# decimal number



## Riveritos

Hello,
I have a confusion regarding the separation of decimal numbers in Arabic language. I've seen both decimal comma and decimal point on the internet and have not been able to find a rule about it.
I need to know how to write it in an ingredients list of a food product:
 (%3*.*5)   حليب مهدرت خفيف الدسم
 or 
(%3*,*5)   حليب مهدرت خفيف الدسم
Which one is correct?
Thanks in advance for your help.


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## Xence

Both are used, depending on countries.
In the Maghreb, it's rather (%3,5).


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## Mahaodeh

If you are using Arabic numerals (sometimes called Hindi), then it must be a comma for the decimal or else it might be confused with the zero. If it's Western numerals (sometimes called Arabic) then both may be used. I think that the comma is more common though.


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## Reddawg50

How do you read decimals in Arabic?

so for example in this thread, the %3.5 would be pronounced how? شكرا


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## kifaru

I have these math terms in my book. Maybe they will help.
decimal عشري Ash-ree
fraction كسر kasir
Percentage نسبه Nisbah
 20% عشرين بالمائة
    % بالمائة / في المائة


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## Egyptlover

reddawg50 said:


> how do you read decimals in arabic?
> 
> So for example in this thread, the %3.5 would be pronounced how? شكرا



أحياناً تنطق: ثلاثة و نصف بالمئة، وأحياناً: ثلاثة وخمسة من عشرة بالمئة، و أحياناً: ثلاثة فاصل خمسة بالمئة​
Hope that helps


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## clevermizo

I have a silly question that I've never actually known despite having studied Arabic for several years now (this is the problem with self-study. )

How do you read a number like 3.56 (3,56)? Not as in currency or percentages (like the above comments), but as in mathematics?

Do you read the decimal point as the word نقطة? Do you say something like ثلاثة نقطة ستة وخمسون or ثلاثة نقطة ستة خمسة . Something totally different? What about a number like 7.46365?

Or, "The number _pi_ to 5 digits is: 3.14159" 

إن رقم "ط" حتى خمس مرتبات عشرية هو ثلاثة و؟؟؟؟


Thanks all


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## إسكندراني

clevermizo said:


> How do you read a number like 3.56 (3,56)? Not as in currency or percentages (like the above comments), but as in mathematics?
> 
> Do you read the decimal point as the word نقطة? Do you say something like ثلاثة نقطة ستة وخمسون or ثلاثة نقطة ستة خمسة . Something totally different? What about a number like 7.46365?
> 
> Or, "The number _pi_ to 5 digits is: 3.14159"
> 
> إن رقم "ط" حتى خمس مرتبات عشرية هو ثلاثة و؟؟؟؟


1/ The *only* correct way to write decimals is with a comma, like Europe. Dots are for separating thousand/million/etc, or in the case of eastern numerals not used at all.
2/ We *never* say نقطة here; it's فاصل. Or ونصّ / وثلث / إلخ or  وكذا في المئة / في الألف / من عشرة.
3/ Regarding whether one must say the decimal figures individually (this is a rule in English; three point one four [not three point fourteen]) I'm not sure, but I don't think it's as strictly adhered to. تلاتة فاصل أربعتاشر sounds fine but that's dialect of course. ثلاثة فاصل أربعة عشر sounds fine. If one had to recite a long string of numbers usually they would do it in pairs, but if it was a decimal then it doesn't seem right to do that; rather you should say them individually.

So for your example I would say something like: ثابت الدائرة (ط) - حتى المرتبة الخامسة \ بخمس درجات من الدقة - ثلاثة فاصل واحد أربعة ...ـ
I wouldn't say this bit.

Try a youtube channel called AreebSchool


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## Silky_Sword

clevermizo said:


> I have a silly question that I've never actually known despite having studied Arabic for several years now (this is the problem with self-study. )



Interestingly I thought about writing about this right before I reached your question here, brother!  Definitely a smart question, because many Arabs don't know other way to say it but as نقطة!

I actually heard one of Aljazeera's correspondents in Palestine (Shirin Abu-3aqleh) once say it in what I'd call 'the Palestinian way'. She read it: ثلاثة *فارزة *خمسة وستين بالمئة, or something like that.

And I think my people there (Palestinians) write the decimal using the Arabic letter ر -which I find very clever


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## Mahaodeh

I don't recall I've ever heard anyone say نقطة - it's always فارزة or فاصلة (the latter less common).


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## إسكندراني

^I've never heard نقطة either; please could you direct us to an example SilkySword if you say it's common? (just give us the title of a youtube video or something)


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## cherine

It _*can't*_ be a نقطة because a point in an Arabic number would be read as a zero.
The way I know of for reading decimals is كذا وكذا من عشرة/من مئة . For example:
1, 4 is واحد وأربعة من عشرة
1, 15 واحد وخمس عشرة من مائة 
1, 145 واحد ومائة وخمسة وأربعين من ألف/الألف
(at least that's how we [used to?] do it in Egypt).

Using واحد فاصل خمسة عشر was new to me a few years ago. Apparently imported from other Arab countries.

Unfortunately, I can't help with the _pi_ example.


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## clevermizo

^Well, if you saw 7,44422, how would you read that instinctively? سبعة وأربعة وأربعين ألف وأربع مائة واثنين وعشرين من عشرة آلاف؟ The سبعة فاصل أربعة أربعة أربعة اثنين اثنين seems more reasonable when reciting quickly, but maybe that's just because I'm used to the way we do it in English. The other method you cite is convenient when you have short decimals. And obviously 1,5 can be read as واحد ونص and 1,25 as واحد وربع.


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## إسكندراني

^People almost never have to read anything beyond 3 decimal places (in any language).
And ١,٥ is read واحد وخمسة من عشرة or واحد فاصل خمسة just as much as واحد ونص.


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## clevermizo

^Yes of course, you're right. Even if I have a number like 7.38855 written on a page, and someone says "What's the answer to that problem" I'll probably say "About 7.3." تقريبا سبعة فاصل ثلاثة or سبعة وثلاثة من عشرة.

But it's good to know _how_ to do it, or how a native speaker would do it. Anyway, thanks to all for the suggestions!


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## إسكندراني

^You would be wrong of course; 7.38855~7.*4* 
By the way, I always thought the States used the comma as a decimal marker, but never mind!


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## Silky_Sword

اسكندراني:
Wouldn't be able to help you with a video example from Aljazeera. You'd have to look for a report from Occupied Palestine about results for some elections or an economic study. You have Aljazeera on YouTube, go search there and good luck 

But I think saying إثنين بالمئة وأربعة من عشرة is more common and almost what I always used to say, not إثنين فارزة أربعة من عشرة بالمئة. So stick to the first way, inshallah, bro.


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## clevermizo

إسكندراني said:


> You would be wrong of course; 7.38855~7.*4*



Not necessarily. It depends on whether you choose to round up or down and on your precision.  But actually I though I typed 7.338...

And we use the "period" here to mark decimals and we use the comma to mark thousands.


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## cherine

clevermizo said:


> Well, if you saw 7,44422, how would you read that instinctively? سبعة وأربعة وأربعين ألف وأربع مائة واثنين وعشرين من عشرة آلاف؟ The سبعة فاصل أربعة أربعة أربعة اثنين اثنين seems more reasonable when reciting quickly, but maybe that's just because I'm used to the way we do it in English. The other method you cite is convenient when you have short decimals. And obviously 1,5 can be read as واحد ونص and 1,25 as واحد وربع.


Yes, of course, this is why I didn't use 1,5 in my examples  I would never say واحد فاصل خمسة nor واحد وخمسة من عشرة but واحد ونص/نصف .
As for the long series of numbers, I think that most people would round the number  But if I have to read it all then of course I'll go for the فاصل كذا وكذا وكذا وكذا . 


Silky_Sword said:


> But I think saying إثنين بالمئة وأربعة من عشرة is more common and almost what I always used to say, not إثنين فارزة أربعة من عشرة بالمئة. So stick to the first way, inshallah, bro.


Just a quick note: in a percentage, the بالمائة should come at the end يعني: اثنين وأربعة من عشرة بالمائة.


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## clevermizo

cherine said:


> But if I have to read it all then of course I'll go for the فاصل كذا وكذا وكذا وكذا .



Thanks, this is exactly what I wanted to know.


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## Silky_Sword

cherine said:


> Just a quick note: in a percentage, the بالمائة should come at the end يعني: اثنين وأربعة من عشرة بالمائة.



True, but anything is possible in our dialects. Don't we sometimes when we talk put words like 'but' at the very end of the sentence? Like: هو مش هنا لكن ("but he's not here" becoming like in English: "he's not here though") or another example: مش عاوز تيجي معانا يعني؟ : you don't want to come with us, you mean (or) so, you don't want to come with us?

Arabic vernaculars follow no rigid grammatical rules. Like in that video about Egyptian way of speech: people talk بالإحساس now


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## إسكندراني

^I've never heard someone say بالمئة before finishing the number! Just because dialects are weird and flexible doesn't mean we can automatically do anything.

Nor, truthfully, have I ever noticed anyone say نقطة. I searched اقتصاد on aljazeera's youtube channel as you advised, but found no نقطة unfortunately. They round up most of the time seemingly. I know the rules don't allow a direct youtube link, but you cold always give the title of a video so I can find it.


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## Silky_Sword

A lot is possible in Arabic dialects, way more than any other language maybe -and I don't claim to know other than English & Arabic, but I can't imagine other languages able to coin a word like بزرميط (as Egyptians would say) or مشبرح (like the Lebanese would say, about meaningless speech) 

I didn't mention that نقطة is said. I mentioned فارزة. But I think a comma is used by us Arabs ثلاثة فاصلة خمسة من عشرة بالمئة, and we don't use a comma when usually with numbers in the thousands or more -and I'm not sure. Have lived in Canada for 17 years now, don't read any Eastern Arabic newspapers, and Aljazeera is now using Arabic numersals (12345..), no longer the eastern 'hindi' ones like we call them in the Arab East, so I don't know more than what I claim to know.

I referred you to reports from Palestinian correspondents, as the local Arabic there would use فارزة. That's when I suggested YouTube videos for Shirin Abu-3aqleh's reports.


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## kifaru

Surely someone here has studied math or engineering and can give us a definitive answer on the proper way to recite a number that goes to several decimal places.


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## إسكندراني

^I study engineering but not in Arabic unfortunately  I'll try to ask a  friend anyway. We're agreed so far that the usual way is ٣,١٤... or 3,14...
ثلاثة فاصل\فارزة واحد أربعة ...ـ
Be wary of numbers on the net; standard convention isn't followed online as much as in written work (EG All the eastern Arab world only uses eastern numerals in written works, and only the comma - but online they often use western numbers and the dot).

Edit: I've just remembered something:
In the context of the price of something, people in Egypt might say ١٢,٢٥ as إتناشر وخمسة وعشرين (though the usual way is وربع). So it is actually acceptable to say 'point twenty five' - and maybe even 'point one hundred and twenty-five', or at least it doesn't sound out of place in common speech.

I thought it might be useful for whoever was curious about this to watch reports about elections; for example in this video (youtube قرائة تحليلية في نتائج انتخابات المرحلة الثانية and find the upload by CBC) the presenter says decimal fractions as actual fractions كذا من مية في المية which is the usual way. Also it's not clear but the decimal marker is a comma, as is the norm.

It seems that chemists in Egypt say علامة
أربعة - علامة - خمسمية ستة وعشرين
٤,٥٢٦
Note how numbers after the decimal point are read as 'so many hundred/thousand/etc.' unlike in English (point five two six).


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## Illyuminator

[Moderator's Note: merged with a previous thread]
After coming across the phrase '12.8 ملايين' in a wikipedia article I realised that I have no idea how I would read this out loud.

_ithnaa ashr wa thamaniya a3shaar milayiin
_
is that somewhere close to right? Also, how does the grammar work with these? The number 12 would usually demand a singular noun in the accusative case, so why does the .8 make it plural? And would the same thing happen with .1, or point .19 for example?


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## barkoosh

Don't bother asking. I wrote two Arabic Academies about it years ago and none of them answered. Obviously there's no consensus, and everybody does what seems right to them.

It should logically be مليون/مليوناً, but I can't confirm.

You also won't find answers about how to spell the unit in scientific contexts such as:
0.15 متر - متراً
1.15 متر - متراً
2.15 متر - متراً - متران


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## Ali Ridho

Is this right?

with a 2.26 gram gold ring

بِخَاتَمٍ مِن ذَهَبٍ اثنَینِ وَسِتَّةٍ وَعِشرِینَ مِن مِائَةِ غَرَامٍ


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## cherine

خاتم من ذهب وزنه اثنين فاصل ستة وعشرين غرامًا أو: وزنه غرامان فاصل ستة وعشرين


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## Mahaodeh

Illyuminator said:


> The number 12 would usually demand a singular noun in the accusative case, so why does the .8 make it plural?


It doesn't, I would pronounce it as follows: إثنا عشر مليونا وثمانية أعشار أو اثنا عشر مليونا وثمانية أعشار المليون


Ali Ridho said:


> Is this right?
> 
> with a 2.26 gram gold ring
> 
> بِخَاتَمٍ مِن ذَهَبٍ اثنَینِ وَسِتَّةٍ وَعِشرِینَ مِن مِائَةِ غَرَامٍ



I would write it: بخاتم من ذهب زنة غرامين وستة وعشرين من مائة من الغرام


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## cherine

> I would write it: بخاتم من ذهب زنة غرامين وستة وعشرين من مائة من الغرام


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## Ali Ridho

cherine said:


> خاتم من ذهب وزنه اثنين فاصل ستة وعشرين غرامًا أو: وزنه غرامان فاصل ستة وعشرين



Is this right?
بِخَاتَمٍ مِنْ ذَهَبٍ وَزَنَهُ اثْنَينِ فَاصِلْ سِتَّةٍ وَعِشرِينَ غَرَامًا أو: وَزَنَهُ غَرَامَانِ فَاصِلْ سِتَّةٍ وَعِشرِينَ


Mahaodeh said:


> It doesn't, I would pronounce it as follows: إثنا عشر مليونا وثمانية أعشار أو اثنا عشر مليونا وثمانية أعشار المليون
> 
> I would write it: بخاتم من ذهب زنة غرامين وستة وعشرين من مائة من الغرام



Is this right?
بِخَاتَمٍ مِنْ ذَهَبٍ زِنَةٍ غَرَامَينِ وَسِتَّةٍ وَعِشرِينَ مِنْ مِائَةِ مِنَ الغَرَامِ


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## Sun-Shine

cherine said:


> خاتم من ذهب وزنه اثنين فاصل ستة وعشرين غرامًا أو: وزنه غرامان فاصل ستة وعشرين



Why did you say اثنين مجرورة in the first and غرامان مرفوعة in the second?

What's the إعراب of وزنه?


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## cherine

Ali Ridho said:


> Is this right?
> بِخَاتَمٍ مِنْ ذَهَبٍ وَزَنَهُ اثْنَينِ فَاصِلْ سِتَّةٍ وَعِشرِينَ غَرَامًا أو: وَزَنَهُ غَرَامَانِ فَاصِلْ سِتَّةٍ وَعِشرِينَ


بِخاتَمٍ مِن ذَهَبٍ وَزْنُهُ اثْنَانِ فاصِل سِتّة وعشرون غرامًا
وَزْنُهُ غرامان فاصل سِتَّة وعشرون
Honestly, I'm not 100% sure about the i3raab of this number, but I believe the nominative مرفوع is more correct. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable in grammar will correct my mistakes.



sun_shine 331995 said:


> Why did you say اثنين مجرورة in the first and غرامان مرفوعة in the second?
> 
> What's the إعراب of وزنه?


It's a typo, thanks for catching it. Unfortunately I'm not sure of the i3raab.


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## Sun-Shine

cherine said:


> بِخاتَمٍ مِن ذَهَبٍ وَزْنُهُ اثْنَانِ فاصِل سِتّة وعشرون غرامًا
> وَزْنُهُ غرامان فاصل سِتَّة وعشرون


I think it's سِتَّةٍ و عشرين


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## Ali Ridho

Thanks Cherine, Mahaodeh, Sun Shine


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## Ali Ridho

With a 5.3 gram gold ring

بِخَاتَمٍ مِنْ ذَهَبٍ وَزْنُهُ خَمسَةُ فَاصِلْ ثَلَاثَةُ غَرَامَاتِ

I don't understand about خَمسَةُ, does it have to be masculine or feminine?

Please, your answer....


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## Sun-Shine

خمسة feminine
I'm not sure about the vowels


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## Mahaodeh

Ali Ridho said:


> I don't understand about خَمسَةُ, does it have to be masculine or feminine?


This is a tricky one, because غرام is masculine and غرامات is feminine and because there is a separation between العدد والمعدود. Generally speaking, as it should be the opposite gender then it's خمس غرامات. Personally, I wouldn't say it that way (I don't like using فاصل), I would say: بخاتم من ذهب وزنه خمس غرامات وثلاثة أعشار. However, if you wanted to use فاصل then I wouldn't separate العدد والمعدود because they change gender as I mentioned before so I would go for: بخاتم من ذهب وزنه خمس غرامات فاصل ثلاثة (the three is feminine because for decimals you use the singular غرام).


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## Sun-Shine

Mahaodeh said:


> Generally speaking, as it should be the opposite gender then it's خمس غرامات.


But it depends on the singular not the plural
خمسة غرامات
The singular غرام is masculine isn't it?


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## Mahaodeh

sun_shine 331995 said:


> But it depends on the singular not the plural


Does it? I don't know.


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## Sun-Shine

Yes ,it depends on the singular of the word not the plural.


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## Sun-Shine

جاءت لذهني هذه الآية
"سَخَّرَهَا عَلَيْهِمْ سَبْعَ لَيَالٍ وَثَمَانِيَةَ أَيَّامٍ حُسُومًا"
The singular of ليال is ليلة feminine so it's سبع
while the singular of أيام is يوم masculine so it's ثمانية.


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## Ali Ridho

Thanks Sun Shine and Mahaodeh 

Good answers


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