Learn English – Do you say “2 Byte” or “2 Bytes”

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Do you say "2 Byte" or "2 Bytes"? Which one is correct? If both is possible, when to use what?

The same question would come to my mind for my own language: German. So, there has to be a technical answer.

Best Answer

Both are possible, although the former would normally employ a hyphen.

When used as an adjective, 2-byte refers to size of something:

The computer's memory is organized into 2-byte words.
The token is stored as a 2-byte variable.
This will need to be stored as a 2-byte character.

When used as a plural noun, the 2 is simply a quantifier. However, in this case, you might see the word spelled out (as is often the case with numerals less than 10):

Each word in memory can be broken into two bytes.
The token is stored as a variable which takes up two bytes.
We will need to store this character in two bytes; it won't fit in one.

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