1.5 years vs 1.5 year

Question

Which one is correct?a) I have 1.5 year working experience in merchandising field. b) I have 1.5 years working experience in merchandising field.ThanksCliffordÅwªï¨ì§Úcliffordªº¨¦¡A ° ©O¨ì¡AÉA³£Á¿±o¬(¡I

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Which one is correct? a) I have 1.5 year working experience in merchandising field. b) I have 1.5 years working experience in merchandising field.[/nq]
Neither. Decimal numbers should not be used in personal correspondence unless there is no better alternative as here: "I have a year and a half's working experience in merchandising." or "I have 18 months' experience in merchandising."

"Field" is redundant (adds nothing) but if you insist on using this noun it requires an article (a or the) which the noun merchandising does not. Cf.
I studied mathematics for four years.
I followed a maths program for four years.
The noun mathematics behaves differently from the noun program.

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Which one is correct? a) I have 1.5 year working experience in merchandising field. b) I have 1.5 years working experience in merchandising field.[/nq]
Neither. Your sentence needs to be rewritten. That aside, I think the answer to your unasked question is years. Here are a couple of suggestions:

I have 1.5 years of experience working in the merchandising field. I've worked in merchandizing for one and a half years.

Usenet · Answer

"Clifford":
[nq:2]Which one is correct? a) I have 1.5 year working experience in merchandising field. b) I have 1.5 years working experience in merchandising field.[/nq]
Don Phillipson:
[nq:1]Neither. Decimal numbers should not be used in personal correspondence unless there is no better alternative...[/nq]
If Don doesn't want to use decimals in his personal correspondence, that's his choice. But I won't have him telling me what to use in mine.

This sentence, however, seems to be from a job application or some other business correspondence, not personal. Business correspondence is often a bit more formal, and some might find it appropriate to avoid "1.5" there. I would probably use "1½" that's a fraction 1/2 after the 1.
Further, this is a point of style and the original poster was presumably asking about grammar. Grammatically, the plural is correct with any greater than 1, even if only fractionally greater.
[nq:1]"Field" is redundant (adds nothing) but if you insist on using this noun it requires an article (a or the) which the noun merchandising does not.[/nq]
Right.
[nq:1]I studied mathematics for four years. I followed a maths program for four years.[/nq]
British example. In North America mathematics is math, not maths.
Mark Brader "The spaghetti is put there by the designer of Toronto the code, not the designer of the language." (Email Removed) Richard Minner

My text in this article is in the public domain.

Usenet · Answer

thanks all

Åwªï¨ì§Úcliffordªº¨¦¡A ° ©O¨ì¡AÉA³£Á¿±o¬(¡I

"Clifford" (Email Removed) ¼¶¼g©ó¶l¥ó·s»D one is correct?
a) I have 1.5 year working experience in merchandising field. b) I have 1.5 years working experience in merchandising field.

Thanks
Clifford

Åwªï¨ì§Úcliffordªº¨¦¡A ° ©O¨ì¡AÉA³£Á¿±o¬(¡I

1.5 years vs 1.5 year

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