25 million vs. 25 millions

[Torsten]

Hi, as far as I know we usually say
three million rather than three millions when we talk about a certain dollar amount.
However, on of my Napoleon Hill tapes he uses the plural form (millions). What is the rule here?

Thanks in advance,
Torsten
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[Tamara]

Maybe I am completely wrong, but as far as I can hear and understand:

- in technical contexts or with numbers (25 million) always ‘million’ is used;

- millions = many millions is used informally. An example from my dictionary is: The programme was viewed on television in millions of homes.

Tamara
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[Englishuser]

Hi,

I agree with you, Tamara.

[Torsten]

Well, here is what Napoleon Hill says on the tape and he clearly uses the plural form (millions):

"... when I met them the combined wealth of those 6 men was around twenty five millions of dollars ...."
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[Alan]

Hi Torsten,

If you are using million adjectivally before or after the noun, the pattern is to drop the 's' as in a 3 million dollar house or a house worth 3 million or using it as a noun - a house costing millions of dollars. Formaility or informality doesn't really come into the matter.

Alan
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[Yankee]

[Conchita]

[Yankee]

Hi Conchita

The English you can hear in the "Southern states" is wonderfully colorful and full of inventive imagery. And that imagery is often quite humorous. I always enjoy it. Years ago I had a boyfriend from "down south" and his southern way of expressing things had me laughing endlessly. Even simple or ordinary ideas were often inventively expressed.

For example, you can say "That's good" or "That's fine". A standard (but boring) way to make it better would be to say "very fine" or "the best". But instead he'd always say something like "That's finer than frog hair".

I remember asking him about that particular expression once. His reaction was not to tell me that it's a rather typical expression in his area and means "sublime". Instead he explained it this way: "Ain't hardly nothing finer than the hair on a frog, now is there?."

Amy
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Conchita]