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You are here: Home / Mechanics / Numbers

Numbers

Spell out a number when…

  • Spell out a number when the number begins a sentence. Five hundred employees were laid off at Stanley Corporation.
    Note: You can rearrange the sentence if spelling out the number would require three or more words.
    o  Incorrect: 829 people (or fifty-eight percent) who responded to the survey reported that they held jobs in fields outside of their college majors.
    o  Correct: Of those who responded to the survey, 829 people (or fifty-eight percent) reported that they held jobs in fields outside of their college majors.
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  • Spell out a number when the number is written in one or two words (except as noted on the back of this handout). The correct procedure requires twelve painstaking steps. 
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  • Hyphenate a number written as two words if it is under one hundred. There are twenty-two students in my class. 
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  • Use a hyphen to separate the numerator from the denominator in written fractions. Two-thirds of the class chose the correct answer. 
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  • Form the plural of numbers by adding “s” or -“ies.” In the sixties, there were many hippies roaming the countryside.Hundreds of geese flocked to the lake before heading south.

Use a number when…

  • A number requires more than two words The population of Butterfield is 634.
  • Addresses: 525 Elwell Avenue
  • Dates: June 30, 1969
  • Exact times of day: 11:11 a.m.
  • Exact measurements followed by symbols or abbreviations: 55 m.p.h.
  • Exact amounts of money: $110.79
  • Decimals and fractions: 2.5 3/5
  • Percentages, scores, or statistics: 38% score of 10-1
  • Volume, chapter and page numbers: Vol. I, Chapter 12, page 87
  • Act, scene, and line numbers: Act III, Scene 2, lines 23-27

Taken from: http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/grammar/numbers.html#Spell

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