number format

[David Bergdahl]

I remember being told in 4th grade some sixty years ago that, on checks, one
should write "one hundred and fifteen hundreths" for $100.15 and that to
write "one hundred and fifteen" meant the same, so that one should omit
"and" in writing numbers.  Or at least that's what my ancient teacher, Miss
Krum, told us.

On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 12:05 PM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: number format
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> what i said here back on 5/2/07:
>
> 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.
>
> but now i've spent 15 minutes looking through advice books of all
> sorts, without finding anyone who has an opinion on the matter.  ah!
> now i see that CMOS15 mentions "and" omission in passing, in
> connection with an entirely different issue (not beginning  sentences
> with a numeral).  p. 381 has the example sentence:
>
>   One hundred and ten candidates were accepted. (_And_ may be omitted.)
>
> let free variation reign!
>
> .....
>
> i still haven't found this "rule" in a reference book.  it seems to
> have survived as an oral tradition, passed on by (some) schoolteachers.
>
> arnold
>
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