How to count...

by Puddin'

As a writer, you're meant to put words on blank paper. Accountants, on the other hand, are paid to put arabic numbers on paper with lines on it, which makes all the difference. Arabic numbers are not words, they're symbols, which don't actually translate all that well into real words. There are a whole set of rules that are absolutely mandatory when writers write using numbers, mostly to avoid confusion, but also to avoid looking like a rank amateur. The two instantly diagnostic symptoms of amateur writing are bad spelling, and the inappropriate use of arabic numerals.

The first thing a writer has to know about arabic numbers is that they're not precise, even though they look like they ought to be, and it's usually important for a writer to get the words right all the time. If you write: "Sam said, ‘It's 7:00,’" what the heck did Sam actually say? "Seven?" "Seven o'clock?" "Sevenish?" "Seven on the dot?" "Seven exactly?" "Seven AM?" "Seven PM?"" "Seven in the early evening?" "Seven in the morning?" "Oh seven hundred military time?" Those bare arabic symbols say nothing at all beyond what an accountant might dream of, and leaving important details as an exercise for the reader is rarely a good idea.

Every professional writing venue has what's called a "style guide" which details many of the rules associated with putting words on paper for that particular venue. Newspapers have style guides, as do magazines, as do book publishers, as do many web sites. This article addresses only the use of numbers, and offers explanations, which is rather more than most style guides do, since the typical response to submissions which don't follow the rules is to toss them into the trash.

Number Styles

Rule One — Spell out every isolated single-digit whole number. Arabic numerals should be used for large numbers, exact times, exact amounts, and certain other specific situations, but the exact point at which numbers become “large” varies. Some venues treat ten as a large number, but see rule two.

Correct Examples: The two of us went to town. I have 10,763 unique clips in my paperclip collection.

Rule Two — Be consistent. If you have a lot of small numbers that you spell out, and a very few larger numbers, you might consider spelling out every number. An exception may be made for extremmely large numbers, in which one may mix arabic numbers and spelled-out large portions of numbers, to spare your readers the difficulty of counting zeros. Likewise, if you have a lot of large numbers, which might use arabic numerals, you might consider using arabic numbers for everything, as long as you stick to one general topic, but see rule three.

Correct examples: One potato, two potato, three potato, four. I have forty-seven potatoes in all. The US military budget is $663.8 billion.

Incorrect example: The three of us carried 12 pounds each.

What consistency might be in any given instance may also depend on how you start out, but may be modified by other, less flexible rules.

Correct example: Whilst on my trip to the Moon, I collected 739 specimens of dust, 283 rocks, and 2 golf balls.

Incorrect Example: I’d ordered six eggs, but was given 66 eggs.

Rule Three — Never start a sentence with an arabic numeral.

Incorrect Example: 17 of us are astronomers.

Note that there are no "capital" arabic numbers, and it always looks stupid to start a sentence without a capital letter in English. If you have to use arabic numbers, for whatever reason, you either have to reword the sentence to put real words first or spell out the initial number, even if it’s ‘large.’

Correct example: Seventeen of us are astronomers.

Correct example: We're all astronomers, 17,639 of us.

Rule Four — Always spell out simple fractions and hyphenate them to make life easier for your readers. Unless consistency dictates otherwise, use ‘half,’ ‘a third,’ or other simple spelled-out fraction for common fractions.

Correct examples: We ate half the pies. Two-thirds of us were involved in the effort. A tenth of us were left behind. Three-quarters of the volunteers weren’t quite sober. An eighth of the men weren't qualified as yodelling cowboys.

Rule Five — Mixed fractions should be written as arabic figures unless, as dictated by Rule Three, it begins a sentence. Never use special glyphs for mixed fractions, like ¼, ½, or ¾, unless they are the only vulgar fractions used in a document, because this would violate Rule Two, which is all about consistency. Note that ¼ looks nothing like 1/5. Also, these special glyphs aren’t available in all fonts, nor are they guaranteed to exist at all, so your document may wind up with these characters looking either ‘odd,’ or invisible, on other people’s computers, if you use them at all.

Correct examples: The interest rate on secured deposits is 3 1/2 percent. Seven and one-half percent is the maximum you can expect on unsecured money-market accounts. Note that these two correct sentences would none-the-less violate the consistency required by Rule Two if they appeared in the same paragraph or talked about the same subject in a single document.

Incorrect example: Take 1 ¼ cup flour, then add 2 1/3 cup sugar, and mix slowly into 1 7/8 gallon of water.

Rule Six — Simple is better. If a number is ‘round,’ especially if it’s an explicit or implied approximation, spell it out. Arabic numbers tend to imply a precision which may not exist.

Correct examples: Into the valley of death rode the six hundred. Ali Baba and the forty thieves hid in the cave. There were hundreds of casualties. Almost fifty arrows hit the target.

Incorrect examples: We had 12s of eggs and didn’t know what to do with them. A few 100 bicyclists rode by the grandstand.

Rule Seven — Always use arabic numbers to express decimal numbers, and note that this implies precision. Put a single zero in front of a decimal number unless the decimal number begins with a zero.

Correct examples: Under the Rules of Golf, a golf ball weighs no more than 1.62 ounces (45.93 grams). The Euler-Mascheroni constant is approximately 0.577. There were only .07 parts per million of arsenic in the sample.

Incorrect example: Roughly 3.77 Girl Guides were assigned to sell cookies.

Rule Eight — In general, use arabic numbers for the days and years in dates, although they can be spelled out for stylistic reasons. Dates tend to look more formal when spelled out, and this is often done for formal invitations, as to a wedding. One can add ordinal indications if desired.

Correct examples: August 7th fell on a Saturday in 1909. January 9, 2007. December 21st, 1945. The 20th of November. June 2nd. You are cordially invited to Tea on October Fourth, Nineteen Hundred and Twelve.

Rule Nine — In running text, the time of day should always be spelled out, unless extreme precision is implied. If you use the idiom, ‘o’clock,’ the time must always be spelled out.

Correct examples: Dinner is served at eight o’clock. I plan to leave at three thirty in the afternoon. It’s seven oh seven in the evening right now.

Rule Ten — If you use AM or PM, use arabic numbers, and likewise when precision is implied, even when the precise time is on the hour, the half hour, or the quarter hour.

Correct examples: Dinner is served at 8:00am. The plane leaaves at 3:34pm. It’s 7:07 P.M. right this minute. The bomb is set to go off at 23:08.

Rule Eleven — Use noon and midnight rather than 12:00 P.M. and 12:00 A.M. Although they’re theoretically exact times, they’re also approximations of the location of the sun, like ‘dawn’ or ‘sunset.’ To be consistent, they have to be spelled out. Also, many people are confused about AM and PM in these contexts, and will often say ‘Twelve noon’ instead of 12:00 PM, or ‘Twelve midnight’ for 12:00 AM.

This actually makes a lot of sense. Other than amongst obsessive-compulsives, most people actually mean (or imply) ‘about’ when they speak of times. Few people will shoot you dead if you're one or two minutes late to an appointment made for ‘noon.’

Correct examples: She’s never up past midnight. We usually eat luncheon at noon. It’s high noon, on the dot. The take-off is on the stroke of midnight.

Rule Twelve — Hyphenate all compound numbers from twenty-one through ninety-nine unless using archaic forms for effect.

Correct examples: Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer, take one down and pass it around, ninety-eight bottles of beer. Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie. One hundred and forty-five ducks in a row.

Rule Thirteen — Never use arabic numerals in dialog.

Correct examples: “I plan to leave the office at half past five.” “Twelve-thirty is way past my usual bedtime.” “Happy New Year!”

Incorrect examples: “I plan to leave the office at 5:30pm.” “12:30 is way past my usual bedtime.” “Happy 01/01/2014!”