Prealgebra for Two-Year Colleges/Appendix (procedures)/Reading Decimal Numbers

The word and is used only for the decimal point; And is also used to separate a whole number and a fraction. A comma is used at every third place, starting at the decimal point and moving left.[1][2] Frequently a comma or space is used at every third place moving to the right of the decimal point.

Additionally, no comma is used before and. Also, all decimals end in ths except unitary decimals that end in th.

Decimal numeral Reading thereof
2,697,787.84 two million, six hundred ninety-seven thousand, seven hundred eighty-seven and eighty-four hundredths
2,009 two thousand, nine
1,987 one thousand, nine hundred eighty-seven
0.684 six hundred eighty-four thousandths
17.04 seventeen and four hundredths
0.1 one tenth
4.3 four and three tenths
0.000,1 one ten-thousandth
5.000,008 five and eight millionths
0.000,73 seventy-three hundred-thousandths


References and notes edit

  1. Business Mathematics, 10th Edition. Authors are Charles D. Miller, Stanley A. Salzman, and Gary Clendenen. Published in 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 0-321-27782-1
  2. Any thorough English arithmetic text discusses the reading of decimal numerals.