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).
- EXAMPLE: (English) EUR 999.50
- AVOID (Dutch): EUR 999,50
- EXAMPLE: (English) EUR 2.5 million
- AVOID (Dutch): EUR 2,5 Miljoen
- EXAMPLE: (English) €955.99
- AVOID (Dutch): €955,99
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
- EXAMPLE: 20,000 (twenty thousand)
- EXAMPLE: 1,000,000 (one million)
- AVOID: 20 000 and 1 000 000 (the use of spaces as separators is sometimes used in both British and American English, so expect to observe this whilst reading English texts)
- AVOID: 20.000 and 1.000.000 (Dutch, German, French – this use of the decimal point can be confusing to the English reader and will not even be recognised as a number in an Excel sheet set to English)
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.
- EXAMPLE: a billion designates a thousand million, i.e. 1,000,000,000
- AVOID: billion = million million
- AVOID: separating the zeros with spaces or full stops
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.
- EXAMPLE: Trillion designates a million million ie. 1,000,000,000,000 in British and American English
- AVOID: trillion = million million million
- AVOID: separating the zeros with spaces or full stops
NOTE: the words million, billion and trillion can be combined with figures:
- EXAMPLE: 3,000 million.
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
- EXAMPLE: €230,000 m; $370,000 bn; £490 bn
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'.
- EXAMPLE: The population of the earth is now 7 billion people.
- EXAMPLE: The population of the earth is now 7bn people.
- EXAMPLE: The budget came in at just under €2m.
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