"Bryan C. Warnock" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Fri, 05 Jan 2001, Piers Cawley wrote:
> > But, but... 0.21 is *not* 'point twenty one', it's 'point two one',
> > otherwise you get into weirdness with: .21 and .210 being spoken as
> > 'point twenty one' and 'point two hundred (?:and)? ten' and all of a
> > sudden the '2' in that figure has gained an order of magnitude which
> > is just plain *wrong*.
>
> Then it would be "one eight zero zero point two one."
> Yes, at least the U.S. used to teach that the gratuitous use of "and"
was
> wrong - "one thousand eight hundred twenty-one," but the rules have
been
> loosened for integer numbers.
Are you guys nuts or just bored?
Ok, let's be pedantic.
The one thing that I learned in high school speech class was that, if you
say it, and people understand you, it's correct. It may not be proper, but
it's correct, because it serves its purpose.
The discussion was about the word "ain't". However, I think it applies.
In proper American English, to be gramatically correct, there is no "and"
in $109.00 ("One hundred nine dollars"). We usually say "One hundred and
nine dollars", however, when speaking, especially in the south and
midwest. Since internet communication is more typed speech than written
messages, it could be seen as either/or. In British English, the and is
normally used for a decimal point for money except in Britain itself
(colonies have different currency... I've yet to know what a quid is in
England), ommitted for real numbers otherwise. In german and other
languages, however, and ("und") is used quite frequently, and left out for
the cents (DM129.09 "Ein hundert neun und zwanzig Mark neun"). 0.005 is
either "zero point zero zero 5" in American English, or "five one
thousandths", with the former normally substituting "oh" (which is
incorrect since "oh" is a letter not a number) and the latter is falling
out of use.
FWIW, I pronounce 5.6.0 as "five six oh" and "command.com" as "command
com" and "autoexec.bat" as "autoexec bat" and every other file name I
pronounce the "dot". (I pronounced 5.005_03 as "five double-aught five oh
three".)
The point is, if people understand you, you said it in one of possibly
several "correct" ways. If people look at you funny, you need some
adjustment.
p's $0.02
p
