0
MUSCOVITE Posted 14 years ago
Vocabulary

Roman numerals

Hi,

(I guess it's a kind of "FAQ question".... if so, could you give me an appropriate link then?)

How do you normaly pronounce Roman numerals?

I am a little confused here because I have seen VERY different "instructions" on this in the Internet...
Lets narrow down my query to Enslish speakers pronouncing dates (if going to detail takes too much time).

thank you!

mus-te
  

Top answer

g. "V" would be read as "five"). g.

— CSnyder

  • g.
  • "V" would be read as "five").
  • g.
  • g.
  • XIII would be read as "ecks eye eye eye]".
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

11 Answers
0
Usually I would read them off as their Arabic equivalent (e.g. "V" would be read as "five"). If, for some reason, it were important that their status as Roman numerals be emphasized, I would either say "Roman numeral [Arabic numeral equivalent, e.g. "five" for "V"]" or, more often, "Roman numeral [read the Roman numerals off in order exactly as written, e.g. XIII would be read as "ecks eye eye ey
0
0
Pronunciaton is simply:

I = "Roman numeral one"

II = "Roman numeral two"

.....

And so forth.
0
0
On the title screen for movies the date is customarily given in Roman numerals. For example, if a movie was released in 1959, you'd see on the bottom of the screen: MCMLIX. You'd simply read this as though it were written in regular numerals: "nineteen fifty-nine."
0
0
MCMLIX. You'd simply read this as though it were written in regular numerals: "nineteen fifty-nine."-- Me, too.
0
0
Many thanks to all of you for your comments!

mus-te
0
0
If you had to say Roman numerals out loud, the pronunciation would be:

I = "eye" (or "one")

V = "vee"

X = "ekks"

L = "ell"

C = "see"

D = "dee"

M = "emm"

V with a bar on top (5000) = "vee bar"

...

And so forth.

So conceivably you might hear something like the following:

A: What does emm-see-
0
0
Thank you, Anonymous!

To finalize this "thread", could you also shed some light on why the letters 'L' and 'D' were selected to designate 50 and 500 respectively?

C = 100 ( its understandable since there are such words as 'cent', 'century', etc.)
M = 1000 ('millennium', 'mile', etc. ... again it's quite logical and understandable)

V = 5 ... well, I can only think of
0
0
Here's a good explanation in which you can practice your listening skills at the same time:

0
0
Unfortunately, I cannot see/use the link ot whatever (at the end of the sentence).
All I can see is a big empty rectangle (immediately following the semicolon)....

I have tried both Firefox and IE .... neither displays your (video?) link properly
0
0
Too bad. In Chrome, I see the YouTube screen itself and all I have to do is press 'Play'. Well, I suppose that you could go to YouTube and access the link yourself. Here it is, except that I have put a single space between you and tube so that you can see it. Close the space and paste it in your address bar.

www.you tube.com/watch?v=Ik4yloCszYo
0

Related Questions