cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21049862

The only numbers I will ever spell are one and zero, and only when using them as a pronoun, or for emphasis, respectively.

Is there ever a reason to not to use symbols when dealing with numbers? Why would “fourteen whatevers” ever be preferable to “14 whatevers”. It’s just so much easier to read numbers as symbols, not spelled out.

(Caveat, not including multipliers, like “273 billion”).

  • @[email protected]OPEnglish
    5•7 months ago

    I’ll allow billion, but personally my preference is using powers of 10 or unit prefixes.

    Just I’m not gonna be mad about the newspaper writing 3.5 billion dollars.

    • @[email protected]English
      3•7 months ago

      Unless that number means something different from US$ 3.5e9.

      If you are one of those people that think your country uses the other “billion”, just don’t.

      • @[email protected]OPEnglish
        2•7 months ago

        Touche, yeah, I’d totally be on board if everyone just uses $3.5*10⁹ or $3.5e9. Good luck getting it catch on outside eng/science circles though haha