British Abbreviations for 'Million', 'Billion', 'Trillion' in Written Text

[frogboxer]

British Abbreviations for Million, Billion, Trillion


Are these correct?


The government paid $100m for improvements.


It was a $100m a year industry.


It was a $100m per year industry.


a $100m to $150m per year industry


A $5bn investment was made early last year.


The government is in debt for $1tn.


a $1tn deficit

Thanks.

[Grumpy]

The British abbreviations for a million and a billion are as you have illustrated. I have never seen a trillion abbreviated, and the term itself is very seldom used, since most people would not know how many items make up a trillion.

[probus]

Here is a quotation from the style guide of The Economist, my favourite British publication:

Use m for million, but spell out billion,except in charts, where bn is permissible but not obligatory. Thus: 8m, £8m, 8 billion, €8 billion. A billion is a thousand million, a trillion a thousand billion, a quadrillion a thousand trillion.

Use 5,000-6,000, 5-6%, 5m-6m (not 5-6m) and 5 billion-6 billion. But sales rose from 5m to 6m (not 5m-6m); estimates ranged between 5m and 6m (not 5m-6m).

[Tdol]

Does anyone know whether astronomers abbreviate trillion? They may use the term more often.

[probus]

In my opinion astronomers, like all scientists, would resort to the mathematical notation of exponents. Instead of writing four trillion parsecs, an astronomer would use 4 x 10⁹ parsecs or 4 x 10⁶ kiloparsecs. Amazingly, perhaps, this occurs in speech as well as in writing. Not only have I often heard things like 4 x 10⁹ spoken as four by ten to the ninth or four times ten to the ninth, I've actually done it myself.

[5jj]

Not only have I often heard things like 4 x 10⁹ spoken as four by ten to the ninth or four times ten to the ninth, I've actually done it myself.

I do that when I try to calculate how many units of alcohol I have drunk in my life. ('trillion' sounds obscene). Unfortunately, few people appear to understand 'sshicksh by ten to the ner-ninsh'.