In American English a period ( . ) is used as a decimal separator, but there are other places in the world where a comma ( , ) is used.
I would read a quantity of 7.5 as “seven point five” written as-is. But if you use a pause and not a point how do you read the number aloud?
Sieben Komma Fünf. That easy.
In polish you can say: seven comma five, seven and a half, or seven and five tenths, or if you need more precision (for 7,55 for example) there is seven and fifty five hundredths and so on.
7,5 is read in Finnish as “seitsemän pilkku viisi”. 7.5 would be read as “seitsemän piste viisi”.
The rule is that if it’s in decimal system, you use comma; if in any other system, you use dot. And you read what you write.
Seven comma five.
It sounds normal when it’s not translated to English.
Same in Dutch.
Yeah, I hear the Spanish say: “Siete coma cinco”
You say “comma” instead of “point”.
I wonder if the world will ever standardise to one or the other?
The . for decimal separator is used in English, as well as China and India but apparently that is only 35-40% of the global population. The , is used for 60-65%. Although the figures may not be accurate as a lot of countries seem to use both, with . used for international business, and internationally published science tends to be published in English?
Probably never be standardised as it’s probably too difficult to switch now? 1,000,000.00 and 1.000.000,00 are clear because of the use of three 0s for thousands etc, and two 0s for decimals. But 1.001 and 1,001 are much more ambiguous and would definitely need context as to which system is being used - is it 1 thousand and 1 or 1 and one thousandth?
Add another 1.6% with mexico using . as decimal separator.
Separator Estimated Population % Primary Regions Decimal Point (.) ~70–75% China, India, USA, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, Japan, UK, Australia. Decimal Comma (,) ~20–25% Most of the EU (Germany, France, Italy, Spain), Russia, Brazil, Vietnam, Turkey, and much of South America. Other / Arabic (٫) ~5% Middle Eastern countries (Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia) using the Momayyez.
“Sju komma fem”
Sofiero original guld
Over here we would say 7 whole 5. As in 7 is the “whole” number and the 5 is a fraction of the next one.
Or at least that’s my interpretation of how we say it :D
What language?
It’s like that in both Czech and Slovak.
A point is a pause, too, yet you say “point” out loud when reading a decimal number.
In french I always heard them say virgule ie: 106,9 = cent six virgule neuf, in english 106.9 = one oh six point nine
What does “virgule” mean?
comma
In French. In English a virgule is a forward slash.
TIL
This thread is about other languages use of commas and since I am familiar with french (Canadian) that is what I spoke on
Yeah, I don’t think that’s common knowledge. I never knew it was called that until I got into my profession. And I think it’s only called that there because it’s been around since before “forward slash” entered the vernacular.
There are probably some similar circumstances, but almost everyone calls it “forward slash.”
Specifying American English is unnecessarily specific. The other Englishes do it too.
Why do you ask this? Is it that inconceivable that people could just say “comma” in their languages like you say “point” in English? Or were you hoping it’s a weird word? Like seven thlumpf five?
Maybe they wanted actual confirmation from people with experience with those languages, rather than just making an assumption
That is a valid point. As the question has been answered already, I was just wondering what prompted it.
*a valid comma
FTFY
