When to omit hundreds?

A_SN

As a non-native English speaker, I've been wondering for years how to determine when it's appropriate to omit saying "hundred and" when speaking of numbers in the hundreds or thousands. I initially noticed how people would say "three sixty degrees" rather than the more cumbersome "three hundred and sixty degrees", or how American gangster rappers generally omit it for numbers such as "one eighty seven", "two eleven" or "three fifty seven".

Yet when I try to omit saying hundreds, confusion usually ensues, although in a fairly inconsistent manner, and generally regarding amounts of money. So what are the rules to appropriately speak colloquially of large numbers in English?

Permabear

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A_SN

donegalfella wrote: »

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Oh, so that would be context dependant then? That would explain why it didn't cause confusion when I was omitting it when discussing my rent but why it was ambiguous when I tried to pay a fine of "one fifty euros", heh.

Thousand and hundred should be shortened into one syllable words, two syllables are just too cumbersome .

is_that_so

The lack of and in hundreds comes from the American (over)simplification of English. They would say three hundred sixty. British English(BE) always uses and if you are saying it as a number; three hundred and sixty. However if you are listing off the digits as numbers less than a hundred for example three sixty, four twenty, six fifty there is no and. This shorter form without and is more informal in BE. If you listen to news programmes in this part of the world they will always use and.

is_that_so

A_SN wrote: »

Oh, so that would be context dependant then? That would explain why it didn't cause confusion when I was omitting it when discussing my rent but why it was ambiguous when I tried to pay a fine of "one fifty euros", heh.

Thousand and hundred should be shortened into one syllable words, two syllables are just too cumbersome .

One fifty in this context could be €1.50 or €150. You would need the word hundred here to show this.

Permabear

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FlutterinBantam

My opinion would be that one should establish the parameters first.

In other words, once the person understands the general context of the value, then certain values may be omitted.

Tony Siragusa the DT for the Indianapolis Colts, when asked his weight by sports journos always would say "between 60 and 80.
Now that would mean nothing to a person who does not follow that sport,but to the aficionado it's perfectly clear.

He assumes the questioner knows the 300 lbs bit so he weighs between 360lbs and 380 lbs.

fat baxtard:D

A_SN

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

My opinion would be that one should establish the parameters first.

In other words, once the person understands the general context of the value, then certain values may be omitted.

Tony Siragusa the DT for the Indianapolis Colts, when asked his weight by sports journos always would say "between 60 and 80.
Now that would mean nothing to a person who does not follow that sport,but to the aficionado it's perfectly clear.

He assumes the questioner knows the 300 lbs bit so he weighs between 360lbs and 380 lbs.

fat baxtard:D

Wow, that's some pretty extreme omission! lol

Yakuza

Here's an (apt) anecdote that will make the parents among you go "awwww":

A guy came to our house a few months ago, selling paintings he had drawn door-to-door. He was a decent bloke, and definitely had talent so I asked him how much he was selling his pieces for, and he responds "one fifty". I told him that I couldn't really afford that for the painting and wished him luck. Just as I was about to close the door, my daughter (6 at the time) came downstairs with a two euro coin in her hand saying "Daddy, Daddy, here, I can lend you one fifty so you can buy the painting".

The artist (who had heard her) and I just looked at each other and smiled.

Context is all-important

The Raven.

Yakuza wrote: »

Here's an (apt) anecdote that will make the parents among you go "awwww":

A guy came to our house a few months ago, selling paintings he had drawn door-to-door. He was a decent bloke, and definitely had talent so I asked him how much he was selling his pieces for, and he responds "one fifty". I told him that I couldn't really afford that for the painting and wished him luck. Just as I was about to close the door, my daughter (6 at the time) came downstairs with a two euro coin in her hand saying "Daddy, Daddy, here, I can lend you one fifty so you can buy the painting".

The artist (who had heard her) and I just looked at each other and smiled.

Context is all-important

Context or not, 'one fifty' to me is €1.50, the same as your daughter. If I want to say 150, it is always 'one hundred and fifty'.

I also hate expressions such as 'nine eleven' and 'twenty four seven'.

By the way, as regards the 'paintings' that the 'artist' brought to your door, were they paintings that he had painted, or drawings that he had drawn? If he was selling paintings for €150, he must have been either very inexperienced, or very hard up!

Yakuza

Arragh, don't go getting technical on me - as far as I'm concerned all art is blank paper / cavass with someones doodlings on it*, whether it be paint or charcoal

It was perfectly clear to me he meant €150, I was just pointing out my daughter's innocence / lack of concept of money.




*kidding

The Raven.

Yakuza wrote: »

Arragh, don't go getting technical on me - as far as I'm concerned all art is blank paper / cavass with someones doodlings on it*, whether it be paint or charcoal

It was perfectly clear to me he meant €150, I was just pointing out my daughter's innocence / lack of concept of money.

*kidding

Yes, I know. I'm terrible. I'm fussy about the price of art !!

Some people would normaly say 'one hundred and fifty', but if they were counting, they would say 'one fifty, one sixty, one seventy' etc.

The funny thing is that I still, after all these years, have to do my multiplications in Irish. I'm not a Gaelgoir, but that is how we learnt them !!