Quoting conversation
When you write down a conversation, you normally begin a new paragraph for each new speaker.
Quotation marks enclose the words spoken:
► 'You're sure of this?'J asked. He nodded grimly.
'I'm certain.'
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 all I know.'
► 'Why?'askedNick.
When hesaid or said Nick follows the words spoken, the comma is placed inside the quotation marks, as in the first example above. If, however, the writer 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 longasIUve."Tlm.t's what you said, isn't it?'
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Numbers
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Writing and saying numbers
Numbers over 20
■ are written with a hyphen: 35 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) 45pence $79.30 seventy-nine dollars (and) Wwo
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 thousand five hundred
[also informal, especially in NAmE)
twenty-five hundred
■ These informal forms are mos t common for whole hundreds between 1200 and 1900.
■ A comma or (in BrE) a space is often used to divide targe numbers into groups of 3 figures:
33,423 or 33423 (thirty three thousand four hundred and twenty three) * 2,768,941 0X 2 768 941 (two million seven hundred and sixty-eight thousand nine h undred andfortyone)
A or one?
130
1000000
a/one hundred and thirty a/one million
i one is more formal and more precise and can be used for emphasis:
► The total cost was one hundred and sixty threepounds exactly.
► Itcostabouta hundredand fiftyquid.
I a can only be used at the beginning of a number:
1000 a/one thousand 2100 two thousand one hundred civo thousand a hundred
i a is not usually used between 1100 and 1999:
1099 a/one thousand andninety-nine
1100 one thousand one hundred
1340 one thousand three hundred andforty a thousand three hundred and fort)'
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Ordinal numbers
1st , first 2nd second 3rd third
4th fourth
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5th 9th 12th
21st
fifth
ninth
twelfth
twenty-first
etc.
Fractions
M>     a/one half ' 'A    a/one third
'A a/onequarter(NAmEalso a/one fourth) (for emphasis use one instead of a)
Viz one twelfth -
Vis one sixteenth
% two thirds
Vt three quarters {NAmE also three fourths)
9/io ninetenths
More complex fractions
■ use over:
19/ss nineteen overfifty-six 3Vit4 thirty-one over one four four
Whole numbers and fractions
■ link with and:
2¥i two and a half 5% five and two thirds m one plus a fraction is followed by aplural noun: l'/apts one and a half pints
Fractions/percentages and noun phrases
■ use of:
► a fifth of the women questioned
► three quarters of the population
► 75% of the population
* with ha If 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:
► Howmuchishalfapintofmilk?
► Ittakes me half an 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:
► Fifty per cent of the land is cultivated.
► Half (of) the landis cultivated.