Numbers with hundred's and thousand's

Sho   Fri Feb 24, 2006 4:09 pm GMT
Hi people, I've got problems with numbers with "hundred's" and "thousand's" in English.

I know 15,000 is "fifteen thousand", so how do you say 1,500? Do you say "one thousand five hundred" or "fifteen hundred"?
I learned the former at school but the latter seems more common.

Is there any rules as to these numbers?

Thanks in advance.
Lazar   Fri Feb 24, 2006 4:13 pm GMT
<<I know 15,000 is "fifteen thousand", so how do you say 1,500? Do you say "one thousand five hundred" or "fifteen hundred"?>>

"One thousand five hundred" is the "official", formal version. "Fifteen hundred" is the informal version, which I think would be the more commonly heard form in casual conversation.
Jim   Fri Feb 24, 2006 4:31 pm GMT
Yeah, along those lines. Use whichever you like ... that's the best rule I could give you. "Fifteen hundred" is a damn sight less of a mouthful. Why not unless you be speaking to Her Majesty ... and then even still.
Geoff_One   Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:42 am GMT
"hundreds and thousands"

Also the name of very very small lollies that you sprinkle
over ice cream and cake.
Geoff_One   Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:45 am GMT
"hundreds and thousands"

Also sprinkled on sliced white bread.
Jim   Mon Feb 27, 2006 1:32 am GMT
fairy bread
Jim   Mon Feb 27, 2006 2:33 am GMT
fairy tales
Paul   Wed Mar 01, 2006 8:00 pm GMT
"fifteen hundred" is considered correct and can be used in virtually all situations.

Any number from 1000 to 9999 can start with "XX-hundred", with the exceptions of the ones that have a zero in the hundreds column.

ie: 10XX, 20XX, 30XX, etc. should always be one-thousand-XX, two-thousand-XX and three-thousand-XX; never ten-hundred-XX, twenty hundred-XX and thirty-hundred-XX.

Numbers that fall into the above categore, such as "3025" or "5082", can sometimes be referred to as "thirty-twenty-five" or "fifty-eighty-two" , but this is only acceptable when referring to addresses and dates

ie: "I live at thirty-twenty five Clarence Street" is acceptable. "The television costs thirty-twenty-five dollars" is not accepted.

Dates are a slightly different story. Before the year 2000, dates were almost exclusively referred to the same way addresses were - "1981" is "nineteen-eighty-one" "1642" was "sixteen-forty-two" This was mostly because saying dates like this is much less of a mouthful than saying the number mathematicly.

After the year 2000, things changed a bit. Most people seem to say years from the current decade as "two-thousand and one" "two-thousand-six" instead of "twenty-o-one" and "twenty-o-six" Saying these dates either way has the same number of syllables, so it doesn't save any time using either one. When 2010 rolls around, common usage may change to "twenty-ten" "twenty-thirty five". This still only saves you from saying one lousy syllable though. I guess we won't really find out what people will adopt until after 2010.

Although it's likely we'll all be long dead by then, after 2100, I expect people will go back to saying "twenty-one-fifteen" and such.