CEFR A1
fourteen
numeral
Meaning
The number equivalent to the sum of thirteen and one; one more than thirteen or less than fifteen.
Examples
- She has fourteen candles on her birthday cake.
- The train departs at fourteen hundred hours.
Phrases for fourteen
Natural phrases and collocations with fourteen. See examples, avoid awkward combinations, and learn how to use fourteen in context. The number equivalent to the sum of thirteen and one; one more than thirteen or less than fifteen.
Age and quantity
Use fourteen before a plural countable noun, or after be when you state someone’s age informally.
- fourteen years old (age phrase): Having an age of fourteen years.
My niece will be fourteen years old next week.
- a total of fourteen (quantity phrase): Exactly fourteen when all the items or people are counted.
A total of fourteen teams entered the tournament.
- fourteen people (number + noun): A simple counted group of people.
The minibus has room for fourteen people.
- fourteen times (frequency phrase): On fourteen occasions or multiplied by fourteen.
The bell rang fourteen times.
Dates, time, and duration
Fourteen can identify a day, a duration, or an hour in the 24-hour clock.
- fourteen days (duration phrase): A period of two weeks.
You can return the item within fourteen days.
- the fourteenth of May (date phrase): The date May 14 in spoken British-style English.
The appointment is on the fourteenth of May.
- fourteen hundred hours (24-hour time): 14:00, or two o’clock in the afternoon.
The briefing begins at fourteen hundred hours.
Sentence frames
- fourteen + plural noun: Use a plural countable noun after the number.
We printed fourteen copies.
- be + fourteen: State a person’s age without years old when the context is clear.
She was fourteen when she moved abroad.