What is the proper way to refer to an amount of currency in writing? Do you write “$100 dollars”, or just “$100”?
Obviously, when reading either one, you would say “one-hundred dollars”. And logically, I would think that the latter is correct: we don’t talk about the “100m meter dash”. However, every time I write a currency amount, I use the former. It feels correct, even though I don’t think it is.
“$100”, “US$100”, “100 dollars” and “100 US dollars” would all be correct. “$100 dollars” is not.
100.00 dollars is repetitive, because means dollars. Same goes with Euro. It’s €5, not €5 euro.
That is what the symbols are for- to eleminate the need to write out dollars.
If the number starts a sentence you should write it out, as in “One hundred dollars is a lot to pay for a shirt.” If it’s within the sentence, easily written out numbers can be spelled out, more complex ones may be written as numerals. If they are currency, then of course you put the appropriate symbol.
Examples:
“I bought this shirt for twenty dollars.”
“I bought this shirt for $20.”
“My grocery bill was $73.50, including tax.”
It would be redundant to write “I spent $100 dollars.”
How about “I got $100 dollars out of the ATM machine by using my PIN number?”
I’ve seen this: $1 million dollars. Is that not correct?
IMHO, no.
If you’re going to write the word, you leave off the $. FatBaldGuy was good enough to point out another common redundancy. It’s not PIN Number…just PIN.
No. It’s either $1 million or one million dollars (“one” spelled out per Chicago).
And it’s just ATM, not ATM machine.
The Associated Press stylebook agrees.
Just a note that the £ ISNT a unique symbol. Other countries, eg Egypt have a currency called the Pound and use the same symbol. It was also used in Italy for the Lire before they adopted the Euro. It’s really just an ornate letter L. (And with UK keyboards it’s just shift-3)
I don’t like $100 dollars. I like $100 or 100 dollars or a hundred dollars or one hundred dollars. (Of course, if you’re giving it to me, you can call it cow dung if you want, and I won’t mind.)
What about signs that say things like .50¢? Looks like they’re saying it costs half of a cent.
Don’t think that’s right either… not according to my algebra book. I think it’s fine to put 50 cents, 50¢, or .50 . By the way, why is it that the $ sign is placed before the number of dollars, and the ¢ sign is placed after the number of cents?
So you all are saying that one one hundred $100 dollar dollars is right out, then.
While I agree that “$1 million dollars” is incorrect usage, I’m not completely sold on the idea that PIN number is wrong. While it is technically redundant, the word “number” is not immediately evident from the acronym “PIN.” In fact, I would bet a big portion of English speakers don’t even know what the letters stand for. Therefore, I would argue, that it has transformed into its own syntactical unit, and is analyzed by English speakers as such. When I use a phrase like “PIN number,” “PIN” performs the role of an adjective and nobody in their right minds analyzes it as “personal identification number number.” Some people analyze “PIN” as a noun and use it in the technically correct way, as in “enter your PIN at the prompt.”
Personally, I simply have no problem with phrases like “PIN number” and “ATM machine.”
Since the code “USD” means “US Dollars”, I think “$100 USD” is redundant: I’d write it as “USD 100” or “100 USD” – and the same with “GBP 100” or “100 GBP”, leaving off the “£”.
That is what they are saying (though rarely what they intend to say).
This is a pet peeve of a friend of mine. When he sees a candy bar priced at .79¢, he’s apt to drop a penny on the counter and say “Keep the change.” (The stores rarely find this amusing, and often try to insist that ‘.79¢’ is exactly the same as ‘79¢’).