how to pronounce numbers

[rprosperi]

(06-27-2018 07:05 AM)Dieter Wrote:  I finally looked this up on Wikipedia and found there are two different definitions ("long scale" and "short scale"). This explains the most names and numbers found in this thread. But not all. ;-)

Take a look at this Wikipedia page. This may shed some light on this issue. Especially you may take a look at the world map in the "Current usage"section.

Dieter

Nice find Dieter, thanks for sharing this. I've always known of the 2 different systems (my mother was born French Canadian, so she was a long scale user, but moved to USA when she met my father, which caused great confusion when I was in school, learning millions/billions, etc.), but had no idea there were so many differences even among those 2, never mind some of the other systems. In countries that use 'both', it must be confusing indeed; I assume in those countries, the Government must specify which is preferred for official usage.

I suppose this could lead to humorous issues when interpreting large checks: 'oh, you paid me a billion dollars, I assume that's a large scale billion, right?'.

They say math is the universal language, but to Cyrille's point, there are a heck of a lot of dialects...

[Thomas Okken]

(06-27-2018 01:21 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  I've always known of the 2 different systems (my mother was born French Canadian, so she was a long scale user, but moved to USA when she met my father, which caused great confusion when I was in school, learning millions/billions, etc.), but had no idea there were so many differences even among those 2, never mind some of the other systems. In countries that use 'both', it must be confusing indeed; I assume in those countries, the Government must specify which is preferred for official usage.

I suppose this could lead to humorous issues when interpreting large checks: 'oh, you paid me a billion dollars, I assume that's a large scale billion, right?'.

I think 'both' works fine, because most of the long-scale words are never used in practice. 10^9 means large construction projects and government budgets; 10^12 means large economies or global figures. In long-scale Holland I rarely see "biljoen," if it occurs at all, people often play safe and write "1000 miljard" instead, and the obvious next step is to accept milliard and billion as synonyms, and use short scale beyond that, when talking about global GDP or the U.S. national debt.

Of course this line of reasoning doesn't work in countries whose currency is worth very little, but the two that immediately come to my mind in that regard are Japan and South Korea, which happen to be in the "other" category, with 10^4-based systems.

EDIT: On second thought, the scenario that I just suggested isn't what they call "both" in that Wikipedia map, it's "short scale (and milliard)."

[StephenG1CMZ]

(06-27-2018 01:21 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  

(06-27-2018 07:05 AM)Dieter Wrote:  I finally looked this up on Wikipedia and found there are two different definitions ("long scale" and "short scale"). This explains the most names and numbers found in this thread. But not all. ;-)

Take a look at this Wikipedia page. This may shed some light on this issue. Especially you may take a look at the world map in the "Current usage"section.

Dieter

Nice find Dieter, thanks for sharing this. I've always known of the 2 different systems (my mother was born French Canadian, so she was a long scale user, but moved to USA when she met my father, which caused great confusion when I was in school, learning millions/billions, etc.), but had no idea there were so many differences even among those 2, never mind some of the other systems. In countries that use 'both', it must be confusing indeed; I assume in those countries, the Government must specify which is preferred for official usage.

I suppose this could lead to humorous issues when interpreting large checks: 'oh, you paid me a billion dollars, I assume that's a large scale billion, right?'.

They say math is the universal language, but to Cyrille's point, there are a heck of a lot of dialects...

It is often suggested that maths, being universal, would be a good starting point for learning to communicate with aliens... But we can't even agree whether to pronounce it "math" or "maths".

Speaking of large checks/cheques, I recall a slight disappointment with my pay check when I started work:
The technical interviewer said I would get 8K ...but the HR heard it as 8k