Quoting conversation
When you write down a conversation, you normally begin a new paragraph foreach new speaker.
Quotation marks enclose the words spoken: >■ 'You're sure of this?'J asked.
He nodded grimly.
Tmcertain.'
Verbs used to indicate direct speech, for example he said, she complained, are separated by commas from the words spoken, unless a question mark or an exclamation mark is used:
► 'That's all I know,'said Nick.
► Nicksaid, 'That's ail I know.'
► 'l«iy?'asS:(?d"iV!'ck.
When he said or said Nick follows the words spoken, the comma is placed inside the quotation marks, as in the first example above. If, however, the wri ter puts the words said Nick within the actual words Nick speaks, the comma is outside the quotation marks: * 'That', said Nick, 'is all I know.'
Double quotation marks are used to indicate direct speech being quoted by somebody else within direct speech:
► 'Butyou saidyou loved me! "I'll never leave, you, Sue, as long as I live" That's what you said, isn't it?'
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I
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in umbers
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Writing and saying numbers
Numbers over 20
• ■
■ are written with a hyphen: 3S thirty-five
67 sixty-seven
■ When writing a cheque we often use words for the pounds or dollars and figures for the pence or cents:
£22.45 twenty-two pounds (and) 45 pence $79.30 sevenry-m'ne dollars (and) Wioo
Numbers over 100
329 three hundred and twenty nine
■ The and is pronounced /n/ and the stress is on the final number.
■ In American English the and is sometimes left out.
■
Numbers over 1000
1100 one thousand one hundred
[also informal) eleven hundred 2500 two thousandfive hundred
(also informal, especially in NAmE)
twenty-five hundred
■ These informal forms are most common for whole hundreds between 1100 and 1900.
i A comma or (in BrE) a space is often used to divide large numbers into groups of 3 figures:
► 33,423 or 33 423 (thirty three thousand four hundred and twenty three)
► 2,763,941 ot 2 768 941 (two million seven hundred and sixty-eight thousand nine hundred andforty-one)
■ 1
A or one?
130 a/one hundred and thirty
1000000     a/one million
■ one is more formal and more precise and can be used for emphasis:
► The total costwas one hundred and sixty threepounds exactly.
*■ Itcostaboutahundredandfiftyquid. m a can only be used at the beginning ofa number:
1000 a/one thousand
2100 two thousand one hundred
two thousand a hundred a is not usually used between 1100 and 1999:
1099 a/one thousand and ninety-nine ,,•
1100 one thousand one hundred 1340 one thousand three hundred and forty
a thousand three hundred and forty
....      .   , . . ,. .
■ ■   • .
Ordinal numbers
1st  . first 5th" fifth
2nd   second 9th ninth
3rd    third 12th twelfth
4th   fourth 21st twenty-first
etc.
Fractions
'A a/one half '
'A a/one third
Vi a/one quarter (NAmE also a/one fourth) (for emphasis use one instead ofa)
Viz onerwe//th.
Vi6 one sixteenth
% two thirds
'■'A three quarters [NAmE also three fourths)
9/io nine tenths
More complex fractions
■ use over:
<%e nineteen over fifty-six 3Vitt thirty-one over one four four
Whole numbers and fractions
■ link with and:
2Vi two and a half 5% five and two thirds m one plus a fraction is followed by a plural noun: VApls one and a half pints
Fractions/percentages and noun phrases
■ use of:
► a fifth of the women questioned * three quarters of the population f 75% of the population
m with half do not use a, and of can sometimes be omitted:
► Half (of) the work is already finished.
■ do not use of in expressions of measurement or quantity:
► How muchis half a pint of milk?
► It takes mehalfan hour by bus.
■ use of before pronouns:
We can't start-only half of us are here.
Fractions/percentages and verbs
■ If a fraction/percentage is used with an uncountable or a singular noun the verb is generally singular:
y Fifty per cent of the land is cultiva ted.
► Half(of) theland is cultivated.