Per 100 gm / grams

Question

Can I say:(a) The cabbage is very cheap. It is only $0.15 per 100 gm.(b) The cabbage is very cheap. It is only $0.15 per 100 grams.

Mr Wordy · Accepted Answer

(a) The cabbage is very cheap. It is only $0.15 per 100 gm. -- some people do use the abbreviation "gm" for "grams", but the "proper" abbreviation is just "g", and personally I'd recommend that you use that. Otherwise it's OK.

(b) The cabbage is very cheap. It is only $0.15 per 100 grams. -- OK.

In everyday conversation, it's more usual, at least where I come from, to say:

"It's only <amount> for 100 grams"

There's a subtlety in the way these are spoken. Your examples are spoken as "<amount> per hundred grams" (or, less often, "<amount> per one hundred grams"), while mine is spoken as "<amount> for a hundred grams" (or, again, "<amount> for one hundred grams"). The main point of this is that you don't say "<amount> for hundred grams".

This is only an issue with 100, 1,000, 1,000,000... In other cases you don't use "a" or "one"; for example: "<amount> per fifty grams", "<amount> for fifty grams".

Note also that in everyday speech people almost always use the contraction "it's", unless they are emphasising "is".

Per 100 gm / grams

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions