Express the number 3054 in words.

• A. Three thousand five hundred forty
• B. Three thousand fifty-four
• C. Three thousand and fifty-four
• D. Three thousand fifty four

Answer: (B)

Reading numbers in words uses place value: thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones. In 3054, the thousands digit is 3, the hundreds digit is 0, the tens digit is 5, and the ones digit is 4. That means you say “three thousand” for the first part and “fifty-four” for the last two digits. Since the hundreds part is zero, nothing is spoken there, and you hyphenate the compound tens-and-ones: fifty-four. So it becomes Three thousand fifty-four.

(Other wordings would misrepresent the digits or punctuation—for example, including “five hundred” would imply 3,540, and adding “and” is a dialect variation that isn’t standard in this context, while omitting the hyphen is less correct for a compound number like fifty-four.)