Questions tagged [numbers]
Questions relating to the use of numbers or numerals in English.
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Hyphenating large numbers in compound adjectives [duplicate]
For situations in which you need to spell out large numbers in a compound...
Which of the four options would you say is correct?
example 1
a five-hundred-page book
a five-hundred page book
a five ...
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Why do we pronounce the numerals from 13 to 19 backwards (as in thir[3]-teen[10])?
In counting, languages typically go one direction or the other. e.g., 1,234 is said "one thousand two hundred thirty four," not "four thirty two hundred one thousand." However, in ...
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What is the right way to use written numbers and numerals in scientific writing? [duplicate]
I am preparing a manuscript for a scientific journal. I want to write "We injected cells into the tumor-bearing mice eleven days later. Mice were sacrificed four days after the transfer of cells. ...
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When having different quantities in a list, should you write all of the quantities out or use numerals if previous cases used numerals? [duplicate]
Let's say that I want to write out that a platoon of soldiers has 15 enlisted men and 2 officers. If I wrote "They were part of a company of 200 soldiers" in a preceding part of the text, ...
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Fractional numerals and plural [duplicate]
Say you have in front of you three marbles, one of which is red, another blue, and the last one yellow.
Is the sentence "A third of these marbles is blue." grammatically correct?
Edit:
The ...
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Does 10+ include 10? [closed]
If you look on the internet it says 10+ does not include 10 but if you look at Wikipedia it says it does include 10. Which one is correct?
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What is the correct way to read decimal numbers? [duplicate]
If the number is 100.32, which option is correct?
One hundred point thirty-two.
One hundred point three two.
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Hyphenation of compound modifiers that have written-out numeric ranges in them
Is either of these approaches to hyphenation currently more popular than the other one is when it comes to printed publications?
The drug is most promising for three-to-fifteen-year-old children.
The ...
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How much is Plural? [duplicate]
What does plural mean? Is it 2 or greater?
Is 1.5 plural? Is it "I ate 1.5 apple." or "I ate 1.5 apples."?
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What would "the 2021 school/fiscal year" refer to?
Generally students start the Nth grade in the fall of some calendar year Y and graduate that grade in the spring of some calendar year Y+1. Likewise if a fiscal year does not start on January 1 it ...
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Phrase choice for "one of x preferred colours" when two colour choices are equivalent
Let us say that Eve has 3 preferred colours:
Red
Green
Blue
Of those 3 colours, Eve prefers red the most, but her preference for green and blue are identical.
In English, would it be preferred for ...
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What is an unambiguous expression for 3 3 3 3 3? [closed]
In some country there is a unit for countable quantity.
3 3 3 3 3
For example, they say "5 count-unit of 3".
But in English we just say "five threes". But then
3 3 3 3 3
and
5 3
...
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Is there a term for numbers like 0.5, 9.15, 4.22? [duplicate]
I know that in some country, there is a term for numbers like
0.5, 9.15, 4.22
I mean number with dot(.) in its expression.
I sought for the term in English. It was
Decimal Number
But the term "...
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A or AN before a dollar amount preceded by dollar symbol $ [duplicate]
I have found related questions but my doubt remains and is best explained with an example. Consider the following sentence in a Finance academic article, where it is common to use the dollar symbol ...
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What word describes whether a number is cardinal, ordinal, or nominal?
Cardinal numbers are those which represent a quantity and generally have some unit of measurement.
Ordinal numbers represent order, such as rank on a leaderboard.
Nominal numbers are those used to ...
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Correct convention to write temperatures with tolerances
When you are writing a temperature range using tolerances that are different for negative values, what is the correct format? See examples.
For negative temperature values: -67°F +0/-10°F or -67°F -...
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Pronunciation of numbers in address [closed]
When I say the name of a street with “at”, like “at 12 Oxford St”, should I pronounce the number as cardinal or ordinal? And if it is ordinal, do I get it right that it still must always be written ...
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Spelling out number ranges?
Unless the style guide I am using says otherwise, I always spell out numbers less than 11 ("We have 7 new customers" = "We have seven new customers") unless it's a percentage or an ...
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Repetition of "one" as number and pronoun
I am wondering about repetitions related to the use of the word one as a pronoun and as a number inside an adjectival compound.
Here are two examples:
My friend ordered a two-scoop cone, while a got ...
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Squared edge lengths [duplicate]
Can I also say:
The energy is based on edge length squared.
Adjectives usually go before a noun, but maybe here 'squared' can be treated also as a verb or a postpositive adjective?
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Are quantities of units considered singular or plural? [duplicate]
Whenever I recite recipes or measurements in my head, the quantity of units is usually plural, but I find myself using singular verbs. For instance, "three cups of butter yields 12 batches" ...
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Why is it 'three score years and ten' almost half the time and not always 'three score and ten years'?
Why is it 'three score years and ten' almost half the time and not always 'three score and ten years'?
Note: I edited the question body and title in light of comments and answers pointing me to a ...
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Compact writing of "1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 and 36-month survival was analysed"
I have an academic paper abstract to write and it has very limited word count (150 words). I have to say that we analysed 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 and 36-month survival of the included patients in this ...
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Symbol indicating a value equal to or greater than a number
I am working on translation of numbers and came across this representation of "5 or greater" as "5+". My question is whether or not there is a term for the "+" sign that ...
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Minimizing the Number of Syllables when Pronouncing Years
Question
Do native English speakers minimize the number of syllables when they pronounce years?
Furthermore, is there linguistics/psychology literature on this phenomenon?
Observations
Here is a ...
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What is it called when people, e.g. computer programmers, pronounce, say, 65,536 as 'sixty-five, five, thirty-six' i.e. omitting 'thousands' etc?
I heard on ELU that computer programmers often pronounce long numbers like that. What is that method of saying the numbers called? How common is it? What is the point of it? What are the pros and cons ...
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Date: Month and Day To Use TH or Not [closed]
March 15 had never been that cold. It amazed me. Was global warming fake?
March 15th had never been that cold. It amazed me. Was global warming fake?
Which one is correct when writing a short story.
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Are there words that specify that a number was pronounced 'six double zero ' vs 'six zero zero'? [duplicate]
Are there words that specify that a number, say 600 was or is to be pronounced 'six double zero ' vs 'six zero zero'?
How about six double oh vs six oh oh? Would that be the same word?
How about when ...
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How do I say whether or not a number was pronounced like a telephone number (or zip code). Are there words for this?
501 can be pronounced 'five hundred one' or 'five zero one'. How do I tell someone how it was pronounced without saying the number. The best I've come up with is 'normal style' vs 'zip code style'. ...
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Is it proper to start a sentence with an Arabic numeral? [duplicate]
For example: 3 monkeys jump on the bed.
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Why not elevenst, twelvend, and thirteenrd?
Base-10 integers, when used as adjectives to express order, add a "st", "nd", "rd", and "th" suffix to whatever the number is, depending on whether the ones ...
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She's worth two of him
A similar structure to She's worth two of him is used in Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
Is this still grammatical? Is it related to that makes two/?four of us?
TWO: https://oed.com/oed2/00260784
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Many hundreds more students
Is many hundreds more students grammatically correct? I'm wondering about the lack of the preposition of and what PoS are hundreds and more.
Otherwise, where would of be placed?
I am comparing the ...
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how to describe a set of strings with various types of format [closed]
In my scientific experiment, the measurement of equipment may appear as follows 1’’-2’’, 3”:4”, [1”, 2”], or (1”:2”), etc.
I would like to describe this fact in an article. What is the best way to ...
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Word for a number without formatting
I have two representations of numbers, one is with thousands separators that are localized based on country so 1,234,567.89 for English and 1.234.567,89 for German, for example. This representation I'...
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Saying a period of time of -ties (ex: the 80s to 90s) for a research paper correctly
I'm trying to write a sentence that mentions a specific period of time, though I'm not sure if I wrote it correctly or not. Here's what I have.
We have succeeded in the era of the 1960s to 1980s
...
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What’s the difference between “to reduce ʙʏ one-third” and “to reduce ɪɴᴛᴏ one-third”?
A sample of fluorine gas occupies a volume of 600 mL at 760 torr.
Given that the temperature remains the same, calculate
the pressure required to reduce its volume by one-third.
I don'...
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Determiners in a noun phrase
ALL (determiner)
Used with plural nouns. The noun may have the, this, that, my, her,
his, etc. in front of it, or a number.
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/all_1
Does ...
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Fractions and Hyphens \ how to understand?
One page tells : Fractions are written out in words. They are hyphenated only when they come right in front of a noun, called a “direct” adjective.
Another page tells : Do Not Use Hyphens with Numbers ...
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Spell out numbers or use numerals when in a list?
So we often get the general advice that we should spell out small numbers and use numerals for large numbers. However, what if you are referring to a list of a few numbers, some large and some small. ...
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Does the currency sign (¤) go before, or after the amount?
Should the currency sign (¤) come before, or after the amount of money?
Should it be "¤ 1.00", or "1.00 ¤"?
Should there be a space between ¤ and the amount?
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Omitting the “hundred” from the name of numbers
I’m not a native, so I’ve always spoken numbers in English as our textbooks tell us to do: 452 would be “four hundred (and) fifty-two.”
But I’ve recently heard natives say something like “four fifty-...
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How do I write a number range that includes all decimals of the last number? [closed]
I am trying to write out a number range that would include all decimals within the last integer listed. The number range will be used as a label on a web form, so it should be as concise as possible.
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Should I use a suspended hyphen here? "A group of five-to-nine-year-olds did it," or a "A group of five- to nine-year-olds did it"?
The title pretty much sums it up. Which of the following sentences is correct?
"A group of five-to-nine-year-olds did it."
"A group of five- to nine-year-olds did it."
Moreover, ...
user398789
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"2 other" vs. "other 2"
Which one sounds more natural for English speakers?
"And 2 other places"; or
"And other 2 places".
(not just "2", but also 3, 4, any positive integer)
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Does “8am” mean 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚 08:00:00.000 in the morning, or does it just mean any time closer to that hour than to either 7:00 or to 9:00? [closed]
Suppose I wanted to indicate the range of time from exactly 8:00am to exactly 8:30am. Should I write “8:00am” for explicitness, or is exactly 8:00am implied by “8am”?
Also, is “2:15pm–2:45pm”, for ...
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Ordinal numbers and commas [duplicate]
When writing large ordinal numbers, does one use commas? Is it 1,234th or 1234th?
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A number is divided evenly by its factors; what to call this number?
A number is divided evenly by its factors, then what to call this number with?
For example:
10 is divided evenly by 1, 2 and 5.
1, 2, 5 are the factors
Then, how can I denote "10" with a ...
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Number vs. no. vs. # in scientific papers?
This is kinda an extension to: this question.
I am writing a scientific paper and have a numbered list. Now, when I want to refer to that list I want to say something like: "This issue is closely ...
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They won hundreds of dollars; five hundreds to be precise!
‘They won hundreds of dollars; five hundreds to be precise!’
"The Name of the Number", by Michael A. B. Deakin , page 48.
In mathematics we talk about the place of the units, of the tens, ...
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