# Reading decimal numbers



## Encolpius

Hello, I wonder how less common languages read decimal numbers. 
Do you use any special way like all Slavic languages and Hungarian or you just follow the English way (three point six...)Thanks

*English: *
3.25   three and twenty-five hundredth / or the more common 3 *point *25 [point and its counterpart is used in Romance and Germanic languages]
3.5     three and five tenth / 3 point 5

While in Hungarian and in Slavic languages word "whole" is used after the integer part: 

*Hungarian: *
3,25   három *egész *huszonöt század [3 *whole *25 hundredth]

*Czech*: 
3,25   tři *celé *dvacetpět setin [3 *wholes *25 hundredth]

Thanks


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## Rallino

*Turkish:
*3,25= üç tam yüzde yirmi beş [3 whole 25 in 100] / üç virgül yirmi beş [3 comma 25]


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## apmoy70

Hi Encolpius (long time no see)

In Greek: 

3,25 *«τρία και εικοσιπέντε εκατοστά»* ['tri.a ce ikosi'pende ekato'sta] -->  lit. _three and twenty five hundredths_*
or
*«τρία κόμμα εικοσιπέντε»* ['tri.a 'koma ikosi'pende] --> lit. _three comma twenty five_**

3,5 *«τρία και πέντε δέκατα»* ['tri.a ce 'pende 'ðekata] --> lit. _three and five tenths_*
or 
*«τρία κόμμα πέντε* ['tri.a 'koma 'pende] --> lit. _three comma five_**
or
*«τρεισήμισι* [tri'simisi] (masc. & fem.) - *«τριάμισι»* [tri'amisi] (neut.) --> lit. _three-half_*** 

* More formal and scientific
** Informal speech/vernacular language
*** Most popular colloquialism

Please note that 
 (i) we use decimal comma and not point, which is formally called *«υποδιαστολή»* [ipoði.asto'li] (fem. noun) < Hellenistic Gr. *«ὑποδιαστολὴ» hŭpŏdĭăstŏlḕ* (fem.) --> _mark to divide words from one another_
 (ii) it's tenths / hundredths - plural and not singular.


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## DearPrudence

In French:

*3,25 = trois virgule ving-cinq* (literally: _three comma twenty-five_)
*3,5 = trois virgule cinq* (literally: _three comma five_) or *trois et demi* (literally: _three and half_)


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## Encolpius

Rallino said:


> *Turkish:
> *3,25= üç tam yüzde yirmi beş [3 whole 25 in 100] / üç virgül yirmi beş [3 comma 25]



Wow, that's fantastic...I wonder how about Arabic or Persian, now...


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## learnerr

Russian: generally, in two ways.
1. Восемь целых двадцать пять сотых ("eight integers twenty five hundredths")
2. Восемь двадцать пять ("eight twenty five"); 8,06 = "восемь ноль-шесть" ("eight zero-six")
3. Восемь с четвертью ("eight with a quarter")
The first one is seldom used colloquially. The second is never written. With special numbers, like this one, other ways happen to be possible, like the third one of the listed for the example number, but never the words for "comma" or "dot" appear in the name.


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## ahmedcowon

In Arabic, we also use comma not point:
٣,٢٥ = /thalaatha *faasel* khamsa wa ʿishroun/ ثلاثة *فاصل* خمسة وعشرون _(three *comma* twenty-five)_
٦٫٠٠١ = /sitta *faasel* sifr sifr waaħed/ ستة *فاصل* صفر صفر واحد _(six *comma* zero zero one)_

Another way to say it but is only used with tenths not hundredths:
٣,٥ = /thalaatha wa khamsat aʿshaar/ *ثلاثة وخمسة أعشار* _(three and five tenths)_

In Egyptian Arabic, we say:
٣,٢٥ = /talata we khamsa we ʿishreen min miyya/ _(three and twenty-five from hundred)_
٦٫٠٠١ = /sitta we waħed min alf/ _(six and one from thousand)_


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## arielipi

In hebrew we use either comma or dot, but mostly dot is for numbers, weight while comma is for temperature.


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## ThomasK

Dutch: 3,25 - drie komma vijfentwintig (drie gehelen [wholes] is very uncommon, vijfentwintig honderdsten [hundredths] is not quite uncommon). OK ?


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## Codinome Shlomo

Portuguese: 3,25 -> *três e vinte e cinco* (lit.: three and twenty five) or *três e vinte e cinco centésimos* (lit.: three and twenty-five hundredths).
There is also: *três vírgula vinte e cinco *(lit.: three comma twenty five)


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## bibax

Encolpius said:


> *Czech*:
> 3,25   tři *celé *dvacetpět setin [3 *wholes *25 hundredths]


Addition:

The word *celé* is an adjective (fem. plur. nom. in Encolpius' example), it means 'whole, entire, unbroken'. It stands for _celá část_ (fem.) = whole/entire part (Lat. pars integra, also feminine, by sheer chance), the noun _část_ (= part) is usually omitted.

The entire expression is fully declinable, e.g. _se třemi *celými* [částmi] a dvacetipěti setinami_ = with 3 whole [parts] and 25 hundreths (all words after the preposition _se_ 'with' are in instrumental), in Latin (non-Classical, of course) it would be: _cum tribus integris [partibus] et viginti quinque centesimis [partibus]_.


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## Treaty

In Persian there are two trends:

1. For easily readable decimal digits we use the fraction reading:
3.25 or ۳/۲۵ = سه و بیست و پنج صدم _se o bīst-o panj sadom _ (three and twenty-five hundredth)
3.0025 or ۳/۰۰۲۵ = سه و بیست و پنج ده هزارم _se o bīst-o panj dah hezrom  _(three and twenty-five ten-thousandth)

2. Otherwise, we read the number after calling the delimiter:
3.25 or ۳/۲۵ سه ممیز بیست و پنج_ se momayyez bīst-o panj_ (three delimiter twenty five) or سه ممیز دو پنج _se momayyez do panj_ (three delimiter two five).

An exception is .5 which is normally called as half:
3.5 or ۳/۵ سه و نیم _se o nīm _ (three and half). 

Note that fore-slash is used for the decimal number in Persian. Instead, for division we use ÷ or simply the fraction horizontal line.


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## Encolpius

ThomasK said:


> Dutch: 3,25 - drie komma vijfentwintig (drie gehelen [wholes] is very uncommon...



Hello Thomas, you, too, must admit it is an interesting comment....another language which knows the word "whole" in that case...BUT...what do you mean by uncommon? Have you ever heard it or used it???


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## arielipi

Treaty said:


> In Persian there are two trends:
> 
> 1. For easily readable decimal digits we use the fraction reading:
> 3.25 or ۳/۲۵ = سه و بیست و پنج صدم _se o bīst-o panj sadom _ (three and twenty-five hundredth)
> 3.0025 or ۳/۰۰۲۵ = سه و بیست و پنج ده هزارم _se o bīst-o panj dah hezrom  _(three and twenty-five ten-thousandth)
> 
> 2. Otherwise, we read the number after calling the delimiter:
> 3.25 or ۳/۲۵ سه ممیز بیست و پنج_ se momayyez bīst-o panj_ (three delimiter twenty five) or سه ممیز دو پنج _se momayyez do panj_ (three delimiter two five).
> 
> An exception is .5 which is normally called as half:
> 3.5 or ۳/۵ سه و نیم _se o nīm _ (three and half).
> 
> Note that fore-slash is used for the decimal number in Persian. Instead, for division we use ÷ or simply the fraction horizontal line.



Same applies in hebrew where until around 20 we say e.g. 1/6/15 one and 6 fifteenth, we also say it on round 10's basis: 10, 100, 1000, etc.


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## OneStroke

In Chinese, 1.35 = 一點三五 一点三五, lit. 'one point three five'


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## ger4

Rallino said:


> *Turkish:
> *3,25= üç tam yüzde yirmi beş [3 whole 25 in 100] / üç virgül yirmi beş [3 comma 25]





DearPrudence said:


> In French:
> 
> *3,25 = trois virgule ving-cinq* (literally: _three comma twenty-five_)
> *3,5 = trois virgule cinq* (literally: _three comma five_) or *trois et demi* (literally: _three and half_)





ThomasK said:


> Dutch: 3,25 - drie komma vijfentwintig (drie gehelen [wholes] is very uncommon, vijfentwintig honderdsten [hundredths] is not quite uncommon). OK ?


German: 
3,25 - _drei Komma zwei fünf_ _[lit. three comma two five]_
3,5 - _drei Komma fünf_ _[lit. three comma five]_


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## 810senior

OneStroke said:


> In Chinese, 1.35 = 一點三五 一点三五, lit. 'one point three five'


Quite same as Japanese:

3.25 = san ten ni go(san=3, ten=point, ni=2, go=5, so it is, three point two five)
3.5 = san ten go(three point five)


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## marco_2

Encolpius said:


> Hello, I wonder how less common languages read decimal numbers.
> 
> *Czech*:
> 3,25   tři *celé *dvacetpět setin [3 *wholes *25 hundredth]



A Polish version is similar to the Czech one:

3,25 *- *a full expression: trzy *całe *_przecinek_ /_ i_ dwadzieścia pięć *setnych*

In everyday practice we say: _trzy i dwadzieścia pięć setnych_.


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## 810senior

I have a question about the languages reading the decimal numbers as if reading a fraction.
How do you read it when you come across big decimal numbers such as 3.596942 or 1.23039257? (I think you don't read it this way "one point ninety-eight thousand six hundred fifty-three hundred-thousandth[1.98653]")

In this case is it close to the way Japanese or Chinese does?


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## Encolpius

Interesting and useful question 810senior. 

*Hungarian *--- 3,1415926 (pi) [három egész egy négy egy öt kilenc kettő (not: két) hat; ie.: three whole one four one..etc]


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## bibax

810senior said:


> (I think you don't read it this way "one point ninety-eight thousand six hundred fifty-three hundred-thousandth[1.98653]")
> 
> In this case is it close to the way Japanese or Chinese does?


Czech: it depends on mental laziness.

1.98653

jedna celá [část] devadesát osm tisíc šestset padesát tři *stotisícin*;

one entire [part] ninety eight of-thousands six-of-hundreds fifty three *of-hundred-thousandths*;

NB: of-thousands means genitive plural;


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## apmoy70

bibax said:


> Czech: it depends on mental laziness.
> 
> 1.98653
> 
> jedna celá [část] devadesát osm tisíc šestset padesát tři *stotisícin*;
> 
> one entire [part] ninety eight of-thousands six-of-hundreds fifty three *of-hundred-thousandths*;
> 
> NB: of-thousands means genitive plural;


It Greek too depends on mental laziness:
1,98653 = *«ένα ακέραιος και ενενήντα οκτώ χιλιάδες εξακόσια πενήντα τρία εκατοστά του χιλιοστού»* [ˈena aˈceɾe.os ce eneˈninda oˈkto çiˈʎaðes ek͡saˈkosi.a peˈninda ˈtri.a ekatoˈsta tu çiʎoˈstu] --> _one whole and ninety-eight thousand six hundred and fifty-three hundredths of-thousand_
But informally I'd just say: *«ένα κόμμα ενενήντα οκτώ εξήντα πέντε τρία»* [ˈena ˈkoma eneˈninda oˈkto eˈk͡sinda ˈpende ˈtri.a] --> _one comma ninety-eight sixty-five three_


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## Armas

In Finnish

3,25 is said most often kolme pilkku kaksikymmentäviisi = three comma twenty-five, or kolme kaksikymmentäviisi = three twenty-five. The latter is common when talking about money.
As for 1,98653, at least I say each digit separately, one comma nine eight six five three.


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