Year names

[Baker, John]

        No, some of us actually were taught in grade school that "and"
was not to be used as part of the number proper, although it precedes
fractional quantities, as in "five thousand, six hundred ninety-nine and
forty-four one-hundredths."  I wondered about this for several years and
finally concluded, I believe when I was in high school, that it was not
a rule that need be followed.  By then, however, I had incorporated it
fully into my own usage.

        In writing checks, the concern is that "and," when hand-written,
could be altered to "thousand," so the better practice is to avoid it
altogether.  When writing a check, I would write, say, $2,006.79 as "Two
thousand six 79/100------------------Dollars," where the
"------------------" represents a line filling up any blank space on the
check before the printed word "Dollars."


John Baker
Former In-house Bank Lawyer



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Charles Doyle
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 8:46 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Year names

The "rule" (which I as well was taught) had to do ONLY with the writing
of checks--didn't it?

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 08:34:16 -0400
>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject: Re: Year names

>
>I had no idea that there was a rule concerning the use of "and' in
numbers.
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 5/2/07, James C Stalker <stalker at msu.edu> wrote:
>>
>> I was taught the same rule.  As I remember, "and" was to be used only

>> before cents, in phrases such as: one hundred thirty three dollars
>> and fifty two cents.
>>
>> JCS
>>
>>
>> Arnold M. Zwicky writes:
>>
>> > to pull out one small point, about "and" in number names (in
>> > general, not just in year names).  i recall being taught at some
>> > point in school that things like "one hundred and two", "two
>> > hundred and thirty", etc. were vulgar errors (in both speech and
>> > writing), that "and" should never be used in such expressions.
>> > (this might have been an instance of Omit Needless Words).  the
>> > lesson seems not to have stuck with me, since i sometimes use one
>> > version, sometimes the other.

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