How to Write a Check: Amount in Words (Step by Step)
Last updated 24 August 2026
Writing a check correctly means spelling the dollar amount in words and writing the cents as a fraction. For example, $1,500.00 is written One thousand five hundred and 00/100.
The reason for the duplication is old and practical: a figure can be altered with a single stroke of a pen, and a line of words cannot. The two fields are a cross-check on each other, which is also why a mismatch between them is a problem rather than a curiosity.
Steps
- Write the numeric amount in the box. Start hard against the left edge, use
a decimal point, and include the cents even when they are zero:
1,500.00. - Spell the dollars in words on the amount line. Begin at the far left with a capital letter: One thousand five hundred.
- Add the cents as a fraction over 100. and 00/100 for a whole amount, and 50/100 for fifty cents. Cents are not spelled out in words.
- Fill the remaining space. Draw a horizontal line from the end of your text to the end of the printed line, so nothing can be appended.
- Check the two fields match before you sign.
Worked examples
| Amount | Numeric box | Amount line |
|---|---|---|
| $42.00 | 42.00 | Forty-two and 00/100 |
| $725.00 | 725.00 | Seven hundred twenty-five and 00/100 |
| $1,500.00 | 1,500.00 | One thousand five hundred and 00/100 |
| $1,500.75 | 1,500.75 | One thousand five hundred and 75/100 |
| $7,500.00 | 7,500.00 | Seven thousand five hundred and 00/100 |
Notice that the hyphen in forty-two and twenty-five is required — compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine always take one, on a check as anywhere else, and the spelling guide sets out that rule in full.
The “and” is the cents, not the number
American style writes one hundred forty-two, without an “and” inside the number. The “and” that appears on a check is a different thing: it separates dollars from cents, standing in for the decimal point. So $142.50 is One hundred forty-two and 50/100. British writers, who do put an “and” inside the number, end up with two of them — correct, if awkward.
Which field wins in a dispute
If the words and the figures disagree, negotiable-instruments law in most jurisdictions treats the words as controlling — the reasoning being that they are harder to tamper with. In practice, banks increasingly process checks by machine reading the numeric field, and a mismatch may simply be rejected or flagged. Do not treat the rule as a safety net: void the check, tear it up, and write a new one.
Common mistakes
- Leaving space at either end of the amount line. An empty gap is an invitation to insert a word. Start at the left, fill to the right.
- Spelling the cents in words. And fifty cents is not the convention; the fraction is.
- Omitting the cents entirely. Write and 00/100 rather than nothing, so the line is unambiguous.
- Writing the year wrong in January. Not about words, but the single most common reason a check comes back.
- Using a pencil or an erasable pen. Use permanent ink.
Voiding and corrections
Never write over or scribble out a wrong amount. Write VOID across the whole check, record the number in your register, and start again. A corrected amount — even initialled — gives a bank grounds to refuse it, and gives anyone else grounds to argue about what it originally said.
Get the exact wording
Use our number to words converter to spell any amount instantly, or open the page for a specific figure — 1,500 in words, 7,500 in words — which prints the check line ready to copy.