# Why do some people cross their 7's? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 7, 2002, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413 "2002-09-07T07:58:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Savaka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@Savaka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savaka)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/21 "2002-09-07T19:13:28Z")
I started crossing my 7s in high school math, but I found it most helpful in distinguishing them from 2s, not from Zs or 1s. I’m a little surprised no one has mentioned this yet. My handwriting is quite illegible, but I’ve never had problems distinguishing numbers from letters. ---
**Author:** ![Coilean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Coilean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coilean)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/22 "2002-09-07T20:39:17Z")
It’s not a German thing, it’s an Arabic thing. If you write a 1, remove the bottom line but keep the little doo-dad at the top, you have an iconic orthographic form. It’s got one angle. When you write a 2 but don’t curve the lines, it looks like a Z. Two angles. A 3, again sans curves, looks like a backwards sigma. Three angles. For a 7, add a downwards slash at the left side of the horizontal. Straighten out the diagnol and add a dash parallel to horizontal. Add a cross midway up your not vertical line and you end up with seven angles. [Here’s a web page that explains it a helluva lot better than I can](http://www.arabicnumerals.cwc.net/). Kinda makes sense huh? ---
**Author:** ![Coilean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Coilean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coilean)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/23 "2002-09-07T20:44:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Coileán \* > **…Add a cross midway up your not vertical line…** Make that “ **now** vertical line.” ---
**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/24 "2002-09-07T22:34:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monty \* > \*\*Back when I was a SIDPERS clerk, Horseflesh, I got the same number writing instructions you did with one addition: the S also had an underscore to distinguish it from a 5. \*\* Always glad to meet a fellow PISMS. I still work in a SIB for the National Guard. SIDPERS has changed quite a bit in the Active Army from 15 years ago; The Army Reserve and NG versions are substantially different. Er, I did mention capital S in my first post didn’t I? **Coileán** , that’s the way I was taught to make 7s also, but I never did switch from making a diagonal leg to a vertical. ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/25 "2002-09-07T23:09:05Z")
Many of my french teachers (both from Quebec and other countries) write 1’s like 7’s, and the 7’s have the slash. I also remember when taking junior high math in french that they used a comma for a decimal point - something that costs a dollar fifty was written $1,50. I stopped taking math in french soon after, and wondered if they would confuse something like 12,567 as being 12.567 as opposed to what most people would think of as 12 thousand five sixty seven. ---
**Author:** ![Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonko_The_Sane)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/26 "2002-09-08T01:24:15Z")
I cross my sevens, zeros and Zs because of my wretched handwriting, and because I like to be different. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/27 "2002-09-08T01:30:43Z")
I cross my 0’s because my e-mail addy which I’ve had for a couple years now is [cs302b@yahoo.com](mailto:cs302b@yahoo.com) A bitch to explain to someone if it’s o or 0… so I just cross it. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/28 "2002-09-08T01:45:47Z")
Crossing zeroes really confuses Scandinavian people though… makes ordering something at Ikea difficult. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sparc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Sparc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparc)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/29 "2002-09-08T12:36:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Crossing zeroes really confuses Scandinavian people though… makes ordering something at Ikea difficult. ?¿? IKEA in Toronto is Danish? Or maybe Norwegian? Funny, ‘cause in the rest of the world it’s Swedish and for the epiglottal O the Swedes have a separate letter which is O with an umlaut [**Ö**] while as the Danes and the Norwegians write it with a slash [**Ø**]. In German it’s not a separate letter, but the epiglottal O is also denoted by an umlaut. Incidentally it is customary to not cross the 7 in Sweden, which was just one of many things that made me look somewhat exotic upon settling for a while in the ancestral lands many years after learning how to write. It is also cool that Tamerlane was inspired to cross the 7 by a national whose compatriots frown upon it much the same way Americans do; as sumthin a furiner does. Then again Sweden is more or less the 51st State, although the hardcore Scandophiles would never admit it, all I say is, “Count the 7/11s…” Waitaminute! What’s that ‘eleven’ doing crossing the 7 - ODD! Sparc ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/30 "2002-09-08T12:46:43Z")
An addition to my previous post: I also cross my zeroes, but only when it’s important to make the distinction between them and the letter O. When I write down e-mail addresses, software serial numbers, and passwords that have zeroes in them, they all get crossed, so that I may avoid confusion and uncertainty later. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/31 "2002-09-08T16:35:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mmmiiikkkeee \* > \*\*Many of my french teachers (both from Quebec and other countries) write 1’s like 7’s, and the 7’s have the slash. I also remember when taking junior high math in french that they used a comma for a decimal point - something that costs a dollar fifty was written $1,50. I stopped taking math in french soon after, and wondered if they would confuse something like 12,567 as being 12.567 as opposed to what most people would think of as 12 thousand five sixty seven. \*\* NO, there is no confusion in cases like this, because the comma is not used to separate groups in larger numbers, as you wrote your 12,567. Instead, the number would be written as 12 567 (with a space between the 2 and 5). A large value with a decimal place, for example what you mgiht write as 12,567.89 is written as 12 567,89. As for the OP I cross my 7s mainly because I often “cursive” my numbers, running one into the other. If, for example, I write 51, I might connect the top line of the 5 to the 1, and so I use the cross to show if its a 7 or 1 (hard to describe 🙂 ). I cross Zs (capital and small) to differentiate them from my 2s. ---
**Author:** ![Nils](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Nils](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nils)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/32 "2002-09-08T16:52:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mnemosyne \* > \*\* > > NO, there is no confusion in cases like this, because the comma is not used to separate groups in larger numbers, as you wrote your 12,567. Instead, the number would be written as 12 567 (with a space between the 2 and 5). A large value with a decimal place, for example what you mgiht write as 12,567.89 is written as 12 567,89. > \*\* Either like that OR we use dot and comma just the other way round: 12,567.89 = 12 557,89 = 12.567,89 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/33 "2002-09-08T17:01:43Z")
> [@](#): > > epiglottal O “Epiglottal O”? That’s a new term to me. I know of the sounds represented by German ö as Cardinal Vowels 10 and 11 or the “upper mid-front rounded vowel” and the “lower mid-front rounded vowel,” also known as rounded /e/ and rounded /E/. ---
**Author:** ![Pop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3be4f8/32.png) [@Pop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pop)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/34 "2002-09-08T19:29:32Z")
I have seen many Europeans writing the number one as such: /| (just connect the two lines at the top) The extra upstroke (never saw anyone doing it as a down stroke) can be very pronounced and you can easily see how it could be confused with a seven. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/35 "2002-09-09T17:24:31Z")
I think it looks cool. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/36 "2002-09-09T18:21:58Z")
Back in 1982 I was a college sophomore. That summer I worked in the school’s accounting office. This was in the days before computers were omnipresent (some people had PCs, but most didn’t), so I wrote a lot of spreadsheets by hand. I soon found that I could write numbers much faster, while leaving them intelligible, if I crossed my sevens. I’ve been doing it ever since. Ed ---
**Author:** ![DeepPurple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@DeepPurple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepPurple)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/37 "2002-09-09T19:28:38Z")
I fell in love with Thelonious Bernard in “A Little Romance” & he did it so I copied it. I just knew he’d find me if I continued. ok, that part didn’t happen. ---
**Author:** ![Koth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a8b319/32.png) [@Koth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/38 "2002-09-11T00:00:18Z")
I used to do it until highschool, when I quickly wrote down “7” as an answer in a French test. My teacher thought it was a 12, and marked it wrong. I failed the test because of that one question. I haven’t put a cross in my 7s since. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/39 "2002-09-11T05:50:54Z")
I started crossing mine years ago because my handwriting has deteriorated, and I don’t want my ones confused with my sevens. ---
**Author:** ![OliverTwistofLime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b487fb/32.png) [@OliverTwistofLime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OliverTwistofLime)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413/40 "2002-09-11T06:14:47Z")
When I served 3 1/2 years in Munich,Germany in the US Army, I learned 2 items that made life much easier for me: 1. Cross 7’s to distinguish them from ones and 2. To write the date as 10 SEPT 2002 rather than 9/10/02 or 9/10/2002. because many times I Don’t know whether someone meant Oct 9th or Sept 10th when I look back on a date. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-cross-their-7s/127413.md?page=3)