I was watching Errol Morris' ‘11 Excellent Reasons Not to Vote?’. At some point, the dialog goes this way:
― If I could sell my vote, I probably would.
― How much?
― How much? Psssh… Aaah… Like, one fifty? One fifty?
― Hundred fifty dollars?
Have I listened right? Did she said "One fifty" meaning "One hundred fifty"? In my native language, if one says "one fifty" referring to money this would unequivocally mean "one dollar and fifty cents" so I am not sure I got it right. If I listened correctly, how common and acceptable is this idiom?
Best Answer
In any discourse, speakers measure numbers of this sort by a (presumably) common standard. On the Chicago Board of Trade, for instance, soybean, soyoil and soymeal prices are quoted on three different scales, but there's no problem, because everyone knows what they mean:
Accordingly, "one fifty" does not "unequivocally" mean $1.50. For instance, if you were buying a new cellphone and the salesclerk quoted a price of "one fifty", you would almost certainly understand that to mean $150, not $1.50.
Observe that in the dialogue you quote, the parties do not share a common standard. The second speaker has to demand explicit clarification.