# percent sign % - position



## snoopymanatee

Hello everyone,

I am curious about _*the position*_ of "*the percent sign*" and _*how it is read*_ in other languages.

In Turkish, we use the sign before the number and read it like that way:

*%*_50_ --> *yüzde *_elli_ (lit. *percent *_fifty_)

*%*_70_ --> *yüzde* _yetmiş_ (lit. *percent* _seventy_)

In English, it is used after the number and read like that way:

_50_*% *--> _fifty_ *percent*

_70_*%* --> _seventy_ *percent*

I wonder if it is used and read like in Turkish or English in other languages.

Thanks in advance.


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## Tamar

In Hebrew it's written and read like in English;

5% - חמישה אחוזים khamisha akhuzhim - five "percents" (here the word percent is pl.)
50%  -חמישים אחוז - khamishim akhuz - fifty percent (here the word percent is sg.)
70% - שבעים אחוז - shiv'im akhuz - seventy percent


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## snoopymanatee

Tamar said:


> In Hebrew it's written and read like in English;
> 
> 5% - חמישה אחוזים khamisha akhuzhim - five "percents" (here the word percent is pl.)
> 50%  -חמישים אחוז - khamishim akhuz - fifty percent (here the word percent is sg.)
> 70% - שבעים אחוז - shiv'im akhuz - seventy percent



Thank you, Tamar.

But I have to say that it sounds strange to me that 5 is plural, 50 is singular.


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## Tamar

It is strange, I really have no idea how come that is. 
I tried to say it as "five percent" and "fifty percents" but it sounds strange. 
You could maybe say "five percent" חמישה אחוז (my mother sitting next to me says it's fine, I think it's okay, but still a little strange). 
50% - only the way I said before, I'm afraid.


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## jazyk

In Portuguese the percent sign is placed immediately after the number and is read _por cento._


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## DearPrudence

In *French*, same as in English and Portuguese:
5*%* : cinq* pour cent*


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## apmoy70

In Greek we position it like they do in English, Hebrew, French, Portuguese etc.
5*% *: «Πέντε *τοις εκατό*» ('pende tis eka'to), lit. "five for _(pour-per)_ hundred".  
The «...τοις εκατό» part, is a set expression and an archaism, since it's in the dative case, which has not survived in the modern language («τοῖς», 'tœs: Dative, pl. neuter of the neuter definite article «τὸ»)


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## Kartof

In Bulgarian, the word for percent is *процент* (protsent) and it is positioned after the number.  However, when used with a number greater than one, the word changes from the singular to the counting form since it is masculine (and not the plural).

For example: 
1% : един процент (edin protsent)
5% : пет процента (pet protsenta)
50%: педесет процента (pedeset protsenta)


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## snoopymanatee

Thank you all. 

So far, it comes before the number only in Turkish.


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## mataripis

In PILIPINO it is read the same like in English. 10 %(ten percent) but in Tagalog "Percent"is read as"Bahagdan".Bahagdan is seldom used by PILIPINO. 100% is "isang daang bahagdan".


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## jazyk

> Thank you all.
> 
> So far, it comes before the number only in Turkish.


Also in Basque.


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## Rallino

snoopymanatee said:


> Thank you all.
> 
> So far, it comes before the number only in Turkish.



Hi, Snoopy. I, too, had reflected on this topic myself. What I think is, this also has to do with the expression used in said-language. For example, if we take a look at Kartof's contribution on Bulgarian (Post #8), they use the loan expression _protsent._ It doesn't have its meaning in Bulgarian ~ just a set phrase for the sign: *%*.

If, in Turkish, we had borrowed (or ever borrow) the English word *Persent*, or the French word *Pursan*, it wouldn't shock me to say: _elli* persent*; yetmiş beş *pursan*_. In fact it would sound much better than the other way around _(Persent elli  ; pursan yetmiş beş )_, even though it doesn't cope with the Turkish syntax.

For instance the Japanese word for 100 is _hyaku. _And it would be much more grammatical to read_ '75%'_ as: _Hyaku-de 75_. But they borrowed the expression "Percent", and consequently, they read it as: _75 paasento._

When it comes to the constructions such as '_X on Y _', I think we should look for the languages that have the syntax: *on-Y  X*, but not only that, also whether or not the language has borrowed the word_ percent_.

In this, I am curious to hear from Hungarian / Finnish / Estonian speakers as well.


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## Perseas

apmoy70 said:


> In Greek we position it like they do in English, Hebrew, French, Portuguese etc.
> 5*% *: «Πέντε *τοις εκατό*» ('pende tis eka'to), lit. "five for _(pour-per)_ hundred".
> )


Just to add that we often hear "...*τα εκατό*" instaed of "...*τοις εκατό*", as well .


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## jazyk

I usually see a number followed by the word százaléka (genitive of százalék, per cent, from száz, hundred) in Hungarian.


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## francisgranada

Hungarian

50 *%* - ötven *százalék *(fifty per cent)


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## Encolpius

Inteersting thing to learn you put it in front of the number. So you also say: °C 25?


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## Rallino

Encolpius said:


> Inteersting thing to learn you put it in front of the number. So you also say: °C 25?



No, we write 25°C, but we say the celsius first: _2__5 santigrat derece_. 
But this is completely different. It'sa 'unit', and there's no difference between saying _5 degrees_ or _5 apples_. "Percent" is a different story.


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## AutumnOwl

*Swedish:*
x,25% - x och _en kvarts procent_ (x and a quarter of a percent), sometimes you can hear _en kvarts procentenhet_ (a quarter of a percent unit), for example when talking about the interest of a loan
1% - _en procent_
15% - _femton procent_

Procent is always singular in Swedish.


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## inorez

In Basque, the sign goes before the number.

"Ehun" is 100 in Basque, "-(e)ko" is a genitive suffix. Combine the two and you get "ehuneko", meaning "percent".

For example: 5% (five percent) = %5 (ehuneko bost) [note: the number is not declined].


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## Encolpius

Now I am really interesting how it works in *Arabic*...


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## vianie

Hello to all,

In *Slovak*, there's a little thing making the difference of two lexical categories.

*8 °* - osem stupňov (eight degrees)
*8°*  - osemstupňový (adjectival form is written without the space)

*7 %* - sedem percent (seven percent)
*7%*  - sedempercentný (adj.)

Slovak is the only Slavic language using the Latin word for % and not the Germanised one (prozent, procent...)


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## Youngfun

In Italian it's placed after the number, and is read _per cento_.
5*%* - cinque *per cento*

In Chinese it's written after the number in maths symbols; but pronounced before, and written before in hanzi.
5*%* - *百分之*五- literally: 100 parts' 5. This is pronounced exactly the same as the fraction 5/100.

In Singaporean Chinese, they use the loanword *八仙* (in Mandarin ba1 xian1; in Hokkien dialect pronouced similar to the English _per cent_).
5*%* - 五*八仙*


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