one-and-a-third homes

Status
Not open for further replies.

beeja

Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Thai
Home Country
Thailand
Current Location
Thailand
Hello,

What does it mean when a real estate agent said he sold one-and-a-third homes his first year and made a couple of thousand dollars. I did not understand how someone could sell 1 and 1/3 houses. Please help.

Thank you,

Beeja
 

Rover_KE

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
Neither do I. If that's all he sold and made in his first year he's in the wrong job.

Where did you read this?
 

Raymott

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Australia
Hello,

What does it mean when a real estate agent said he sold one-and-a-third homes his first year and made a couple of thousand dollars. I did not understand how someone could sell 1 and 1/3 houses. Please help.

Thank you,

Beeja
He sold one by himself, and one with two other salespeople. Or the three of them put equal effort in selling 4 homes.
 

beeja

Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Thai
Home Country
Thailand
Current Location
Thailand
The original reads "I sold one and a third homes". Why did you change it?

I didn't change it.That's what I saw in print. See attached photo I just found the similar content on the internet so I posted the link for your information. Next time I'd rather take a snapshot.

C360_2013-12-13-08-32-53-081~01_resized.jpg
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
In the first link you posted, the words were written as 'one and a third'. In the second. they were written as 'one-and-a-third'. I find the first of these natural, the second not.

You wrote '1 and 1/3', which is incorrect.
 

beeja

Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Thai
Home Country
Thailand
Current Location
Thailand
In the first link you posted, the words were written as 'one and a third'. In the second. they were written as 'one-and-a-third'. I find the first of these natural, the second not.

You wrote '1 and 1/3', which is incorrect.


How do you write one and a third in number? Is 1 1/3 correct but 1 and 1/3 not correct? I mean in general.
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic

beeja

Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Thai
Home Country
Thailand
Current Location
Thailand

SoothingDave

VIP Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
1-1/3 is the way to do it with standard characters.
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
To avoid confusion if you haven't got the symbols on your key board, the only safe thing, if decimals (1.333) are not appropriate, is to write the whole number in words - as was done in the two links you posted.
 

SoothingDave

VIP Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
To me, that means "from 1 to 1/3". The dash does not suggest "and" to me.

Yes, there is potential ambiguity. Two points:

1. You don't normally give a range of numbers from highest to lowest.
2. I've only seen it used in recipes. So it's clear that 2-1/4 cups of flour is 2.25 cups not something in the range of 2 to one quarter of a cup of flour.
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Yes, there is potential ambiguity. Two points:

1. You don't normally give a range of numbers from highest to lowest.
2. I've only seen it used in recipes. So it's clear that 2-1/4 cups of flour is 2.25 cups not something in the range of 2 to one quarter of a cup of flour.

True. We don't use cups in recipes in BrE, but in many of my recipe books, it gives both metric and imperial measurements and American cups. In the ones I just looked in, there is no dash. They read, for example:

2 1/2 cups of flour
1 1/4 cups of milk
 

Raymott

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Australia
1-1/3
That's a minus sign. That expression means 2/3. Another ambiguity.
 

beeja

Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Thai
Home Country
Thailand
Current Location
Thailand
To me, that means "from 1 to 1/3". The dash does not suggest "and" to me.

To me, it looks like an arithmetic problem. :)

And indeed, you rarely find 1-1/3 or something like that in the cookbooks or the online recipes.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top