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Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

323 GG How to Write Numbers

Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Mignon Fogarty, Inc.

Society & Culture, Education

4.52.9K Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2012

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When do you write out numbers, and why do they call it "maths" in England?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Grammar girl here, sometimes math dude, one of the other quick and dirty tips podcast

0:05.4

hosts, gets questions that are more about writing than they are about math.

0:09.7

So today I'm going to answer some of those questions he gets.

0:12.8

Okay Jason, what's the first numbers related question?

0:16.3

Hi Minyan, the first question is sort of deceptively simple.

0:21.1

How should numbers be written?

0:22.8

I honestly can't tell you how many times I've stopped and wondered if I'm writing something

0:27.2

wrong.

0:28.2

For example, should a small integer, let's say two, be written in words as TW or as

0:33.8

the numeral two.

0:35.2

What about double digit numbers?

0:37.1

Should the number 25 be written out as a number or in words?

0:41.0

In which case should there be a hyphen between 20 and 5?

0:44.6

As if that's not enough, what about really big numbers, like 12,150 or even bigger?

0:50.4

I'm kind of hoping you say no to this, but is there ever a time to write a number like

0:54.5

that out in words?

0:56.7

Okay, the reason people get confused about how to write numbers is that different style

1:01.7

guides make different recommendations.

1:03.8

So it's easy to hear different rules from different people.

1:07.2

In general, the Chicago Manual of Style wants you to write out the words for more numbers

1:12.6

than other style guides.

1:14.7

For example, the associated press and the British newspaper the Guardian both recommend

...

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