thousands and millions, writing keys

by time news

2023-06-05 10:57:32

In the face of doubts that arise when writing numbers that have many digits, particularly thousands and millions, a series of keys is offered below:

1. Thousands are separated with a space, not a semicolon

For ease of reading, the numbers of more than four digits can be written with spaces that separate groups of three numbers starting from the right: 12 345, 678 901, 4 500 000. According to international standards and those of the Academies, it is improper to use a semicolon instead of a spacesince these signs have the function of separating the decimals.

2. In four-digit numbers, the space can be omitted

However, in the numbers four digit is frequent and valid skip the spacealthough it continues to be included in those of five or more: «The projected capacity is between 9,500 and 10 200 people”. This space is always omitted in years: “It is the best data since 1998”, and not “It is the best data since 1 998».

3. The millions

There is no special sign for the millionswhich are also marked with a space: 1 000 000. Spellings such as 1’000,000 (with apostrophe) y 1,000.000 (comma and period), which are occasionally seen in the media.

4. It is inappropriate to add the word mil between figures

A figure like 12 140 already expresses by itself the number twelve thousand one hundred forty. It is therefore inappropriate add the word millike in 12 mil 140.

5. Cpostal codes, references, phone numbers…

Los zip codes, product references, phone numbers and other similar sets of digits are more properly codes and are written according to their own conventions. For example, ISO 80000 (no space) is the proper way to identify this International Standard.

6. The prefixes M y k

The symbols and codes of coins can have prefix M (of mega-) to express millions: 5 M₲ y 5 MPYG son five million guaraníes. It is also valid, according to the ISO, the prefix k (of kilo-) for thousands: 5 k€ y 5 kEUR son five thousand euros.

The main international standards that regulate the writing of numbers are the International System of Units (SI), of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, and the International System of Magnitudes (ISQ), of the ISO, which the Academy has widely collected. part in his Orthography.

In specialized technical texts, the use of these prefixes in isolation (“1 M tourists”) is not appropriate, so it is recommended to write the figure entirely with numbers.

Use Most programs now allow you to enter nonsplitting spaces to prevent a number from being separated on two lines. On the other hand, those who write HTML code can use the entity   or the CSS property white-space: nowrapwhich is the one used on this page and allows the spacing to be finer than normal, which is recommended (with ).

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