19:26 Dec 20, 2013 |
English language (monolingual) [PRO] Bus/Financial - Economics / Writing numbers in two different languages | |||||||
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| Selected response from: Helena Chavarria Spain Local time: 05:15 | ||||||
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SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED | ||||
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4 +10 | Commas are used for thousands and a dot for decimals |
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Discussion entries: 1 | |
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Commas are used for thousands and a dot for decimals Explanation: Imagine people reading the translated text. They would be confused if they saw dots instead of commas, and a comma instead of a decimal point. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 20 mins (2013-12-20 19:46:51 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- I'm not sure how reliable the following reference is, but you might find it helpful: Using the comma. In English, the comma is used as a thousands separator (and the period as a decimal separator), to make large numbers easier to read. So write the size of Alaska as 571,951 square miles instead of 571951 square miles. In Continental Europe the opposite is true, periods are used to separate large numbers and the comma is used for decimals. Finally, the International Systems of Units (SI) recommends that a space should be used to separate groups of three digits, and both the comma and the period should be used only to denote decimals, like $13 200,50 (the comma part is a mess… I know). http://www.dailywritingtips.com/10-rules-for-writing-numbers... -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 26 mins (2013-12-20 19:53:02 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- always use figures for percentages, measurements and currency. Use commas to punctuate large numbers He scored 10% of the available marks. The cost, at £5.99, was less than their overall budget of £50. The population of New York City is estimated to be 8,008,278. http://www.ox.ac.uk/public_affairs/services_and_resources/st... In the reference above, the comma is used to punctuate the number and I admit that when I teach people how to say numbers in English, I always tell them to read the number in groups of three, and stop and breathe when they see the comma. |
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