The first one is correct as others have said, but the second one is not ambiguous enough to confuse anyone nor weird enough for anyone to bat an eye at, you’re fine with either.
I’d say the second one is more correct, it sounds so weird pronouncing the digits singularly
I’d say the second one is more correct
In this case, it’s not about what sounds good or personal opinion, there is a standard name for that number for a reason. If I go around calling 100 “one oh oh” or “tenty ten”, it’s clear what number I mean but I can’t honestly call it more correct, because there’s a standard English name for it.
To demonstrate a part of why it’s clearer that way, put these numbers in ascending numerical order: (e.g. 1, 2, 3, … )
- one point three
- one point twenty-nine
- one point thirty
- one point thirty-one
- one point three-thousand-and-fifty-two
Hopefully this clarifies that we’re not actually dealing with a “thirty-two” when we’re talking about 1.32 (edit: that said, when we’re talking about version numbers, e.g. Linux kernel 4.20, which is greater than Linux kernel 4.9, then we’d say “four point twenty”)
Usually one point three two
Decimals are usually spelt out a digit at a time. 3.14159 would be three point one four one five nine, not three point fourteen thousand one hundred and fifty nine. 37.32 would be thirty-seven point three two. If it’s not a decimal but something like a version string then you could say v3.14 is version three point fourteen, and three point one four might be confused with 3.1.4 even though you didn’t say the second point. IP addresses are a bit mixed; I’d say ten ten, but also one nine two dot one six eight.
I’d say one point thirty-two. As others noted, much depends on geography.
Personally, I say the “actual” number up to 3 or 4 decimal places, with a lot of the reason depending on the specific context. If I had to asses, I’d say I say the “whole” number in over 50% of cases for 3 digits, and in about 10% for 4 digits. Anything over 4 decimal places and I fall back to individual digits.
The first one
One point three two. To me, thirty two is an integer.
The only way you could use ‘thirty two’ correctly for that number would be ‘one and thirty two hundredths’ which would be pretty unusual.
Agree. For things like semantic versioning, in which “1.20.1” and “1.2.1” are two different things, you want to pronounce them “one point twenty point one” and “one point two point one”, respectively. But that is a bit of an outlier. File size should be pronounced “normally”, because “1.20” and “1.2” are the same value.
I disagree. I would personally find one point two zero point one to be more natural and easier to understand.
I disagree. I would personally find one point two zero point one to be more natural and easier to understand.
I disagree with that, because we’re dealing with a number and not a fraction. Linux kernel 4.20 is not equal to Linux kernel 4.2, we’re actually dealing with the integer 20 here. (yes, alphabetical sorting on a download server has lead me to download an outdated kernel version once)
Don’t you know that my head canon is universal canon? /s
You make a compelling point. I concede to your logic, but refuse to change my ways.
One and thirty two hundredths of a megabyte
Or
One megabyte three hundred twenty kilobytes
I grew up with science classes telling us always state the digits individually. One point three two.
Math class taught me to be precise I should always say “1 and 32 hundredths Megabytes”
I don’t think that’s any more precise, just more verbose (read: inefficient).
“about a meg” because it’s almost unthinkable anyone cares about 3 tenths of a meg much less 2 hundredths.
“about a meg” because it’s almost unthinkable anyone cares about 3 tenths of a meg much less 2 hundredths.
Tell me you never used floppy discs as a storage medium without telling me.
