Name: Common English Mistakes made with Writing Numbers - When to Spell or Write - IELTS Writing Tips
Uploaded: 2020-03-28T09:12:32.000Z
Duration: 10 min 40 s
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Hi friends, welcome back to a new lesson. Well today’s lesson is for all of you who

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are writing emails regularly, who make official documents and you deal with numbers while

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doing your work, right? So there are certain times we need to write numbers as in a numerical

form and there are certain times you need to spell them, right? But we do get confused

as in when to write in numerical and when to spell out a number. Well I have a few tips

for you let’s take a look. So first let’s see, when to spell out numbers. Now supposing

you have number that is less than ten, okay? So for example if I say, two people or two

participants are attending the conference, okay? Or if I want to say nine letters were

sent out, okay? So if the number is less than ten, it is always better to spell out the

number, okay? The next one is, when you start a sentence with a number, now for example,

in this sentence I have written ‘15 children were at the concert.’ If you see I have

used the numerical form, but well friends, remember when you start a sentence with a

number it is always better to spell it out. So this is not the correct way, what you need

to do is, spell out a number when you start a sentence with a number. So this will be

the correct way of writing ‘Fifteen children were at the concert’, okay? Do remember

these small things because there are times probably you are sending out an email and

you are in a hurry, so you do the short cut and you write the numerical, don’t do that,

spell it out. So remember when you start the sentence, spell out the number. Okay, well

the next one is in formal writing. Now I have a sentence here, say for example, I’m writing

an email and I’m sending two files attached okay? So I’m going to say ‘Please find

attached the 2 files’ well here, it’s a formal email and like I said in my first

rule, if it is less than ten, please spell it out. So even here you have 15 but because

it’s an email you are probably sending to your vendor, to your clients or may be to

your managers, to your superiors, please follow the correct rule, spell it out. Okay, the

next one is 8 O’clock. Now supposing I’m confirming a meeting with you, okay, via email

and I say okay, let’s meet tomorrow at 8 O’clock at your office, when you have O’clock,

right, the whole number, so 8 O’clock, of course you don’t say 8:30 O’clock, but

when you have 8 O’clock, 9 O’clock again you need to spell out so this is incorrect,

you always say or you always write, eight O’clock, okay friends? Remember this or

probably, four O’clock. Fine, so remember this when you have O’clock, you do not use

numerical form, you spell out the number eight O’clock, four O’clock, three O’clock

or whatever time you are mentioning with O’clock, okay? So these are the basic rules you follow

and you need to spell out the numbers. Okay so when you have a number less than ten. When

you begin a sentence with a number, spell it out. When you are writing an official document

or an email, for example like this, do spell it out and well when you have O’clock, you

spell it out eight O’clock, Nine O’clock, etc. Okay? So these are the basic rules you

follow, I mean when to spell numbers out. Now let’s look at when do we write numbers,

okay? So first if you see my example here, players 10, 15 and 45. Now example, say there

is a match going on and the players in jerseys have numbers okay they are called nomining

numbers because they are identity. So I have a T-shirt, a jersey which says 10 it just

has 10 that means my identity is I’m player 10. So in such times you have players with

the numbers I a numerical form. You do not say player ten, no. Because this becomes their

identity, so you can write 10, the numerical form. Well another example is, you are sending

out your official address to someone, in an email and you have your zip code mentioned

there, so obviously in a zip code you have a numerical form of the number, you do not

spell out, so you, for example you say 423052, that’s your zip code, so you are going write

it in the numeric form and not spell it out for a zip code. Okay, well the next one is

25%, 2/3, 5 & ½. So this means for fractions and percentage you can write the whole, the

numerical form. Well friends just a small advice, if you are sending an email it is

always nice to spell out percentage, if you don’t it’s all right, but like I said

it is a more formal way spell out percentage. So you have 2/3 you have 5 & ½. So you have

to write, two hyphen third, you can write it in a numeric form, 5 & ½ you can write

it in a numeric form. So when you have percent and fractions, please go ahead and use a numerical

forms. Well the next one is 5 feet, 10 inches. Well you can also write this as 5’ 10”,

okay? I’ve just spelled it out but you can write 5’ 10”. So this means for measurements,

okay? So when you measurements, you can go ahead and write the numerical form and say

for example in a recipe if I want to say take 2 cups of sugar or take 1 table spoon of oil,

you can use the numerical form when you are talking about recipe in terms of measurements.

Okay, well the next one I have something time related here, so have 8 AM, 4 PM. Now when

you have AM & PM you need not spell out the number, use a numerical form, unless you are

using O’clock, then you will spell out eight O’clock, like we just learnt here. But if

you have AM & PM, you don’t spell out the time, you use the numerical form. Okay, so

remember this. Well the next one is, ‘the club raised $100 for charity’. Now we did

learn that when you are writing formally it is always better to spell it out, but you

know you often see this in newspapers, internet, magazine, tabloids… when they have the heading

or they have an article and they want to highlight or they want to bring out a particular figure

or a number, they always use the numerical form for two reasons (1) is you save space

and (2) it is easy for the readers to scan the information they need or to pick on to

figures quickly and that is when magazines, newspapers, tabloids, internet articles always

prefer using the numerical form to save number and to make it or to highlight easily or to

make it easier for the readers to scan the information or the figures that they need,

okay friends? So these are the few times when you use numbers in the numerical form so a

quick recap, when you have players because their identity, nominal numbers, they could

be zip codes, they could be cell phone numbers. Next a percent, fractions you use the numerical

form, you have for measurements 5’ 10”, 2 cups, 3 KGs, okay? You have AM, PM. So remember

when you are talking, or when you are writing time in an email and if you want to use AM

& PM, you will write the numerical number for the time. And the last one is well newspapers,

internet, articles and magazines for their headlines and articles they prefer using the

numerical form of the number because it saves space and it is easier for people for scan

out the information or know exact figure what you are talking about, right? So well, this

is how we use numbers in writing, spelling them out and writing them in a numerical form.

Well this brings me to the end of this lesson, I hope you enjoyed watching it, go ahead and

use your numbers in written English correctly, I’ll be back soon with a new lesson till