2008

Lazar   Mon Aug 04, 2008 4:46 am GMT
I heard that prescriptivist rule from one of my teachers in elementary school, but it's complete nonsense. The stated justification (that "and" is reserved for decimals) is bogus, and it contravenes the way that most Americans (and English-speakers) speak.
George   Mon Aug 04, 2008 5:41 am GMT
Yeah, I agree. 'And' isn't used for decimals at all. Pi is three point one four one five dot dot dot.
Damian in Edinburgh   Mon Aug 04, 2008 6:40 am GMT
Again there are variations in this decimal point issue. Here in the UK the weather forecaster would say that the temperature reached 23.4C in Edinburgh yesterday (twenty three point four degrees).

On the Continent they are much more likely to say, for instance, that the temperature in Munich yesterday reached 27,8C (Sieben und zwanzig komma acht grad). Instead of the decimal point . they tend to use the comma , in most Continental countries. Down in Malaga (Spain for those who don't know) it hit a sifling 43,4C yesterday afternoon.

In the UK we would normally write the figure 26,732.41 as just that, but just across the Channel they would write 26.732,41 as just that. Life is never simple is it....
Damian in Edinburgh   Mon Aug 04, 2008 6:42 am GMT
stifling
Rick   Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:47 am GMT
<<<I heard that prescriptivist rule from one of my teachers in elementary school, but it's complete nonsense. The stated justification (that "and" is reserved for decimals) is bogus, and it contravenes the way that most Americans (and English-speakers) speak.>>

Who the heck uses "and" for decimals? it's "point" that's used for decimals.

By the way, what about for thousands? While I always "and" in hundreds like, for example, "256" being "two hundred and fifty-six", I'm more variable with thousands, 1068 can be either "one thousand and sixty-eight" or "one thousand sixty-eight".
Guest   Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:10 pm GMT
>> Prescriptivists usually tend to be more formal, for example, sentences ending in a preposition tend to be more informal. <<

>>who the heck uses "and" for decimals? it's "point" that's used for decimals. <<

Again, this is found in Elementary School Math Books.

>> and it contravenes the way that most Americans (and English-speakers) speak. <<

With that logic, they may as well give up on teaching the who-whom distinction anymore, then, because as far as I know, no living dialect makes that distinction.
George   Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:27 pm GMT
Wow, this has gone on much longer than I ever would have imagined. But we're a little confused at the moment...

We don't need to discuss decimals; everyone agrees on that. I think the first post on that just confused a decimal number with a fraction. But regarding these fractions, we all agree on saying 'and' after a whole number and before a fraction.

As for saying the whole number itself, British and (some of the time) some American speakers put an 'and' before the tens when reading a number; two hundred and fifty six. Other Americans don't.

Other more militant Americans claim some books and school boards believe the use of 'and' in the previous paragraph is a terrible idea, but they can't find a source, so they are probably just making it up in an effort to add authority to an arbitrary choice, so that you make the same one they did, although, you can bet they never even thought they were making a choice when they learnt how to speak.

Do we all agree? :)