Page 137 - How to write effective business English your guide to excellent professional communication by Fiona Talbot

126 How to Write Effective Business English

Numbers

If you are writing numbers in English, also be aware that different
nationalities may interpret the numbers differently. Look how your
order books – and your bottom line – could be affected. For exam-
ple, the words ‘billion’ and ‘trillion’ can have completely different
meanings in the UK, Germany, France and the United States. But a
zillion means a large indeterminate number, so that expression at
least is standard!
A fairly old imperial expression you will still find on occasion is
dozen. It means 12.
You use a comma when you write a number comprising four or
more digits. Counting from right to left, you place the comma after
each three digits:

1,000;
10,000;
100,000;
100,000,000.

How the decimal point is written in English

‘Decimal point’ is the UK English term for the dot placed after the
figure that represents units in a decimal fraction: for example, 9.6.
This may differ from the way you express the decimal point in
your language. You may be used to using a comma – for example
9,6 – or you may express 100,000,000 as 100.000.000. It’s not
overly confusing but it’s best to be aware of this difference when
you write in English.

Decimal points when writing monetary units

in English

Some nationalities express their decimal currencies using commas
where there is a decimal fraction: €1,80. If you are writing a tariff
in English, you express this amount as: €1.80