Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Username

steal_this_email_address

Member Since

May 19, 2010

Total number of comments

1

Total number of votes received

2

Bio

Latest Comments

How do I write out .25% ?

  • May 19, 2010, 10:55pm

If you require the words themselves, as opposed to the numerals, I would be much more in favor of "point two five," than of "point twenty-five." From a stylistic perspective, it's more concise, and from a mathematical perspective, "point two five" sounds more correct. After all, .25 implies nothing like 25 because the 2 is in the tenths place, not the tens. Twenty-five just sounds wrong. Now, "twenty-five hundredths," while correct, should immediately be dismissed as too unwieldy in all but the most formal writing.