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How do you express numbers in your writing? When do you use figures (digits) and when do you write out the number in words (letters)? That is, when do you write 9 and when do you write nine?
1. Number versus numeral. First things first, what is the difference between a number and a numeral? A number is an abstract concept while a numeral is a symbol used to express that number. “Three,” “3″ and “III” are all symbols used to express the same number (or the concept of “threeness”). One could say that the difference between a number and its numerals is like the difference between a person and her name.
2. Spell small numbers out. The small numbers, such as whole numbers smaller than ten, should be spelled out. That’s one rule you can count on. If you don’t spell numbers out it will look like you’re sending an instant message, and you want to be more formal than that in your writing.
3. No other standard rule: Experts don’t always agree on other rules. Some experts say that any one-word number should be written out. Two-word numbers should be expressed in figures. That is, they say you should write out twelve or twenty. But not 24.
4. Using the comma. In English, the comma is used as a thousands separator (and the period as a decimal separator), to make large numbers easier to read. So write the size of Alaska as 571,951 square miles instead of 571951 square miles. In Continental Europe the opposite is true, periods are used to separate large numbers and the comma is used for decimals. Finally, the International Systems of Units (SI) recommends that a space should be used to separate groups of three digits, and both the comma and the period should be used only to denote decimals, like $13 200,50 (the comma part is a mess… I know).
5. Don’t start a sentence with a numeral. Make it “Fourscore and seven years ago,” not “4 score and 7 years ago.” That means you might have to rewrite some sentences: “Fans bought 400,000 copies the first day” instead of “400,000 copies were sold the first day.”
6. Centuries and decades should be spelled out. Use the Eighties or nineteenth century.
7. Percentages and recipes. With everyday writing and recipes you can use digits, like “4% of the children” or “Add 2 cups of brown rice.” In formal writing, however, you should spell the percentage out like “12 percent of the players” (or “twelve percent of the players,” depending on your preference as explained in point three).
8. If the number is rounded or estimated, spell it out. Rounded numbers over a million are written as a numeral plus a word. Use “About 400 million people speak Spanish natively,” instead of “About 400,000,000 people speak Spanish natively.” If you’re using the exact number, you’d write it out, of course.
9. Two numbers next to each other. It can be confusing if you write “7 13-year-olds”, so write one of them as a numeral, like “seven 13-year-olds”. Pick the number that has the fewest letters.
10. Ordinal numbers and consistency. Don’t say “He was my 1st true love,” but rather “He was my first true love.” Be consistent within the same sentence. If my teacher has 23 beginning students, she also has 18 advanced students, not eighteen advanced students.
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Most of these are correct. But, concerning 7, the percentage symbol should not be used in everyday writing. The percentage symbol is for business use, such as visual presentation. In other forms the word “percent” should be used. Also, your example in 10, concerning the students, is correct because the numbers are related. But, if the numbers aren’t related, then the “rule of ten” applies. Here’s an example: Sadly, there were only eight computers available to the 23 students.
As always, the tips provided here are valuable for many. That’s why I keep coming back “daily.”
Jay, good point on number seven. I think you should use digits for everyday writing and spell the percentage out in formal writing (like a newspaper article). I added this remark.
I believe there is a rule on using numbers with age as well, right? As in “always use figures to represent the age of a person.”
I was not aware of those of these rules, cool.
Is the comma used as a thousand separator everywhere English is spoken, or is that just an American rule?
Berto, that is the English standard, so it should apply both to UK and US.
Notice, however, that some places around the world use the dot as a separator and the comma to denote decimals.
To add confusion, the International System of Units recommends to use spaces to the sets of three digits, and use the comma or period just for the decimal.
I just added this info to the post, thanks for asking.
#2 is one that I always have a dilemma with. I know with AP style writing you’re suppose to write numbers you’ve stated in #2. In MLA style, you write one, five, twenty-one, one hundred, eighteen hundred, but write 5½, 101, 3,810. I actually like the AP style better with writing out one through nine and ten on, writing it as 10, 11, 12, etc.
I am curious though, your #2 you said “The small numbers, such as whole numbers smaller than ten, should be spelled out.” Why have you not wrote 10 as “10″ since only numbers smaller than 10 should be spelled out?
Oops, that would make sense. But see rule #3!
Deron, point two says that all whole numbers smaller than ten should be spelled out. It does not say anything about number equal or greater than ten. In fact, if you then read point 3 you will see that there is no standard rule for those numbers, some authors like to write them in digits, others still prefer to spell them out.
Heh, now I feel bad for naming my blog 60 in 3. Oh well, thank you as always for the great tips.
Gal
Firstly:
1. Number versus numeral. First things first, what is the difference between a number and a numeral? A number is an abstract concept while a numeral is a symbol used to express that number.
Then:
5. Don’t start a sentence with a number. Make it “Fourscore and seven years ago,” not “4 score and 7 years ago.”
Shouldn’t that be:
5. Don’t start a sentence with a NUMERAL.
Last time I checked, “four” and “4″ where both numbers…
van, number 5 is fixed, thanks for the heads up.
Then, “four” and “4″ are both numerals used to express the concept of “fourness,” they are not numbers themselves, they are symbols.
It is quite confusing I know, and probably not useful for the average writer. The other rules do apply though.
I suppose it depends what grammar book you want to fall back on, but it would easy to argue that you’re flat-out wrong about when to spell out numbers.
Use numerals before anything that can be measured: 3 decades, 3 years, 3 GB but not 3 children.
Use numerals when using a single digit number and a number composed of two or more digits in the same sentence. “Bob ate 3 cows and 12 pigs,” not “Bob are three cows and 12 pigs.”
One more for your list: Spell out any number used in a quote: “…four score..” and not “…4 score..”
Michael, 3 years you say? Well, here is a quote from the NY Times:
“Dobbs’s correspondents said there had been 7,000 cases of leprosy in this country over the previous three years, far more than in the past.”
“the difference between a number and its numerals is like the difference between a person and its name”
..a person and his name
or ..a person and her name
but never ..a person and its name
Bill, fixed that. I was thinking about an object and its name
, like the words that define it.
What I think it boils down to is: try writing the numerals in words; chances are that’s the right way. If words are obviously more confusing than digits, use digits. For example: “the second chapter”; “she’ll be eleven years old in two days”; “it’s the third road down the right”. These are all correct. But “seventeen point twelve percent of the data applies to all of our six hundred and forty two units and the rest only concerns the items that are stored in area three seven two” is confusing, and the numbers here should be written in digits. It’s more flexible than the rules above, but it follows the same spirit.
The comma is an English rule, so it must apply in the US as well.
(NOT the other way about)
#4: The UK is in Europe. We do not use a comma as you describe. Thanks anyway.
Also whilst we’re talking about international numbering, isn’t it about time that the USA moved on from imperial measurements to metric like the rest of the world?
Good point Emmanuel, common sense should help here as usual.
I didn’t know about all the rules. I visited this for the first time but I liked it. I will visit it regularly.
Keep it up.
Thanks
Hey Daniel, thanks for pointing that out. My mistake on misreading what was there.
With that said, since there is not standard rule, what is your own personal preference?
I’ve been reading quite a bit about typography lately, which has impressed on me another rule that you should add to your list:
In the flow of a typical sentence (i.e. for ‘inline’ numbers), you should use “lower case” numbers.
http://www.adobe.com/type/topics/info5.html
Yes, you can have lower case numbers!
@James And about time the UK used kg instead of stone to denote body weight
James, enjoy 2.5 dl of tea
You can write it out when it is two words or less. Twenty is acceptable. Twenty-four is acceptable. If it requires more than two words, you should use the numbers.
So you say to spell out twelve, but then you say “12 percent”? Shouldn’t it be “twelve percent”?
Nitro, we are not saying you should spell out twelve. The only standard rule, as stated in point one, is to spell out whole numbers smaller than ten.
Other than that it is up to the author and his preference for the specific situation.
Personally I like use digits above the number te because it makes the text more clear, like “15 percent.” For smaller numbers you can spell them out though, like “five percent” or “two percent.”
These standards are good for English, but why not broaden the standard to multiple languages?
Why not just remove spelling out of numerals completely and standardize on using Arabic numbers? Then the numbers would never have to be translated except to traditional less used numbering systems. Then people who read the articles in foreign languages like French, Spanish, Hindi, Chinese, Russian, and a plethora more could understand without mentally having to translating from the English naming convention into their own numerical naming convention.
gr commenent Pascal-its g 2 c read comments from ppl with g sense of humours. ur a *!
Out of interest how would write operators?
PS you need a subscribe to comments option
Everton, it is on the “to do” list
.
Thank you very much for providing this very valuable lesson in writing skills I’ve always wanted to acquire.
Good tips. I’m enjoying this website quite a bit.
One more point I’d add, though, is using numerals for lists. It helps one remember the number itself more easily than if you had spelt it out, and aids quick comparison. E.g.,
3 eggs
4 cartons of milk
1 roast duck
2 oranges
Don’t you think the title should have been Ten Rules for… instead of 10 Rules for … considering your own guidelines?
Mike, usually titles have different rules, as far as typography goes at least (we should have covered that perhaps).
Like titles usually have all the words starting with capital letters, you don’t write that way normally.
That said, even if you consider our guidelines the “10 Rules” is congruent with points two and three. They state that numbers smaller than ten should be spelled out, and after that it is preference of the author.
Thanks Daniel. As you mentioned that titles have different rules. I feel the title should start with a word. It looks more aesthetically pleasing. Not sure whether anyone agrees with me.
Mike, I agree with you
. Maybe starting the title with a word is more pleasant, I will research about it and even experiment with it in the future.
You shouldn’t write “percent” ever. It’s wrong like “etcetera” is wrong. Put the space between the words: “per cent”.
Very well written list.
Now if we could teach all newscasters and advertisers how to SAY numbers I would be in heaven.
Seems they all got stupid in the year two thousand AND one.
P. Dant,
It is funny when people come and say: “hey, you should not say that, ever!” or “you are dead wrong here!”
Just make a quick search on the net before posting such strong statements.
Per cent is the preferred British form, and percent is the American usage. Open the NY Times or the Wall Street Journal and you will find “percent” everywhere.
Thanks for the comment though, it served the purpose of clarifying this point.
Good post!
There were many points, which I havent known until I read this article. But seems some of these rules are not practicable special ‘dot’ and ‘comma’ rule.
-Nish
I never really new there was a difference. Thanks for the post. Very informative!
What is correct:
“It’s my 13th birthday” or “It’s my thirteenth birthday”?
idnt speak
I like to know how to write the number seven hundred two thousand, three
as i am the first visitor of this web site so i have no comment writs now .
what about: 24-7 (VS) twenty-four seven ??
How would you write 1.5 to 2 acre lots?
Sir
My Need IELTS book and DVD
Send my Address
Abdullah Al Masud
C/O Md.Azizur Rahman
Block # C , Road # 37
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Uposhohar , Sylhet
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Which is correct?
We celebrated our ninth birthday party together.
We celebrated our ninth birthday partys together.
All of the discussions and the “10 Rules for Writing Numbers…” is very informative, however, I came looking specifically for one apparently unwritten rule: How to write 3 or more digit numbers. For example I know it is incorrect to write or say one hundred AND three. It should be one-hundred-three. Sadly, I cannot find any reference to this. Someone please help me! I tried to point this out to someone on another blog and they refuse to believe me saying it doesn’t matter. I need a concrete rule or something of substance to reference to direct this misinformed “student.” Thank you.
Please excuse my error in the first sentence. I am nervous.
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I was not aware of these rules thanks for the information!
wow. Rules for writing numbers!!! great information.
thanks for the info. I’m always forgetting rule number 2… i mean two!
thanks for info. i agree with Jack
this article is interesting. I’m looking forward to not breaking any of these rules!
Would any body someone write the spanish numbers out for me.
Also Send it to my E-Mail. shawn.plumley@hotmail.com
Thank you all and ecspecially the person who lets me know how they are spelled.
Shawn Plumley
If you have a.m. or p.m. at the end of the sentence do you need a period?
For example: The party starts at 7 p.m.
I’m so late in finding your blog site. I am a fifth grade Math teacher. Let me see if I can add any clarity to a question from last November.
Yes, it is correct to say one-hundred-three, not one-hundred-AND-three. This is as much “math” as it is “grammar”. In reading or speaking numbers, the word “and” is used to separate whole numbers and fractions or to separate whole numbers and decimal fractions. For example, 6 1/2 would be spoken “six and one half”; 21.03 would be spoken/read as “twenty-one AND three hundredths”. And, 307,000 should be read “three hundred seven thousand”, not “three hundred and seven thousand”.
Read these two out loud: 300.007 and 307,000 to see how important an “and”, properly placed, can be. Because not everyone pronounces a good “th” on the end of fractions, the “and” is critical. Is it 121,000 or 100.021? Numerically, there is a huge difference.
I teach my math students that the “and” indicates where to place a decimal point. It separates the “whole” from the “part”.
Thus, from the first day of class, I do not allow any “ands” to be inserted in 397,241 when the number is being read aloud. (However, I can remember the days as I grew up, when “and” was spoken in every 321 or 507. That would really bother me now!) It’s a matter of getting your ear accustomed to hearing it spoken properly.
I hope I’ve been helpful.
Helpful indeed Carolyn, thanks.
I don`t have any idea about how to use comma.
how do i find the rule for numbers 4-7-8-
Starting from the right, put a comma after every three numbers. For one thousand, write 1,000. For one million, write 1,000,000. It makes the number easier to read. In some cultures, a period is used instead of a comma.
How do you write twenty five cents in business writing? Is it “25 cents”, ” $0.25″, “.25 cents”, ” 25C”, or something else? I ran across a business professional who said that the decimal point format with no zero before the decimal and the addition of the word “cents” is the correct way. Examples: .15 cents, .12 cents, .25 cents, etc. I disagree. These examples as I read them mean; 15/100 cents, 12/100 cents, and 25/100 cents, respectively. I thank you for your input.
Kirk
I agree with you: to me, “.25 cents” sounds like 1/4 of one cent. Exactly how you would write a fraction of a dollar depends how official or formal your document is. For accounting purposes, “$0.25″ leaves no doubts about what you mean: 25 cents or 1/4 of $1.00. Informally, at least in the US, you could say, “a quarter”. “25 cents” would also be clear to me.
Speaking of money, when writing a check for $100.25, you should always write it out as “one hundred and twenty-five/hundredths” not “one hundred twenty five” which means $125. The “and” acts like a decimal point, as far as bankers are concerned.
Kirk: I suggest 25¢, personally. To find the “hidden” ¢ key, all you have to do is press alt + 155 on the number pad. The number pad is the important part. It won’t work on the number “line” on top of the keyboard.
I agree with your analysis Michael. Thank you for the verification. I also want to thank Heidi for the info on the “¢” function on the keyboard.
Kirk
How would you write 16.66 units. This is for a legal document.
What about numbers in a legal document? Do we wite out the number and then also put it in brackets after?
Emmanuel says But “seventeen point twelve percent of the data applies to all of our six hundred and forty two units and the rest only concerns the items that are stored in area three seven two” is confusing, and the numbers here should be written in digits.
You should also never, under any circumstances, say “seventeen point twelve”!! It’s pronounced “seventeen point one two”.
If you have a.m. or p.m. at the end of the sentence do you need a period?
A.m. and p.m. already have periods (full stops, in proper English
), so I don’t know what you mean. Are you asking if you need two – like “the party starts at 7 p.m..” or something? Definitely not!
I ran across a business professional who said that the decimal point format with no zero before the decimal and the addition of the word “cents” is the correct way.
The person who told you that must work for Verizon
(Google “Verizon doesn’t know how to count” if you don’t know what I mean…don’t be drinking coffee at the time or you’ll need to buy a new keyboard)
D R Brubaker and Carolyn are wrong about the “and” thing. The lack-of-and seems to be commonly taught in the US lately (I think it’s a very recent thing), though even US style manuals point out that “and” is more idiomatic; in non-US English, leaving out the “and” sounds very strange and stilted indeed (and note that the US titles of works like “The Hundred and One Dalmations” are not altered to “The Hundred One Dalmations”, the way other USified titles are; e.g., “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” became “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in its US incarnation).
Carolyn: I’m not sure what you mean about reading the numbers aloud – they’re “three hundred point zero zero seven” and “three hundred and seven thousand”; what’s the confusion? Am I supposed to read “300.007″ as “three hundred and seven thousandths”? Even the difference between “three-hundred-and-seven thousandths” (307/1000) and “three-hundred and seven-thousandths” (300 + 7/1000) is only unclear in text (if you don’t hyphenate to clarify, as I’ve done here); it’s quite clear when spoken aloud (which is more like the hyphenated version – the timing is quite different).
I’d add a couple of rules here: for large numbers, use words “ten billion” rather than “10,000,000,000″; but for very large numbers, use digits and scientific notation: write “1.8743987×10^163″ rather than trying to name it (“eighteen trequinquagintillion seven hundred and forty three duoquinquagintillion nine hundred and eighty seven unquinguagintillion” or something equally ridiculous
)
i often feel confuse when i have 2 using numbering in my writing,but this explanation help me so much…
Is there a rule that says if you leave out the commas in a five or more digit numeral it is written incorrectly?
Would encourage “understanding” as opposed to just being able to “do” mathematics. This prompts:
“10 rules for writing numerals” or “10 rules for writing number names”; not, “10 rules for writing numbers”
The learning path in elementary arithmetic can be smooth if the learner and teacher understand: 1) What ” number” is. 2) The difference between a number and a name for that number. and 3) Every number has many names.
Sorry, am straying fom your purpose. Will add that saying “three point five” instead of “three and five tenths” does not encourage understanding.
hi, andar here, i just read your post. i like very much. agree to you, sir.
To the person above who pointed out that UK is in Europe – you are correct, but the article says ‘Continental Europe’. It is my understanding that Continental Europe is not commonly understood to include the British Isles (or Iceland for that matter, I presume).
It is true that in France, for example, they use commas where we would use decimal points, but the UK (where I live) uses decimal points and commas in the same was as the US. The author was careful to say ‘Continental Europe’, thus he is still correct
Questions from a police officer’s test…and wondering what is right?
I went through PA’s act 120 and I am now submitting applications & taking tests, but these questions keep coming up & I don’t recall covering any of this material.
Is a a suspect 49 years old, or forty nine years old?
Is he six feet two inches tall, or 6′ 2″ tall?
Is the correct time 8:22 PM, or 20:22?
Any help is appreciated.
Betsy Lucas asks, ” Is the correct time 8:22 or 28:22 ? Really cannot say. But if “8:22″ is read “eight twenty-two” why is “8:07″ read “eight oh seven” instead of “eight seven” or at least “eight zero seven” ? My point: “zero”, a name of a number, and the letter “O” are not interchangeable.
Okay, here’s my burning question: what is the name of the decade we’re in? Eight years into it, I still don’t know. The Oughts? The O-ies?
The rules stated here are correct, that is, they conform to the established rules, but the truth is these rules are not the way to write numbers the most clearly. Numerals are much easier to read than spelled out numbers, and I find “percent” instead of “%” to be a major aggravation. Sometimes I even use search and replace to change it, when I am copying snippets for my own use.
Thank you so much for the info on money! I have been trying to get my children to not put the decimal point for change when using the ¢ sign, now I have a real rational for why not to do it! Thanks, also for the (alt +155) tip…I also found that in Microsoft and OpenOffice applications (alt + 0162) works as well (both with and without using the number pad)
I never know what to use when referring to a school grade.. should it be Grade 2 or… Grade two
I am very interested in punctuation. So, I learned a lot here. Thank you for your information. (Forgive me if my English look not so good.)
Hi- This is a question: would you write out four and a half or 4 1/2? Also, what about the hyphens?
Thanks very much!
Carol
You know how you tell yourself you are studying because you have your certification books opened in front of you? But you are really clicking on Stumble Upon to find interesting posts to read?
Yeah well, I came across yours and had to write to tell you I enjoyed it very much. I gave it the thumbs up, so more people can come across it and enjoy it also.
I agree with Mike (July 31st, 2007 7:43 pm) that it would be aesthetically pleasing to make the title of this article “Ten Rules…” not “10 Rules…”. Even if it is a title rather than a sentence, it looks strange in relation to rule #5: “Don’t start a sentence with a numeral”. Is there anything to justify the use of a numeral here instead of spelling out this highly readable short word?
In a legal document, what is proper:
ten inch (10″) nails or ten (10) inch nails.
Need help please…which is correct?
Eleventh Annual Surgical Forum or
11th Annual Surgical forum
Thanks
Phyllis
Hi,
I have a question. When writing a letter with dollar amounts that doesn’t have cents, which way is correct; thirty six dollars, $36 or $36.00. Here is part of the letter that is sent; Thank you for your most recent gift of $1,000 ………..
Thank you.
Great article. I only read it because the title had the number 10 numeralized rather than spelled out. I most definitely like numbers (er, numerals).
Tim
i think that all this is very help ful
If I say $3300 thirty three hundred should I write a coma $3,300?
Rod,
The comma suggests that the reading should include the words, “three thousand”. Consider: “3300″ is sometimes read (for what purpose I know not), “thirty three hundred”. Would that person read “330″ by saying, “thirty three tens” ?
good point thanks Marv
How should I use nought? Is it true that I need to say it if there’s a zero after a point for decimals? for example 0.002
When writing a formal announcement or invitation, should the number be capitalized and/or hyphenated? …as in “…respond by the twenty-fourth of September…”
I would like to know, when spelling a number in any document should we also write the number in parat. ex : I bought six (6) dresses.
Thanks
Do you have to write a comma between each group of place values when writing a number in word form? For example, is 4,305 written four thousand three hundred five or four thousand, three hundred five. Is the comma necessary?
The post is really great. Thank You.
This article was most helpful, since much of the standard practice for using numbers in writing is simply convention on which we need to educate ourselves. But in the end, the purpose of all writing is to facilitate communication, and whatever promotes that goal is preferable. Many of the questions posed by the later posters above should be answered by stopping to think through that dictum.
For example, Suzi (April 9) asks whether “ten inch (10″) nails or ten (10) inch nails” is proper for a legal document. I would answer that a legal document is above all about unequivocal precision, with far less emphasis on smooth flow of narrative style, and I would therefore write “ten-inch (10″) nails”. Note that the hyphen makes it clear that the nails are ten inches long, rather than there are ten 10″ nails involved. Writing “ten (10) inch nails” is even more confusing, because it could be construed as ten nails that are one inch long. So rather than get too bogged down trying to memorize a nearly infinite number of rules, just take a little time to stop and think about the various ways that what you wrote might be misconstrued. I think that is the key to all good proofreading, an art that seems to be dying out in our age of instant messaging and dashing off an email without bothering to review it.
Another related point: the best format for good communication will vary according to the kind of document. An accounting or legal document is striving for unambiguity, and repeating a number in parentheses as suggested above or by Linda on July 28, 2009, would be appropriate. In a good novel, where the author is striving for a fluent style that draws the reader into another world and makes him forget that he’s just looking at words printed on the page, using the numeral repeated in parentheses would seem stilted and disruptive.
Remember that English is a dynamic language that is arbitrary and inconsistent, in addition to always changing. Think about who is going to be reading what you are trying to convey, and then choose the form that will communicate what you intend most clearly and elegantly. Good writing takes a some time and work with the brain engaged!
In a business letter, if you are telling a customer that he is “receiving a credit of ($15.00),” should the parentheses be used?
The desire for precision in this post is admirable, but before the advanced level, shouldn’t we master the basics?
There is no such thing as a quote. Quote is a verb, The noun is quotation.
Hey, I wanted to know about how to write years is it ok if I write the year 1962 like this?
One thousand nine hundred sixty two? or it has to be like this? nineteen sixty two?
Please I really need to know this
There are quotes not all of them brilliant though…:
“Wonderful bargains for men with 16 and 17 necks.”
- Sign in Men’s clothing store
Where would I find help in writing out time? Specifically, I always understood that when the time is straight up, the “:00″ is not used. Only when there are minutes should we write them out, even if there is more that one time used in the same sentence (9 a.m. or 6:15 p.m.). Is that correct or is it more important to just be consistent? And is there a correct way to write a.m. or p.m.? A.M or P.M.? Or either without the periods?
Thanks
no thanks this is no help sorry
I would like to know the answer to Shawne’s question as well. Is it AM or am, A.M. or a.m. or does it even matter?
I need some advice- I have a sentence that must start with the name of a street= 6th Street. Do I have to spell out “Sixth Street” or can I use “6th Street” since that is the exact name of the street- please help.
Capitals can change things. When writing “two”, you are supposed to “spell it out”; however, when writing “Plan 2″ you use a digit. Irregardless of this rule telling you to spell it “6th Street”, if its name is “6th Street”, write it as “6th Street”.
Shawne, I do not know the answer to the first part of your question. Fortunately I can help with the second part. “Ante meridiem” is Latin for “before midday”, and “post meridiem” means after midday. Periods denote spaces in Latin abbreviations (e.g. “i.e.” means “id est” and “e.g.” means “exempli gratia”); therefore, “ante meridiem” becomes “a.m.” and “post meridiem” becomes “p.m.”. This being said, writing it “am and pm”, “AM and PM”, or “A.M. and P.M.” are still acceptable (just not perfect).
PS Although I do not know the answer to the first part of your question, I do know that in the 12 hour clock you write “noon” and “midnight” as opposed to numerals.
Stephanie,
it is spelled “nineteen sixty two”; however, it does not look great. Try to avoid starting sentences with years, so you can write, the more attractive, 1962.
Dear J,
Thanks for the help with the a.m./p.m. I never equated those with the Latin i.e. or e.g. Makes sense now to me (and Cindy as well, I’m sure). Perhaps someone will sign in eventually that knows the other part of my question…
Which of the following two is correct?
(1) 8-day Tamil Nadu Tour
(2) 8-days Tamil Nadu Tour
When can we use # to represent number and when we need to write ‘number’?
I’ve always gone by the rule “if it’s below twenty type it out”.
Thank you, Michael, for the useful info. I’ve always known about Rule 2 and it’s good that I can cite you as a good source, just in case
I’m into module writing and we title the module sections as Lesson 1 plus the title of the lesson. In this case, is it okay to write Lesson 1 instead of Lesson One? Thanks.
I have always written numbers with a hyphen, such as: twenty-four and so on… but I have also seen without. Which one is correct or are both correct?
I disagree with Peter, who must be across the pond
“D R Brubaker and Carolyn are wrong about the “and” thing. The lack-of-and seems to be commonly taught in the US lately (I think it’s a very recent thing)”
No, I’m over 65, and I have always been taught exactly what Carolyn said. No “and” is needed in expressing large whole numbers. I never thought of the “and” as a decimal, but I found others who mention that as well.
Math teachers logic is different than English grammatical effect. The One Hundered and One Dalmations is not used as a counting phrase, but a descriptive title… It’s literary, not mathematical science here.
In a strict mathematics sense the “and” is useless and misleading when expressing numbers. You have completely missed the point about her examples:
307,000 = three hundred seven thousand
(how many thousands? answer: three hundred seven)
300.007 = three hundred and seven thousandths
(how many? answer: three HUNDRED AND (a little bit more) seven thousandTHs)
IF YOU WANT TO SAY 307/1000 you would say Three hundred seven thousandths. OK? not any of the above. It is distinct, and it is clear.
You can see how the and helps to separate the whole part from the fraction.
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Carolyn: I’m not sure what you mean about reading the numbers aloud – they’re “three hundred point zero zero seven” and “three hundred and seven thousand”; what’s the confusion? Am I supposed to read “300.007″ as “three hundred and seven thousandths”? Even the difference between “three-hundred-and-seven thousandths” (307/1000) and “three-hundred and seven-thousandths” (300 + 7/1000) is only unclear in text (if you don’t hyphenate to clarify, as I’ve done here); it’s quite clear when spoken aloud (which is more like the hyphenated version – the timing is quite different).
Sorry, the final paragraph below these
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was what Peter said. He has completely missed the point.
I would like to know about the rule when you are writing a formal paper and there is a date in time such as March 4th 2007. Do I have to write that out in lettering or is it okay to write the numbers for both the date and year?
When writing a given code with numbers and alphabet letters how can I differentiate the zero from the ‘O’letter? which one has the line through it – the zero would I imagine. !
Which is correct – Writing letters is very popular in many parts of the world or Writing letters are very popular in may parts of the world.
Well, the rules are made up by men. I think today everyone understands the evolution of languages together with how we use these languages. We create a lot of rules for convenience!
Vivienne
Writing letters is an activity, so it’s singular
Hi Rod. Thank you for answering my question regarding “Writing Letters is an activity, so it’s singular.
Please help me. Does the use of commas in amounts apply to foreign currencies in an English article For instance, R$ 1.000 in Portuguese would change into R$ 1,000 if the article is in English? (R$ is the symbol for Real, the Brazilian currency)
In technical writing, brackets around the number is often used.
i.e There is a (5) second delay between the conveyor starting and the valve opening.
What are your thoughts on this?
And legal documents will have both.
i.e the contract period shall be for twelve (12) months
I typeset a quarterly for a university department. The number of contributors can be from 8 to 20, and their papers are in several European languages. When I first received the Word files from the authors one of the first things I noticed was that the expression “the sixteenth century” (or anything of the kind) was written in English in several ways (XVI c.; XVIth c.; XVIth century; the 16th century, and so on and so forth). With a view to uniforming the expression, I decided to change all variants into “the XVI century”: the editor of the quarterly has observed that the majority of the contributors (most of them French) don’t like my choice because it is seldom used, and they prefer to change it into “the XVIth century”. In Italy the use of “XVI° secolo” is rightly considered wrong since the roman letters are naturally ordinals and don’t accept the small circle the end: it should always go with cardinals to transform them into ordinals. The same applies to British usage (as I have read in various English grammars). Sorry for the longish letter. What is your opinion?
Very interesting this site of yours. I have already bookmarked it.
All major publications have their own style guides, and they all conflict on this topic. When in doubt – go with the style manual of the publication you’re targeting.
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my problem is with the hyphen in fractions.
one-third, fine.
but 21,87?
is it twenty one and eighty seven hundredth or is there a hyphen (or two) to use in the “eighty seven hundredth” part?
thx, guys.
it is 21.87, of course.
@Shawne:
First question: yes, write 9 a.m.
Second question: typographically, small-caps are preferred, so it looks like “A.M.” but is the same height as lower-case; that’s often turned into upper-case in “typewritten” text (i.e., where small-caps are not available), and eventually that turns into capitals even when small-caps are available (the same thing happened with the operating system often (mis)written “UNIX” — it’s supposed to be “Unix” with “nix” in small-caps, or perhaps all in small-caps), but I’d generally go with lower-case when you don’t have small-caps.
@Marilyn: I disagree with Peter, who must be across the pond
Yup
No, I’m over 65, and I have always been taught exactly what Carolyn said.
Well, anything post-WWII fits into my definition of “very recent”, but Carolyn mentioned that “I can remember the days as I grew up, when “and” was spoken in every 321 or 507″, so unless Carolyn is a good deal older than you it doesn’t seem to have been universal.
307,000 = three hundred seven thousand
(how many thousands? answer: three hundred seven)
Three hundred and seven thousand. How many thousands? Three hundred and seven. What was your point?
300.007 = three hundred and seven thousandths
First, I would never read it that way. I’d say “three hundred point zero zero seven” (and if you wrote it as a fraction I’d say “seven over a thousand”, not “seven thousandths”). Second: it doesn’t matter anyway because “three hundred” isn’t at issue: make it 302.007, and if you force me to say “seven thousandths” I’d read it as “three hundred and two and seven thousandths”, with “and” occurring twice (and there’s a short pause before the second “and”, which is destressed to point of being barely a grunt…)
So no, I can’t “see how it helps”; quite the contrary! I know Americans talk that way, so I wouldn’t actually be confused on this point, but I’d want to interpret “three hundred seven” as two numbers: 300 and 7.
(I wonder what you make of “four and twenty” blackbirds…or even “four score and seven” years…)
@Vivienne: Which is correct – Writing letters is very popular in many parts of the world or Writing letters are very popular in may parts of the world.
Presumably “writing” here is a noun (gerund), hence the subject is “writing”, not “letters”. Writing is singular, so you want “is”. (It could be interpreted with “writing” as an adjective modifying “letters”: if there were such as thing as a “writing letter” and these things were popular, then it would be “are”…)
@J. Alcantara: Yes, write R$1,000 with a comma.
@Mario: I agree, it should be “XVI century”.
I need help with a letter to a university
is this correct?
“….would be responsible for seventy five percent (75%) of the tuition if withdrawal was made within the first three weeks of the quarter. I attended only one and one half (1 1/2) days of classes..”
not sure about any of the numbers now
HELP!!!
So how would you write out –
1 out of 24 cases resulted in …. OR
One out of 24 cases resulted in ….
FOllowing up on my earlier post… OR is it
One out of twenty four cases resulted in ….
I have to disagree with Jay on the first comment. The ONLY reason why AP didn’t use the % symbol is because teletype didn’t support it. This is the digital era so archaisms like that need to be broken.
I just came here to check whether it’s correct to write out a number or not, but you guys have a huge discussion going on down here! Very interesting!
I am editing a memoir that has a person’s age in it frequently. It is not written consistently and I would like to know the correct way to do it.
For example, he says:
“when I was nearing thirty-five”
“I was 35-years old”
“at age fifty”
“before I was 21″
“in my sixties” and “in my 60s”
“between 25 – 30 years of age”
“between twenty-five and thirty years of age”
How should I be editing all of this?
Thanks.