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Often when I read a book and see an image or picture, there's always something like "picture 1-a" or "1.a". Sometimes it's also written in the following form "Picture 1.10" or "Picture 1-10."

In my language, we usually simply read it in a way that can be translated into English as "Picture 1 a" for 1-a, and the same way for 1.a. When it comes with "10" examples, we read it like "Picture 1 dot 10" for 1.10, and "1 strip 10" for 1-10 (We call (-) as strip).

How is exactly the correct or commonly-practiced way to read those?

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When a number precedes a letter, it is common not to mention the intervening character at all:

1-a -> "one a"
1.a -> "one a"

This can also be done for two numbers, but the dot is sometimes pronounced as "point":

1.10 -> "one ten" or "one point ten"

I don't recall seeing a hyphen used between numbers to express this idea (probably because it looks like a dash, in which case it would usually indicate a range), but I'd probably read it the same way:

1-10 -> "one ten"

(I'm basing this off my personal experience as a native speaker of Northeast U.S. English. I'd be happy to delete this answer if someone can find an authoritative source.)

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  • "one ten" would also be a common pronunciation for "110", so "one point ten" would be the more common pronunciation for "1.10".
    – Barmar
    Dec 12, 2022 at 13:41
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    It would also be perfectly understandable to say "1 dot 10" or "1 dash 10."
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Dec 12, 2022 at 15:22
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    It may be worth specifically noting that "one strip ten" is not idiomatic and probably would not be understood, unless somebody else disagrees in which case it would be regional at best.
    – Kamil Drakari
    Dec 12, 2022 at 17:11
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    I agree with all of the above comments. I don't recall hearing "1 dot 10" or "1 dash 10", but I don't doubt that they're also used. I expect that there's a fair amount of dialectal variation.
    – MarcInManhattan
    Dec 13, 2022 at 3:22
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    @MarcInManhattan Maybe that variation (dot and dash) is used by non-native speaker. Or was it ever heard being used somewhere in US or UK?
    – Sat_34
    Dec 13, 2022 at 12:43

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