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

Common Mistakes updated on  November 22, 2023 1 min read
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.” The QuillBot Grammar Checker 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?

Do you want to know more about common mistakes, commonly confused words, or other language topics? Check out some of our other language articles full of examples and quizzes.


Common mistakes

Commonly confused words

Rhetoric

Whoa or woah

Advisor vs adviser

Metonymy

Theirs or their's

Accept vs except

Malapropism

Ours or our's

Affect vs effect

Verbal irony

Hers or her's

Among vs between

Pun

Sence or sense

Anymore vs any more

Grawlix


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.

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Julia Merkus

Julia has master's degrees in Linguistics and Language and speech pathology. Her expertise lies in grammar, language and speech disorders, foreign language learning, and child language acquisition.

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