UTServicesCESUTLCTranslating & editing servicesUT English Style guideNumbersLarge numbers: important differences between English and other European languages

Large numbers: important differences between English and other European languages

Writing large numbers: important differences between English and other European languages

The use of decimal separators in British and American English is different than in other European languages. Notice how in both UK and US English a decimal point, and not a comma, is placed as separator before the cents (the fractional part of the decimal number).

NOTE: you will even need to change your settings in Excel sheets to format numbers that use the decimal separator (English) rather than the comma separator (other European languages).        

Grouping of thousands in large numbers

The UT English Style Guide uses commas for digit grouping of thousands

How much is a billion and a trillion in British English and in American English?

In British English, a billion used to be equivalent to a million million (i.e. 1,000,000,000, 000), while in American English, it has always equated to a thousand million (i.e. 1,000,000,000).

British English has now adopted the American figure, though, so that a billion equals a thousand million in both varieties of English.

The same sort of change has taken place with the meaning of trillion. In British English, a trillion used to mean a million million million (ie. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000).

Nowadays, it is generally held to be equivalent to a million million (1,000,000,000,000), as it is in American English.

NOTE: the words million, billion and trillion can be combined with figures:

Abbreviating ‘million’ and ‘billion’

The letters m and bn can be used for sums of money to avoid frequent repetitions of million, billion; this applies particularly in tables where space is limited. The abbreviation is preceded by a space

Use a combination of a figure and a word for very large round numbers (such as multiple millions/billions etc), or abbreviate it to ‘m’, ‘bn'.

References

Language Boutique 'Writing Numbers – Periods or Commas?' Retrieved from https://language-boutique.com/lost-in-translation-full-reader/writing-numbers-points-or-commas.html