Approximate numbers
When the exact value isn’t necessarily precise or accurate, you can write the number using words:
I’d say he’d drunk about half a jug of beer before he passed out.
Some say that the Persian army had one hundred times as many men as the Greeks.
In both these sentences, the quantity isn’t exact - it’s an approximate or estimated figure.
This also applies to approximate larger numbers, such as the number of people attending a soccer game or living in a country.
Australia has a population of about twenty million people.
The final attracted a crowd of almost eighty thousand eager fans.
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Use numbers for... |
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Money |
The Porsche I want costs $285,000. |
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Time to the minute |
The lunch will start at 12.30 pm today. |
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Addresses |
My teacher used to live at 12 Anzac Avenue. |
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Betting odds |
Diva is at 10 to 1 odds. |
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Dates |
My ten-year reunion will be on 17 April, 2008. |
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Scores |
Manchester United won; the final score was 5 nil. |
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