thousands of, hundreds of, tens of?

[goodstudent]

If the number is lesser than hundred, how do I say it? tens of?

There are thousands of people there.(1000 to 9999)
There are hundreds of people there. (100 to 999)
(unsure if correct) There are tens of people there. (10 to 99)
(unsure if correct) Check out tens of samples here. (10 to 99)

 

[5jj]

We normally use dozens (12s) rather than tens, though we do speak of tens of thousands/millions.

 

[Boris Tatarenko]

Do you mean you normally say: "there're dozens of people here"?

 

[Rover_KE]

Yes — also, colloquially, 'there's dozens of people here'.

 

[goodstudent]

Does "there's dozens of people here" mean the people there is between 12 to 99?

 

[bhaisahab]

Does "there's dozens of people here" mean the people there is between 12 to 99?

No, not really. It just means that there are a lot of people.

 

[Rover_KE]

Bhai's right. It's an inexact expression. I take it to mean between about 40 to 100.

We use it when the precise number is unimportant or they won't keep still long enough to be counted.

 

[Barb_D]

If you said "thousands" there would be at least 2000, not 1000.
If you said "hundreds" there would be at least 200, not 100.

 

[Tdol]

There are thousands of people there.(1000 to 9999)
There are hundreds of people there. (100 to 999)

In addition to Barb's point about there having to be 200 or 2,000 to use these numbers, they are inexact and used when we're guessing- we could use hundreds for a crowd of 2,500. We normally use them when we don't have a clear idea, so defining them so rigidly goes against why we use them in many cases.

 

[goodstudent]

If you said "thousands" there would be at least 2000, not 1000.
If you said "hundreds" there would be at least 200, not 100.

How do you say about 1000 to 1999?
How do you say about 100 to 199?

 

[Tdol]

If I know it to be 1,999, I would say that or round it up to 2,000, but these fit into the hundreds and dozens. However, as various people have said, these are approximations and not exact categories.

 

[bhaisahab]

How do you say about 1000 to 1999?
How do you say about 100 to 199?

A lot of people.