Saying or writing out numbers
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 667.
Language focus
In finance, whether it is accountancy, banking, broking, investment, insurance, or whatever, one spends a lot of time dealing with numbers.
a. The spoken form of “0” is nought,or oh, AmE zero. Mind that the British say:
| oh | after a decimal point | 11.059 | eleven point oh five nine |
| in telephone numbers | 82 01 63 | eight two oh one six three | |
| in bus numbers | bus 104 | I came by bus one oh four. | |
| in hotel room numbers | room 601 | Where is room six oh one? | |
| in years | twenty oh nine | ||
| nought | before the decimal point | 0.09 .07 | nought point oh nine point nought seven |
| zero | for the number | the number zero | |
| for temperature | –5ºC | five degrees below zero | |
| nil | in football scores | 2–0 | France won two nil. |
| love | in tennis | 15–0 | The score is fifteen love. |
b. Telephone numbers are written with gaps between each group of numbers, not usually with dashes or full stops.
01273 736344 oh one two seven three, seven three six, three four four
344 can also be said as three double four
44 26 77 double four, two six, double seven
777 can be said as seven double seven, or seven seven seven
c. Say the following:
1. The patient was born in 1908 and died in 2001.
2. I think the phone number is 187 02 06.
3. Room 1004 is on the tenth floor.
4. Why not go for a walk? It's only 10 degrees below 0!
5. What's the score? 3-0 to Real.
6. Mr. Ross is on the other line at the moment. Please call him on
8 910 300 55 80?
7. Today's rate is 0.0357.
8. Have you got a pen? Their fax number is: 00 33 567 32 49.
9. Call me on 400 22 36 at 2.30 p.m.