Numbers

Question

Hello all!

I know that there might be lots of threads regarding numbers. I've been searching but I don't seem to be able to find one about what I want to know.

How do you read this number? "1,23"

One comma twenty-three? (Hehe, I bet it's not like that. That would be Spanish...)

Thanks in advance!

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

OH, another European / British versus Americanism!!!
In the US, we use the comma as a thousands separator, and a period (full stop) as the division between whole numbers and decimals.
In Euorpe, it is just the opposite. [EDIT] In some places. Maybe with globalization, the American system is being more widely accepted now I have seen the number one million written in Europe as 1.000.000,00

Date formats are different, too. In the US, we normally write MM/DD/YYYY, but in Europe, they write DD/MM/YYYY. I learned this the hard way when thinking that the deadline was April 3rd, when in reality is was March 4th....

Kooyeen · Answer

PuccaHow do you read this number? "1,23"

That is not a number!

If by that you meant a number between 1 and 2, then it should have been 1.23<-- You use the point.
A comma is used for the thousands, millions, and so on:

1,000 = A thousand
1,000,000,000 = A billion

To read the part after the decimal point, you need to say each number separately, like this:
1.23 => One point two three.
p = 3.14 => Pi equals three point one four.

In Italian we would say "one comma twenty-three" and "three comma fourteen" instead, and write 1,23 and 3,14. It must be so in Spain too.

(yes, it is so, I forgot you said it in your post, LOL).

EDIT: It's so in the UK too, it seems. I have never seen anything written in English where a comma was used instead of a dot (decimal point). This might be interesing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_point#Countries_using_Arabic_numerals_with_decimal_point

Anyway, several professors in Italy (especially if they are researchers) actually use or try to use the decimal point instead of the comma, because they rely on English for their studies. When you do everything in English, after a while the comma starts to look weird (it already looks weird to me, I just expect the point).

Tanit · Answer

KooyeenTo read the part after the decimal point, you need to say each number separately, like this:

1.23 => One point two three.

p = 3.14 => Pi equals three point one four.

That's what I would say, either, and what Swann* considers correct:

SwannWe write and say decimals like this:
0.4 nought point four (NOT ~~nought comma four)~~
0.374 nought point three seven five (NOT ~~nought point three hundred and seventy-five~~)

4.7 four point seven

(yes, I know ... Americans don't say "nought"

)

However, I think I've also heard things like "one point twenty-three" (which I might find myself saying

), "one and twenty-three" and even just "one twenty-three" (when speaking about money, for instance).

A couple of sites suggest using "hundredths" and "thousandths" (e.g. one point twenty-three hundredths), which I really never heard, not even at my uni in the UK. I wonder whether this is how pupils are taught to read decimal numbers in schools (in English-speaking countries, of course!)

See these pages: LINK1, http://www.homeschoolmath.net/teaching/d/hundredths.php, LINK3 and this video:

____________________
* Swann M. (2005) Practical English Usage (3rd edition). Oxford: OUP.

Pucca · Answer

OH, another European / British versus Americanism!!!
In the US, we use the comma as a thousands separator, and a period (full stop) as the division between whole numbers and decimals.
In Euorpe, it is just the opposite. [EDIT] In some places. Maybe with globalization, the American system is being more widely accepted now I have seen the number one million written in Europe as 1.000.000,00

I swear I knew it!

Shame on me, I remember reminding myself that you did it the other way round just about 5 minutes before coming to EF to post.

To read the part after the decimal point, you need to say each number separately, like this:
1.23 => One point two three.
p = 3.14 => Pi equals three point one four.

One point two three? What if it has more than 2 decimals? Can't you say "One point twenty-three"?
Date formats are different, too. In the US, we normally write MM/DD/YYYY, but in Europe, they write DD/MM/YYYY. I learned this the hard way when thinking that the deadline was April 3rd, when in reality is was March 4th....

Hehehe, and when did you find that out? 3rd April?

Pucca · Answer

Oh no, I can't edit my post!

I missed Tanit's post saying that she'd heard people saying "one point twenty-three"

AlpheccaStars · Answer

PuccaHehehe, and when did you find that out? 3rd April?

Actually, it was March 5....

Pucca · Answer

(At least you did it in time <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/4.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/4.gif' alt='Emotion: stick out tongue'/>)

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