Help! Does anyone know if there is and standard that concerns itself with the correct way to pronounce decimal fractions. For example,
23,67
Is this read as ‘Twenty six point sixty seven’ or ‘Twenty six point six seven’.
I recall reading a SI document many years ago detailing quite precisely that after the decimal point each character should be read out separately. Is this still the case? Can anyone help please?
Ok the correct method is 'two three point six seven' but the majority will use 'Twenty six point six seven’. Its a relief you didnt use a number with a zero in it, think of how many people pronounce the letter O for the number 0 (zero). you even get the odd person using the phonetic term Oscar.
I am grateful to David Rossall for finding this text which clarifies the convention. It is a pity that there appears to be no standard with which I can beat my French lecturer who insists on pronouncing 23.67 as vingt trois soixant sept.
I personally always use "zero" in phone numbers, and never "oh". I find it interesting that, when I ask people to read a number back which I supplied, most (though not all) pronounce 0 as "zero", too, though I suspect that there's an element of copying, and these people would say "oh" in any other circumstances.
I would definately say that in English it would be ‘Twenty three point six seven’, but in French ‘Twenty three point sixty seven’. Lucid Networks :: www.lucidnetworks.ca
Just a comment on the reference to pilots' use of the decimal point. They actually use the word "decimal" in their transmissions. For example the Coventry Control Tower is on one-one-nine-decimal-two-five. Of course, English is the official airspace language, but it does avoid the other differences between use of points or commas.
