UK: million, milliard, billion, billiard, trillion, trilliard, quadrillion
Wow, I never knew this. How confusing.
Wow, I never knew this. How confusing.
It's the same in a bunch of other languages.
Dutch: miljoen, miljard, biljoen, biljard, triljoen, triljard, quadriljoen, quadriljard
I guess they tried to simplify things in the US when they came up with the alternate usage, except now it gets even more confusing when you have two standards where the same word means a different number...
Anyway, just keep in mind when speaking to an international audience 'a thousand million' is the same everywhere, while 'a billion' is not.