[General] Last year $6.35 billion worth of video- and computer games were sold at retail.

[beachboy]

https://www.newsweek.com/sims-family-values-142293

How do I read this number $6.35 billion?

 

[5jj]

six point three five billion dollars

 

[beachboy]

six point three five billion dollars

And how do I write out in full? Six billion, three hundred and fifty million dollars (6.350,000.000.00)?

 

[Rover_KE]

Yes, except that in writing, commas are used as separators in many countries.

I'd write 6,350,000,000 (without the final .00).

 

[Tarheel]

I would say:

six point thirty five billion

(American English)

 

[Tdol]

Yes, except that in writing, commas are used as separators in many countries.

I'd write 6,350,000,000 (without the final .00).

But whether using commas or points as separators, they should be used consistently.

 

[Rover_KE]

I used commas to separate the dollars; the dot before the zero cents is a decimal point.

 

[tzfujimino]

I agree. It was the OP's expression that wasn't consistent - I think Tdol's intention was to provide some additional comments.

 

[Glizdka]

Yes, except that in writing, commas are used as separators in many countries.

Interestingly enough, it's the UK (and former British colonies) that is the odd one out here. Most counties use a comma where the UK uses a period (full stop), in mathematics.

This has caused more problems for me than you'd expect. Especially when dealing with engineers and mathematicians from other countries who are oblivious to what other standards are, it always made me question what they meant and ask them to write it out in words when they sent me data as "1,234" because I wasn't sure if they meant a decimal separator or a digit group separator.



For the benefit of those who don't know what I'm talking about, the two most common decimal separators in the world are the period (.) and the comma (,).

---

π = 3,14159...
or
π = 3.14159...

---

The three most common digit group separators in the world are the space ( ), the period (.), and the comma (,).

---

One thousand = 1 000 I'm invisible lol,
or
One thousand = 1.000
or
One thousand = 1,000

---

The standard currently used in English speaking countries, most former British colonies, a few Asian counties, and the one you should use when using English is the period as the decimal separator and the comma as the digit group separator

---

Twelve thousand three hundred forty-five and sixty-seven hundredths = 12,345.67

---

 

[Tdol]

I used commas to separate the dollars; the dot before the zero cents is a decimal point.

I wasn't knocking you, I was just suggesting that whichever system people adopt for separating 000s, they do it consistently.

 

[Tdol]

Maybe scientists should declare their separators the way people do pronouns.

 

[Tdol]

Interestingly enough, it's the UK (and former British colonies)

You might want to go easy on calling the US a former British colony. We do it from time to time just to be annoying. And our PM gets a big bowl of nothing from his trip. :shock: