Write any sterling amount in words. The converter gives the sentence form; the cheque format, which is not the American one, is set out below.
Check format sets its own capitalisation: banks expect Title Case, so the option is fixed here.
Type a number to see it spelled out. Pick a currency for an amount with cents, or Check to get the line a bank expects.
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01 · the short answer
In a sentence: one hundred twenty-three pounds and forty-five pence. On a cheque: One hundred and twenty-three pounds and 45 pence only.
Two things in that second line catch people out. It ends with only, which is not politeness but a security device. And the minor unit is pence, never pennies — a distinction English keeps for no reason except that it always has.
If you have arrived here from an American guide, be careful: almost nothing about the US check format transfers. That comparison is the next section.
Writing pounds in words comes up less often than it used to, which is precisely why it is worth looking up rather than guessing. Most people now write a cheque a handful of times a year, and the format is not something the hand remembers on its own.
02 · not the same line
Both countries write the amount twice for the same reason, and both close the line so nothing can be added. Beyond that the two formats share almost nothing — including, in this case, the spelling of the word itself.
| British cheque | American check | |
|---|---|---|
| Currency word | Written: "pounds" | Omitted — preprinted |
| Minor unit | Words or figures: "45 pence" | Fraction: "45/100" |
| Closing device | The word "only" | The 00/100 and a drawn line |
| "and" after hundreds | Standard | Omitted |
| Whole amount | "Fifty pounds only" | "Fifty and 00/100" |
The row worth pausing on is the last-but-one. On an American check the word "and" is reserved for separating the dollars from the cents, so the British connector after the hundreds would put two of them on one line. On a British cheque the currency word already marks that boundary — "pounds and 45 pence" — so the connector causes no ambiguity at all. Same word, different job, because the surrounding format is different.
03 · pence
English gives the minor unit of sterling two plurals and uses them for different things. Pence is the amount: fifty pence, ninety-nine pence, forty-five pence. Pennies is the coins: a jar of pennies, two pennies rubbed together. A price is never ninety-nine pennies, and a handful of change is never ninety-nine pence in the physical sense.
The singular is penny for both: "five pounds and one penny". The converter above follows all three rules, which is why it returns "one penny" for £5.01 and "twenty pence" for £5.20 rather than treating the minor unit as a single word with an "s" bolted on.
In writing, the abbreviation p stands in for small amounts — 45p, 99p — and is read aloud as "pee". It belongs in prices and on cheques, but not in the words of a contract, where the unit is written out.
04 · worked amounts
The sentence column comes from the converter above. The cheque column applies the British convention set out in this page, which the converter does not produce.
| Figure | In a sentence | On a cheque |
|---|---|---|
| £1.00 | one pound | One pound only |
| £5.01 | five pounds and one penny | Five pounds and one penny only |
| £20.00 | twenty pounds | Twenty pounds only |
| £36.25 | thirty-six pounds and twenty-five pence | Thirty-six pounds and 25 pence only |
| £123.45 | one hundred twenty-three pounds and forty-five pence | One hundred and twenty-three pounds and 45 pence only |
| £1,500.00 | one thousand five hundred pounds | One thousand five hundred pounds only |
05 · the word "only"
"Twenty pounds only" reads like an apology. It is not: the word is there to shut the line. Without it, the space after your last word is somewhere another word could go, and "twenty pounds" becomes "twenty pounds and fifty pence" with one careful addition.
Every cheque convention in the world solves this same problem, and each language picked a different tool. Britain and much of the Commonwealth close with "only". The United States uses a fraction over a printed hundred. Spanish-speaking countries draw a line through the gap and add a currency suffix. The habits look unrelated until you notice they are all answers to the question of what to do with the empty space.
Which is why "only" and the drawn line are used together rather than as alternatives. The word closes the sentence; the line closes the paper.
06 · mistakes
— five pounds and one pennies
+ five pounds and one penny
Singular is penny. The plural in an amount is pence — pennies means the physical coins, as in "a jar of pennies".
— Twenty pounds
+ Twenty pounds only
On a cheque the closing "only" is what stops anything being added after your words. Without it the line stays open.
— One Hundred Twenty-Three and 45/100
+ One hundred and twenty-three pounds and 45 pence only
That is the American format. A British cheque names the currency, spells or writes the pence, and closes with "only".
— £1,234.5
+ £1,234.50
Two decimal places, always. A single one is ambiguous in exactly the place ambiguity is expensive.
— Five Pound
+ Five pounds
The singular only survives in compound modifiers before a noun: a five-pound note, a twenty-pound fine.
07 · questions
Q01
In a sentence, name the currency and use words throughout: "one hundred twenty-three pounds and forty-five pence". On a cheque the convention differs — see the next answer.
Q02
Write the pounds in words, then the pence, then close with "only": "Thirty-six pounds and 25 pence only". The pence may be written as words or as figures; both are accepted. Draw a line through whatever space is left after "only".
Q03
For the same reason an American one uses a fraction over one hundred: to close the line. "Only" tells the bank that the amount ends there, so nothing can be appended after your words. It is the British answer to the same problem.
Q04
Pence, when you mean an amount of money: fifty pence, one penny, ninety-nine pence. Pennies means the coins themselves — you can have a handful of pennies, but a price is never "ninety-nine pennies". The converter above uses pence, and treats one penny as the singular.
Q05
In British usage, yes: "one hundred and twenty-three pounds". This is one place where British and American practice genuinely differ, and on a British cheque the British form is what is expected. Because the currency word separates the pounds from the pence, the extra "and" causes none of the confusion it would on an American check.
Q06
Yes. "Thirty-six pounds and 25 pence only" is standard and widely used, and it is easier to read than spelling out an awkward number. What matters is that the pounds are in words and the line is closed with "only".
Q07
Much less than they once were — most everyday payments moved to Faster Payments and cards years ago — but cheques were not withdrawn. They still turn up for private sales, clubs and societies, some rent arrangements, and payments to people who do not want to share bank details. Clearing is now done from an image of the cheque rather than the paper itself.
Q08
Words with the figures in brackets, as with any currency: "the sum of Fifty Thousand Pounds (£50,000.00)". Here "pounds" is written out, since nothing is preprinted, and the amount in words is the version that binds if the two disagree.
Name the currency, use pence rather than pennies, and close the line. Those three cover the British format; the converter above writes pounds in words for anything longer than you want to work out by hand, and the comparison table settles which convention belongs on which document.