I am anxious to know how to read this figure? Who can help.

I am not a English native speaker. Recently I encourter a problem which puzzled me a lot. When I listen to the tape, I found that the speakers read the figures in " 1 dollar=1.733 German marks
= 126.9 Japanese yen "
like this: 1.733 one German mark seventy-three point three
126.9 one hundred and twenty six point nine Japanese yen.

I really couldn't understand why the first figure can not be read one point seven hundred and thirty three, and why the word "point" comes to the position before the last 3?

If the second figure is 126.967, then how can it be read?

Who can tell me the reason, I will be very grateful.

I agree with Josh. I always pronounce digits individually after the decimal point. I certainly wouldn't understand "One German mark seventy-three point three" to mean "1.733 marks"... perhaps there is a mistake.

- Kef

$1.73 = one dollar and seventy-three cents
commonly shortened to "one dollar seventy-three"

Surely we would say
$1.73 = one dollar and seventy-three point three cents
could we get away with shortening it to "one dollar seventy-three point three"
bit of a stretch, perhaps but it kind of works

Nor would it be any worse if it were pounds and pence (i.e. newpence) we were talking about. Well, the Deutsche Mark was divided into 100 Pfennig so extend the pattern ... I reckon it seems strange because it's not as familiar. You might note the the yen was also divided into 100, 100 sen but they went out of use long ago.

Jim,

The hell? 1.73 would be pronounced by me in one of two ways:

one point seventy-three
one point seven three

I would pronounce 126.967 like so:

one hundred and twenty six point nine six seven

Thanks.

Jim,

Additionally, I would pronounce $1.73 like so:

one dollar and seventy-three cents

I'm not sure where you got the additional "point three."

<<I agree with Josh. I always pronounce digits individually after the decimal point.>>

If there are only two digits after the decimal point, I normally don't pronounce them individualy.

Example:

I recently took an SQM sky darkness reading near Denver NY (not to be confused with Denver CO), and got:

"21.61 mag/sq arc-sec".

I'd pronounce this as "Twenty-one point sixty-one magnitudes per square arc second".

1.73 is "one point seven three" but $1.73 is different, "one point seven three dollars" would sound quite odd in most contexts. 1.73 metres could go either way: "one point seven three metres" or "one metre and seventy-three point three centimetres".


The additional point three ... yeah, I forgot to type the extra three in (in a rush):

$1.733 = one dollar and seventy-three point three cents