Page 138 - How to write effective business English your guide to excellent professional communication by Fiona Talbot

Practical conventions and common confusions 127

Other punctuation differences are apparent in the following
written representation of the same number. The UK English version
is the first of these:

890,123.50
890.123,50

Measurements

Do you have to write measurements in English? If you’re writing
globally, do be aware that different countries use different systems.
Broadly speaking, these are called metric and imperial.
The United States largely uses imperial and the UK and other
countries may use a combination. You will need to research if
you’re involved in orders that use either system. To give you an
idea, some differences are as follows:

Metric system:
● length: centimetre, metre, kilometre (US spelling: meter, etc);
●
● weight: gram, kilogram, tonne;
●
● capacity: millilitre (ml), litre (US spelling liter, etc);
●
● temperature: centigrade or Celsius.
●
Imperial system:
● length: inch, foot, yard, mile;
●
● weight: ounce, pound, ton;
●
● capacity: fluid ounce, pint, gallon;
●
● temperature: Fahrenheit.
●
Even within the imperial system, you’ll find that a US ton is not the
same as a UK ton, and a US gallon is different to a UK gallon.
Temperatures are also written using different systems:

centigrade or Celsius: freezing point of pure water 0° (degrees);
boiling point 100°;
Fahrenheit: freezing point of pure water 32°; boiling point 212°.