Learn English – Is it proper grammar to refer to four digit number in hundreds

numbers

Sometimes you will hear people refer to four digit numbers in terms of hundreds. For example, sometimes people will say fifteen hundred when talking about the number 1500. Is this proper?

What are the rules of usage? In my personal experience, the hundreds notation is common for values less than 2000, but rare for larger values. Can I refer to 7300 as seventy-three hundred?

I know this has been discussed in another question, but that was in terms of years. I'm asking about numbers in general.

Best Answer

This usage is informal but not incorrect. I wouldn't use it in official business documents, but it can be freely used in speech or less formal contexts.

While statements like "seventy-three hundred" are rarer than their equivalents for numbers below 2000, they're perfectly intelligible and frequently used.

Related Solutions

Learn English – Does “nineteen-hundreds” refer to 1900–1909 or 1900–1999

Although people do use it mean 1900–1909, it isn't a misuse to use it to mean 1900–1999. Another way to refer to the first decade would be "just after the turn of the century", or "at the turn of the century". I would say 1920s to mean 1920–1929 though.

If you do a corpus query (COCA) you'll find that 1900s is almost always preceded by early. (121 times out of 149 hits). This qualification leads me to think that most authors think that the 1900s is a large time frame, that benefits from further qualification. Furthermore, in many cases the context shows that "early 1900s" refers to years outside of 1900–1909.

Learn English – What do you call each individual component of a number: a “digit”, a “figure”, or “place”

"Digit" refers to the characters used to write out a number. "Places" refers to the number and location of digits needed to write out the number. "n-figure" is simply a count of the digits needed ignoring any fractional part.

1,234 - Uses digits 1, 2, 3 and 4; has four places; is a 4-figure number

100,111 - Uses digits 0 and 1; has 6 places; is a 6-figure number

905.001 - Uses digits 0, 1, 5 and 9; has 6 places; is a 3-figure number

As a reminder: , is used to split thousands, millions and so on. . is used to split of the decimal places. The term "places" is often used to specify only the decimal places:

This is accurate to 3 decimal places.

This phrasing can be reworded as:

This is accurate to the 1/1,000th place.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Learn English – Does “nineteen-hundreds” refer to 1900–1909 or 1900–1999

Learn English – What do you call each individual component of a number: a “digit”, a “figure”, or “place”

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