Questions tagged [numbers]
Questions relating to the use of numbers or numerals in English.
627 questions
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Is there some logic to The Economist's spacing in "8m" and "8 bn"?
What's up with the space before bn (billion), but not before m (million), as seen repeatedly in The Economist's style guide (12th ed., p. 51)? This seems inconsistent, but also intentional. Is there ...
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Are numerals just determiners, pronouns, nouns and adverbs? Or are they a separate word class?
Dictionaries usually classify words like "one", "two" or "three" as numerals or numbers, which looks as though they consider them to be a separate word class, but for me ...
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Why does CGEL categorize "around" and "about" as a preposition and an adverb, respectively, when used before a numeral?
I thought CGEL (2002) categorized both around and about as prepositions when used before a cardinal numeral (e.g., around /about six). Even Brett Reynolds, who I know is a university professor, wrote ...
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How to hyphenate: 165m-tall, 165 m-tall, or something else?
The sentence I want to write is, "The 165-metre tall structure stands on the banks of the river." (Obviously the number 165 isn't important, let's just say it's a sufficiently large number ...
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Does "Adults aged 19 to 64 and over" convey any extra meaning?
At the NHS website it says:
Adults aged 19 to 64 and over need 700mg of calcium a day.
Does this mean exactly the same as "Adults aged 19 and over need 700mg of calcium a day"?
I suspect ...
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100 millionth subscriber
Which sentence is correct in writing "100 millionth" (with or without the hyphen)?
MrBeast gave his 100 millionth subscriber an island.
or
MrBeast gave his 100-millionth subscriber an ...
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63
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Specific fractions [duplicate]
What is the correct wording of the following fractions:
1/21 Is it "one-twenty-first" or rather "one-twenty-oneth"?
1/22 Is it "one-twenty-second" or "one-twenty-...
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How Do You Write the Word Form of Decimal Numbers in British English?
In British English, to write the word form of the number 109,236, you would write "one hundred and nine thousand, two hundred and thirty-six". The format and usage of "and" is ...
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Why do we have both the word "three" and the numeral "3" in this sentence?
Why do we have both the word "three" and the numeral "3" in this sentence?
The number 345 has three digits, where the first digit is a 3.
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Do we use "two" or "2" in a mathematical essay? "The number [two/2] is the only even prime" and "Graph a function of [two/2] variables" [duplicate]
I've heard that when doing formal writing, we normally spell out numbers under 10, but in mathematics we use digits for all numbers.
For example, we use the word "two" when writing essays ...
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Letters vs Digits: Should you write ‘Windows Seven’ or ‘Windows 7’ in an essay? [closed]
Is it Windows Seven or Windows 7 in an essay?
I’ve heard that numbers under ten should be spelled out with letters not digits, which suggests it should be Seven written with letters not just 7 written ...
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2
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5
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846
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Formal written form for a 2x something? [closed]
In a sentence where I want to say a title or position that has been awarded twice, how do I phrase it? For instance "He was a 2x runner-up for the Champion title", would it be "two time&...
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Why are simple numerical proportions usually expressed in percent?
In English, proportions that add up to ten are almost always expressed as percentages, such as “60-40”. We do this even when we don’t know the proportions to a precision of hundredths, and it would be ...
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Which word should come first in a noun phrase, the ordinal adjective or the numeral? [duplicate]
Should one say
'the first 13 colonies on the planet Pelaton'
or
'the 13 first colonies on the planet Pelaton'?
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Do you hyphenate a number with an omitted “hundred”?
Numbers with hundreds are normally spelled out without hyphens; e.g., 250 = “two hundred and fifty”. But when informally spoken as “two fifty”(*), such as in dialogue, should this be hyphenated as “...
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The usage of 'of' to specify an amount and value [closed]
As a non-native speaker of English, I think we use the "of" term in an interesting way when we define the amount of something. I know that "The rock has a mass of 50 kg" is a ...
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Is it unacceptable to start the second clause of a semicolon with a number?
I know it's generally frowned upon to start a sentence with a number encoded by Arabic numerals, e.g. "4 percent of people live in the USA". Is it okay to do this for the second clause ...
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What CGEL part of speech is the number in "well over 2000"?
The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Page 385) has this to say about "cardinal numerals":
7.6 Cardinal numerals The cardinal numerals are primarily determinatives but they have ...
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Hyphens are used in words from 0-99 (correction 21-99), but what if a number larger than 99 is a compound adjective before a noun?
For example, which of these are correct?
The pizza delivery service had three thousand, seven hundred and eighty-two clients.
The pizza delivery service had three-thousand-seven-hundred-and-eighty-...
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“I am fourteen past”
"My name is Helena, and I am fourteen past."
I found the line in My New Home by Mrs. Molesworth. I don't know what it means, and why it ends with past.
I know time expressions like “Half ...
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When writing ranges, must the start and the end of the range be both written out as words or both written in numerals? [duplicate]
Usually, numbers 0-10 are written out as words. What should be used when a range starts below ten but ends above it? Is the word "to" used, or a hyphen?
E.g.,
9-25
, or
nine to twenty-...
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"2+ Million" or "2 Million+"?
When using a plus sign for brevity in a phrase like "over two million", where should the plus sign go?
2+ Million
2 Million+
The same concept would happen with thousand, billion, etc.
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77
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A confusion caused by a grammar checker regarding "a" or "an" [duplicate]
I wrote it this way in my manuscript:
We construct a 25-order planar graph with minimum degree 4.
My grammar checker (languagetool.jar) is reminding me to use "an" instead of "a.&...
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We have little problem. (???)
First, could you have a look at this quote?
The instructor who is uncomfortable with discipline will have little
problem with the children in the early grades, since the children
there are usually ...
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0
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65
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What does "2.2 kids" mean? [duplicate]
The context: Doctors, attorneys, steel
plant executives, dentists, and professional football players lived there with their
adoring wives and their 2.2 kids.
On face value it has something to do with ...
0
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1
answer
224
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When to use the word numerals vs numericals? [closed]
I've always used the word 'numericals' when referring to anything relating to numbers, the same way I use the word 'punctuation' to refer to, well, punctuations such as commas and full stops.
However ...
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1
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352
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Are the last two digits in an inventory suffix number? [closed]
I am an artist and I use inventory numbers to track my work. An example of an inventory number would be 2012.035.17.24.07. The last 2 numbers indicate the the type of work it is.
07 indicates paper,
...
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"37% of Japanese" vs "37% of the Japanese"
When we refer to certain nationalities, we tend to add "the" to indicate that we are talking about the people and not the language if there is an ambiguity.
Example:
The Chinese speak ...
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Units of measure in a 'between' range
I've seen lots of similar questions, but none exact to what I'm working with. Example:
Ex. 1: "The result should be between 100 and 300 mm/hr."
Ex. 2: "The result should be between 100 ...
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1
answer
58
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Proper phrasing for - top X% of Y based on Z
Suppose I have a list of pupils and 3 types of scores (academic, discipline, sports) for each student.
Is there a better way to write - the top 1% of students based on sports performance?
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Wriiting Numbers in Reference to Guns and Ammunition
In reference to ammunition and guns, when the word "caliber" is used after a number, 380, for example, should the decimal that's typically present be omitted? I lean towards "no" ...
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How are decimal numbers read or pronounced in different locales (different decimal separator)?
In the USA we use a period (dot) as the decimal separator. The word "point" is normally used for the decimal separator when reading such a number. For example, a number such as 3.14 would ...
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0.5 of the pizza, 0.5 of the class
Suppose that there is a pizza.
1/2 of the pizza means a half of the pizza.
Does English use/allow the expression 0.5 of the pizza?
Suppose that a class has 10 students.
1/2 of the class means 5 ...
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What does "are nines" mean in this context?
I stumbled upon some conversation on the TV show Desperate Housewives (Season 4, Episode 10) and I do not understand what the "nines" and "a three" indicate in the following ...
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1
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Why is a plural noun followed by present participle incorrect? [duplicate]
Discussing what they do to earn extra cash, a friend told me: "I get paid for dogs walking." I think they should use the singular, "I get paid for dog walking". My friend replied,...
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0
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"one/two/three-car households" vs "single/dual/triple-car households" (attributive forms)
Which way is more natural when it comes to numbers of things that people have or own? For example, the numbers of cars owned by households:
The rate of single/dual/triple-car households is increasing....
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Distinction between number, digit, numeral
Here is my current understanding: 24 is a number, in which 2 and 4 are digits.
XIV is a Roman numeral, in which X, I and V are Roman numerals.
Could you please confirm that?
Context: effort to ...
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Are “ten billionths” ten times smaller or ten times larger than “one billionth”? [closed]
One billionth of a meter is equal to one meter divided by a billion.
What are ten billionths of a meter?
Source for the phrase “ten billionths of a meter” is a TED-Ed video on YouTube. It is said at ...
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Two subjects require plural or singular form?
I am writting an equation for a scientific text, which contains the letters p and q and the letters P and Q as well. And below the equation I want to explain what each letter means: so, I write the ...
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Numerals 13-19 are based on 10. Why do 11 and 12 follow a different pattern? [duplicate]
11 and 12 mean “one left” and “two left” respectively, referring to number 10. In other words, etymologically, they are NOT remnants of a base 12 number system. They are decimal, just like the -teen ...
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Is "in two-yearly intervals" a proper construction?
There's this construction, "x-yearly intervals", in a textbook I found.
The graph shows Europe's jay population from 1996-2004 at two-yearly intervals.
Shouldn't it be "two-year ...
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What part of speech do ordinal numerals belong to?
Consider the below sentence.
On the first of February, the meeting shall take place.
What part of speech does the ordinal numeral 'first' belong to? I am aware that under some analyses, ordinal ...
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House number 1 or One in address?
I noticed that some companies and institutions write the house number 1 as One, and some institutions write 1.
One Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014, USA
One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052, USA
...
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3
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Increment percentage
This year, the percentage of our female users is 5%, we estimate this percentage will be 7%, 9%, 11%, 13% for the following years.
Can we say "This year, the percentage of our female users is 5%, ...
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1
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362
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Do we hyphen ordinal numbers written in letters? [closed]
Knowing that we hyphen compound numbers under 100. Do we do the same for the ones used for ranks? Every website I've looked at teaches how to hyphen cardinal numbers (67, 82, 34,...) but does not say ...
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1
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How should I hyphen decimal numbers written in letters (that contains the word "point" and "and")?
All the wesites I've looked at says to hyphen numbers when you are describing compound numbers between 21 and 99 (except 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90). A compound number is any number that consists ...
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1
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What is the proper number formatting for a legal document from the Supreme court? [closed]
Do federally-issued legal documents in the USA require numbers spelt out, or in number form?
I took a look at this site concerning Citation, Grammar and Style Guides from Loyola School of Law, but it ...
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0
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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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1
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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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1
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99
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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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