When to Put on a Spell: Numbers by Letters

Grammar and punctuation series

Photo by Bruno Martins on Unsplash

When to spell out numbers… and when not to…

It can be a bit confusing for those of us who write fiction and poetry. We get used to seeing the numerical in writing that is technical or instructive. (In those IKEA directions, five might be 5.) And often I see numerical choices in prose.

But in (most) story-telling, anything less than 101 is going to be spelled out: she was fifteen years old; he was eighty-nine.

Why?

Maybe because it drags into mind a miserable Saturday afternoon trying to understand those IKEA instructions? Or perhaps because numbers-as-numbers breaks the story flow of words. For my own self, even reading those ages above as words casts a different sense of age; maybe it’s something else for you, though. (Comment? Discuss!)

Possibly in your story, for some reason, you want to break the “rule” and use the numbers—as always, if you have a reason, go for it. Maybe the setting is a much more tech place, and you want to reflect that in any way you can.

Also, rounded off numbers, such as ‘hundreds’ and ‘thousands’ and such, are spelled. So: the five loaves and two fishes fed the five thousand people. You’re telling a story, not counting. (Or are you? How does this change the story?)

Also again: when a sentence begins with a number, spell it out.

Dates: For years, you can choose: Nineteen Sixty-four, or 1964. Again, go with the tone and spirit of the work you are creating. Often if a year is at the beginning of a sentence, it will be in numbers, thus: “1964 was the year the Beatles…” You might want to use the number to catch a reader’s eye.

Know that, if/when the work is published, the publisher will be adhering to their house style, so they might ask for some changes. Like so many rules, these are not hard and fast. But for the purposes of your work, determine was best suits the piece and keep a log of your choices (if working on a novel, I note such choices and keep it handy so that I can be consistent).