1

1/ How can we say such numbers as 3.500, 27.500, etc.? Is it possible to say "three hundred and a half", "twenty seven and a half"?

2/ Is it ok to say 4.5 as "four point five"? As I can understand, we cannot say "four and a half", right? Does it sound ok or is there any other options to say it?

Improve this question
4
  • 1
    1) Three point five zero zero, or like twenty-seven point five oh oh. 2) 4.5 is four point 5 whereas 4½ is four-and-a-half. But 4.5 is four-and-a-half: if you are you reading it aloud from a book, you cna paraphrase it if you wish, depending on the audience.
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Mar 13 at 19:34
  • 1
    "three hundred and a half" is ridiculously unlikely (it would mean 300.5, which far too "precise" to be natural). Once you get to 3 digits of "units" (i.e. - hundreds) it would be unnatural to use fraction names like ...and a half, ...and a quarter,... If such precision was appropriate, you'd say four hundred and twelve point two five (or just forget the names, and say four-one-two point two-five).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Mar 13 at 19:34
  • 1
    What you may be thinking of is, a structure like "Three and a half million" is common. But it's common only with such large units; sometimes with "thousand" and more often with millions, billions, and trillions. And note, the pattern is not "Three million and a half" but "Three and a half million." Though you could also speak that aloud as "Three point five million." There's also the confusing practice of reading 3,500 as "Thirty-five hundred."
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Mar 13 at 20:58
  • 1
    You seem to be using a period "." as both a thousands separator and a decimal point; this is very bad in any variety of English. You need to be have different symbols. Either follow traditional English/American style and use "." for the decimal point and "," for the thousands; or use "," for the decimal point and space/underscore/apostrophe or no separator for thousands.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Mar 14 at 15:02

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

There are usually many ways to say a particular number.

First, in (I think) all English speaking countries the dot "." represents a decimal marker, and a comma "," is sometimes used to separate the number into thousands and millions.

Numbers with a decimal fraction after the decimal point can be read either by listing the decimals, or by giving an equivalent fraction. So

  • 3.5 = "three point five". This is the same value as "three and a half". These are both acceptable ways to say the number.
  • 300.5 = "three hundred point five" or "three hundred and a half".
  • 4.5 = "four point five" or "four and a half" Both are acceptable

You don't add zeros unless you are indicating a certain degree of rounding.

  • 3.500 = "three point five zero zero (to three decimal places)" This actually means a value between 3.4995 and 3.5005.

Other decimals:

  • 3.3 = "three point three" or "three and three tenths"
  • 3.2 = "Three point two or "three and two tenths" or "three and a fifth"
  • 4.̇3 = "Four point 3 recurring" or "Four and a third" (There is a dot over the three)

So it is always possible to express a value as a decimal by reading the digits or as fraction.

Don't read numbers after the decimal point as "Numbers"

*3.25 = "three point two five" or (UK)"three and a quarter" or (US)"Three and a fourth" and not "three point twenty-five".

Improve this answer
1

In general, we read the number as written. If the text on the printed page is "3.50", I read that as "three point five zero". Just read the digits and say "point" for the decimal point.

Yes, you would express the same value if you said "three and a half". But that isn't what the other person wrote. In some contexts it would NOT be the same. For example, if this is a technical scientific paper, "three point five zero" indicates that the measurement is accurate to two decimal places, while "three and a half" is vague about how precise the measurement is.

In my humble opinion, if you are reading something that someone else wrote, you should read it as they wrote it, and not insert your own interpretations. For example, if a columnist wrote, "China rightfully owns the South China Sea", I would not quote him as saying, "China claims to own the South China Sea", even if I believe that statement to be more accurate, because that is not what he said. Of course how you read a number is not likely to stir angry debate ... though in some context it could.

We do not normally read commas, but insert words like "thousand" and million" where appropriate. Like "1,234,567" is generally read as "one million two hundred thirty-four thousand five hundred sixty-seven".

Some languages use comma as the decimal separator and period as the thousand/million/etc separator. How people read numbers in these languages is a different question. (And I don't claim to know the answer.)

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .