Is It Forty or *Fourty? | Which Is Correct?

Forty (40) is a cardinal number that can be grammatically classified as an adjective, noun, pronoun, or determiner. A cardinal number is used to indicate quantity.

Forty is sometimes misspelled as “fourty”—probably because 4 is spelled as “four”—but “fourty” is not a real word. This is also true when “forty” is used as part of a larger number, such as “forty-two” or “two-hundred-forty.” QuillBot’s grammar check tool will fix this and other common mistakes automatically.

Examples: Forty or fourty in a sentence
  • My uncle will visit in fourty minutes.
  • My uncle will visit in forty minutes.
  • I’ve visited Spain fourty-two times.
  • I’ve visited Spain forty-two times.

How to use forty in a sentence

“Forty” can be used as a noun to refer to the number 40, but it can also be used as a quantifier (determiner) to describe or modify another noun. It’s used as a pronoun to refer to previously mentioned nouns.

Examples: Forty in a sentence
My grandparents have been married for forty years.
John ate twenty pretzels, and I ate forty!

Are you turning forty this year?

Frequently asked questions about forty or fourty

Is it fourty five or forty-five?

Forty and fourty are often confused, but forty-five is the correct spelling. “Fourty” is always incorrect and should be avoided.

The QuillBot Grammar Checker can help you with this.

Is it fourty or forty dollars?

Forty and fourty are often confused, but forty dollars is correct. “Fourty” is always incorrect and should be avoided.

The QuillBot Grammar Checker can help you with this.

Is this article helpful?
Julia Merkus, MA

Julia has a bachelor in Dutch language and culture and two masters in Linguistics and Language and speech pathology. After a few years as an editor, researcher, and teacher, she now writes articles about her specialist topics: grammar, linguistics, methodology, and statistics.