Numbers cannot be put in the first place

You've changed (past tense) "108 steps... (Unnecessary space after first quote mark), but the words should read "A [or One] Hundred And Eight Steps..."

Americans often write "One Hundred Eight" but I prefer the British English style.

You are correct that it is convention not to start a sentence or a title with a cipher, but rather to spell out the words of the number. Don't use "one hundred and eight"--this is not the German language.

The use of "and" thus: "a hundred and eight" is standard British English usage, Setanta. [rolls eyes] One uses the "and" for quantities greater than a hundred.

Thus:

55 = fifty-five
105 = A hundred and five
1005 or 1,005 = A thousand and five
1000005 or 1,000,005 = A million and five

Thank you

I've always heard that the word "and" implies a fraction. Twenty six and two thirds. A whole number should be written without an and. One thousand, two hundred twenty six.

Engineer, what you have "always heard" is, the (US) American way of expressing numbers in words. Canadians* and those using British English (Mainly used in Great Britain, Australia, South Africa, India and the rest of the British Commonwealth) use the word "and" as I have indicated.

*Source: "Canadian Style", Dundurn Press Limited in co-operation with Public Works and Government Services, 1998, Edition 2



(This is standard British English usage as well, although sometimes commas are inserted after powers of ten greater than one hundred e.g. "million", "thousand" etc.


Engineer and Setanta, you should beware of making sweeping statements that such-and-such a thing is worldwide standard English usage based on "what you have heard", or what you may, no doubt, sincerely believe to be the truth, without doing a little checking first! This is especially important when purporting to give definitive advice to non-native English learners seeking advice.

Does anyone NOT say "A Hundred AND One Dalmatians"?

Clearly, Setanta and Engineer don't, if they are consistent.

No one fights Walt Disney and wins.

Hey clown . . . i made no sweeping statement concerning world-wide English usage. I simply pointed out that this is not the German language. I view the dull-witted use of such peasant speech as to say "one hundred and eight" as a reflection on those who unthinkingly perpetrate such nonsense. Get over it.

By the way, Contrex, as it seems that you wish to perpetrate an argumentum ad numerum fallacy by listing all the nations for which English is the official language and implying that this trumps the usage in the American langauge, allow me to riposte with my own ad numerum dodge. There are more than 300,000,000 of us. How many of "you" are there? Does the total combined population of the rest of the nations which have English as their official language exceed 300,000,000? I rather doubt it.

I have not ever claimed to be able to make sweeping statements on usage which apply to all of the English-speaking world. In fact, i am usually careful to point out that i speak only of the usage in the American language.

Advice of this board is worth what you pay for it, but I think you are incorrect regardless of country. I don't say "sixty and seven". Nor do I say "one hundred and five and twenty cents" or "one hundred and five and two fifths." If the original poster wants to have a simple rule that is sufficient in all English speaking countries, leave out the "and" unless you are referring to something to the right of the decimal.

Not that it addresses this issue, but here are some number writing guidelines: http://www.ehow.com/how_2089051_use-numbers-correctly-writing.html

Prick.

Setanta's objection was to the capitalization of "and", if I understood his post correctly.

Well, I was just following OristarA's correctly capitalised example of a title.

Does it not occur to you that you take yourself entirely too seriously?

Makes no sense to reinforce failure, though. My question however is: why not start with a number? Several books do, especially the type "101 Ways to...". I certainly know of no prohibition concerning it, and, for what it's worth, I'm much more likely to look at a book whose title starts with a number or contains one than a book with only words.

The title is "101 Dalmatians". I also say it the way you wrote it, but we don't speak the same way we write.

I don't think anyone here claimed there is a prohibition, simply that it's convention.