placed so a typical example can be understood with students standing in a line and the person at the front being first. Then the person after him will be second, the next third and so on. Ordinals can also be taught when giving out things to people on a time basis. So someone who got something at 1pm would be first and his colleague receiving something at 1:15 would be second.
Fractions are easy as long as the top number is read before the bottom one and fractions are understood in the student's native language. The number the said for the denominator is an ordinal and not a regular digit, except for ½, which is read as a “half”.
