I recently attended a meeting with an Englishman in charge of examinations services in Saudi Arabia and other staff involved in promoting BEC and IELTS examinations. During lunch while comparing the population of Saudi Arabia and Tamil Nadu a lady said that the population of Tamil Nadu is over six crore. “What does the term ‘crore’ mean?” the Englishman asked the lady. “A crore is one hundred lakh,” answered the lady. The Englishman shot his second question: “And one lakh is equivalent to…?” Another person said, “One crore is ten million and one lakh is one hundred thousand.”
The terms ‘lakh’ and ‘crore’, though listed in The New Oxford Dictionary, are not used by native speakers of English. Both the terms have their origins in Hindi. The terms are widely used in the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal). For e.g., a person bought a house for `2 crore and when he conveys this piece of information to someone from Europe or America he should say: “I bought this house for 20 million.” Let us look at the conversation below:
Aldeesh (A): Mike, I have bought a new house in Chennai.
Mike (M): Congratulations, By the way, how much does it cost?
A: It costs Rs 2 crore.
M: Rs 2 crore? It is equivalent to?
A: Rs 2 crore is twenty million.
M: What about the other house which I visited in my last trip?
A: I sold it for eighty lakh.
M: Eighty lakh? That will be?
A: Mike, I’m sorry, I didn’t know that you are not familiar with the terms ‘lakh’ and ‘crore’. Eighty lakh is eight million.
M: Great! Thanks. I’ve learnt the meanings of ‘lakh’ and ‘crore’. Tell me more about the number system
A: One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand. Ten lakh is equal to one million. One crore is equal to ten million. Ten crore is equal to one hundred million. One hundred is one billion.
M: Many thanks.
Now the slang term ‘k’, the abbreviation of ‘kilo’, is widely used in many countries to represent one thousand. For example, from 35k the salary has increased to 46k this year.
rayanal@yahoo.co.uk
is an ELT resource person and Associate Professor at KCG College of Technology, Chennai. He is also editor of ELTeCS-ISL newsletter