Grammar Police: Numbers

Using numbers in your writing isn’t as hard as you may thing…and there is actually a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to writing with numbers. Let’s go over some basic rules, though:

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• Spell out numbers less than 10.
• Use digits for numbers over nine.
• Be consistent if there are two or more numbers in a sentence and one is over ten.
• Spell out fractions like one-half, using a hyphens.
• Use digits for decimals like 0.19. Add a zero to the front unless the decimal starts with a zero.
• Spell out large round numbers like one million or seven thousand.
• Spell out the number if it starts the sentence. Twenty-three would otherwise be written in digits.

You have a little wiggle room here and there, depending on what you’re writing. For example, many writers use digits in their titles instead of spelling out the word in order to keep the title shorter and more attention-grabbing.

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