Pronouncing decimal numbers

[Commander Kinsey]

How do Americans pronounce 2.354? Is it two point three five four, or two [pause] three hundred and fifty four? My Google Home does the latter and it's very annoying.

[Dean Hoffman]

It depends on the day of week, time of day, and whether one lives in Louisiana.

[Mark Lloyd]

I usually say "point". I've heard it with "and". Once a teacher told me that "and" in a numeral* is correct only when replacing the point.

• - a numeral is a representation of a number, not a number. IIRC, I learned that in about 4th grade.

[rbowman]

I'll start the thread drift early. Last night I watched a DVD of 'The T.A.M.I Show'. It's not relevant to the question but it was a 1964 music production with James Brown, The Rolling Stones, and others. Even at the time, there wasn't agreement what T.A.M.I stood for, maybe 'Teen Age Music International'.

Anywas there was the acronym T.A.M.I in its full glory. That reminded me that it used to be F.B.I., C.I.A., U.S.A, and so forth. Somewhere along the line people apparently found all those periods too much work.

The period in numeric expressions probably isn't in danger except from those who insist on using a comma.

[Thomas]

I'll jump in with 2 point 3. In Pennsylvania.

[TonyCooper]

There is not one way that Americans say it. We don't all say things the same way.

I would say "two point three, five, four" or "two and three-hundred-and-fifty four-hundreths.

[micky]

Of your two choices, it's the first, two point... Of course there is two and three hundred fifty four thousandths.

Yes, I was told that in grammar school too. For example, one shouldn't say a hundred and twenty, but should say a hundred twenty

Of course these days, we'd put a stop to this grooming and indoctrination.

I don't think I was told that. Probably too late to remember it now. Darn.

[Mack A. Damia]

"Thousandths".

(.345)

One = tenths Two = hundredths Three = thousandths.

[Peter Moylan]

Using "and" instead of "point" happens only in North America, as far as I know. Even there, I would express the rule more strongly: using "and" in a numeral is correct only when exactly two digits follow, and normally it is done only when those two digits represent cents.

The example cited by Kinsey is just plain sloppy.

You meant thousandths, of course. But there is the trap in trying to use fractional notation in such cases. The correct final word (hundredths, thousandths, etc.) depends on how many digits there are, and is therefore easy to get wrong.

[Ken Blake]

"Two and three five four"? Nobody would say that in the US.

"Two and three five"? Nobody in the US would say that either.

Some people might sometimes say "two and thirty-five" to represent $2.35, but even there " "two and thirty-five cents" would be more common.

Probably most common is "two thirty-five."

[micky]

And if the integer is followed by a fraction. Three and 3/4 inch, or maybe inches.

[Peter Moylan]

Yes, that's an example where "and" works in Australia. But we use fractions far less than in the US. We'd be more likely to say three point seven five inches.

Of course, we'd be even more likely to say 95 mm.

Another situation where "and" works in Australia is with a number like five hundred and thirty three (Which does not mean 500.33).

[Mack A. Damia]

[rbowman]

Are your carpenter's tapes metric?

I've got a 2m tape but I really don't think in metric. I got it to lay out the hole spacing for Irish flutes. The formulae are odd percentages like

73% of the overall length and metric works better. I also have a 6" steel rule in tenths for some projects.

[Peter Moylan]

Yes, definitely, although some have dual units. All carpenters' drawings (building plans, etc.) are in millimetres.

My steel rule is 30 cm on one side and 12 inches on the other.

[Leonard Blaisdell]

secant, tangent, cosine, sine three point one four one five nine mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble YAY, Perdue!

That's how I learned it. I didn't go to Perdue.

[Su Nombre]

Chief Soh Cah-Toa, one of Liz Warren's ancestors, taught me Trig 101. It's a shame the democrats turned Math into a racist subject.

[Ben Verified - ✅]

Fractional integers? New Democrat math?

[Leonard Blaisdell]

s/Perdue/Purdue/, although I do eat the former's chicken.

[Commander Kinsey]

There are too many acronyms altogether. At my last place of work, we actually had two acronyms meaning entirely different things. If you type any three letters into acronym finder, you will get 30 results!

It's a fullstop, not a period. A period is when you don't want to f*ck your wife.

Yeah Europeans are thick, they think 12,345 is twelve and a third.