Knowing how to express numbers in your writing can be confusing. Do you write ‘10’ or ‘ten’, for instance, and is it ‘1st’ or ‘first’?
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1. Number or numeral
First things first – a number is an abstract concept, a numeral is the symbol you use to express that concept. You could compare it to the difference between a person and that person’s name. Here are some examples:
- What’s your house number?
- Does your clock have Arabic or Roman numerals?
2. Spell out numbers under 10
Always spell out numbers smaller than ten, except in headlines.
- We are expecting to receive five orders.
- “5 orders expected”
3. Put the commas and points in the right places
- The area of Germany is 357,021 sq km, or 137,847 sq miles.
- Earlier this year Ford recalled 1.2 million pickup trucks.
Note these important differences:
German: $1.000,50 / 1,2 Millionen
English: $1,000.50 / 1.2 million
4. Don’t start a sentence with a numeral
Don’t write:4000 copies of her book were sold.
Do write:There were 4000 copies of her book sold.
5. Spell out centuries, decades and ordinal numbers
Don’t write: In the 1st decade of the 21st century
Do write:In the first decade of the twenty-first century
6. If the number is rounded or estimated, spell it out
Rounded numbers over a million are written as a numeral plus a word.
- Over 300 million people worldwide use Facebook.
7. Don’t write two numerals next to each other
If you write 12 12-year-old boys it looks confusing. Instead, write twelve 12-year-old boys.
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