Ten to One

It’s so ingrained in us that numbers below 10 are spelled out (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine) that we sometimes forget it’s not a rule so much etched in stone as it is in aspic (for those of you lucky enough not to know what aspic is, click here).    The proverbial exception to the rule includes: Per chance, Percent: Use numerals 100 percent of the time when referring to percentages, whether you have 1 percent, 9 percent or 99 percent Million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, etc.: Use numerals when referring to less than 10 of any of these big-ass numbers, unless casually referring to “a million” Act your age: For kids and other things under 10 don’t complicate matters – it’s a 2-year-old girl, a 7-year-old-dog, a 9-year -old cottage, etc. Common cents: If you’ve less than a dime’s worth of money, you’ve got 6 cents, 9 cents, etc. Dimension comprehension: A pencil is 6 inches long, a photograph is 3 inches by 5 inches Speed demon: Slowpokes drive 5 mph; this year’s model gets 9 miles per gallon more than last year’s (but I drive the four miles from here to there) Baby, it’s cold outside: Brrrrr, it’s only 6 degrees out today; tomorrow it’s supposed to be a more temperate 9 degrees

Comments

[JP]

Here's the classic consistency conundrum to these number-and-numeral rules: If you have a phrase such as "the guys brought home six trout, 11 bass and 14 catfish," do you go with the egregiously inconsistent "six" or the more proximity-related-consistent "6"? As Bill Walsh says, you're doomed to inconsistency either way, but I lean toward all numerals or all numbers in these cases. Any thoughts?

By the way, I'm late in saying this, but on behalf of all the underrepresented PR grammar-and-style students out there who have not had a blog resource, I want to thank Dan for the launch of Word Wise last year and all his insightful entries. Keep up the great work in 2008!

[Bob Grove]

Dan...love these as ever. Question, in writing: percent or per cent? Certainly in British English, we were encouraged to use the latter, i.e. use the symbol "%" or spell it out as it was designed.

[Dan Santow]

JP, Bob, thanks for your kind messages.

But, JP, I can’t agree with your supposition that to write “six trout, 11 bass and 14 catfish” is “egregiously inconsistent” (“egregious” means “conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible”). You can disagree with the AP rules on numbers and style, but to follow them isn’t egregious or even inconsistent. I’m second to none in my idolization of Bill Walsh, but on this he and I (and you and I) will have to agree to disagree.

Bob, in American-style English we use percent, though when it came into being, around 1568, it was per cent, an abbreviation of the Latin per centum (“by the hundred”). In the early 1880s Americans decided per cent was too fussy (that’s my interpretation, at least) and started writing it as one word.

[Robin Weaver]

Is it a five minute walk or a 5 minute walk?