Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Grammar Girl, Grammar Girl's, QDnow, and Quick and Dirty Tips are all trademarks of Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Today's topic is units of measure (those words and symbols that come after numbers). Conner grammar You know I'm an Okie who lives in Washington and a friend of mine called me a redneck for saying "foot," instead of feet. Reading this article, I was right.... http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=20326#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=20326#Comments Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:33:13 GMT Sarajane grammar Thanks! I'm in middle school and writing a report about the Swiss sport of Hornussen which uses an 8 foot long bat. When writing that, I thought it should be feet, but it didn't sound right. You really helped http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=20068#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=20068#Comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:26:28 GMT JR grammar Thank you so much grammar girl! You helped me out so much! http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=18873#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=18873#Comments Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:38:06 GMT Drew grammar What about in the following sentence: "What would be the dimensions of your 14 ft-by-10 ft bedroom in this scale drawing?" Since "14 ft-by-10 ft" is being used as a modifier, it sounds like it should be "foot", but "feet" sounds OK to me also. Any ideas on this one? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=17299#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=17299#Comments Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:15:04 GMT AnnDS grammar Dear Grammar Girl, This topic is very interesting to me, but I'm still stumped by a situation not covered in this podcast. What do you do when your measurement amount is LESS THAN ONE? Here is a line of text I need to use at work, and I don't know whether to make the unit of measure singular or plural: "Also effective in removing debris particles down to 0.3 micron." So, is micron singular or plural? Of course it is less than one, but because the amount ends in a numeral that is MORE than one, my gut wants to put an 's' at the end of micron. Besides, if I were to read it out loud, I would probably say "zero point three microns." Does this make sense? Can you help? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=15508#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=15508#Comments Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:40:09 GMT John grammar I contantly fight with my company's document control department on this issue. They insist on removing the spaces between units and numbers. Additionally, I cannot convince them to not use "p" to abbreviate "per" in metric notation (e.g. 130 km/h instead of 130 kph or kmph). This frustrates me greatly. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=15231#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=15231#Comments Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:02:24 GMT Michael Piefel grammar I know I’m very late to jump in on that, but I’m only slowly catching up with all the episodes. It is correct that good typography mandates a space between number and unit, but to make it really pretty, it should not only be non-breaking, but also a thin space. I guess that is too much for most word-processor users, but if you’re using LaTeX or InDesign, you can do it easily. Another remark regarding the degree sign. It comes right to the number only when talking about angles. When temperatures are involved, there is a space after the number, but none between the degree and the following letter: We have 7 °C in Berlin right now. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=14723#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=14723#Comments Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:41:30 GMT Fenouille grammar Hello, Grammar Girl. I would like to make two more comments on this subject. 1) Not only is there a space between a quantity and its unit of measure, but for those using a "dumb" word processor like Word, it has to be a non-breaking space so that the following case doesn't occur: "blablabla and it weighs 345(new line)kg". 2) My pet peeve regarding units: Kelvin is a scale in itself. This means no degrees, small o, or anything else is needed when mentioning a temperature in Kelvin. We then have that " blablabla something has a temperature of 270(non-breaking space)K". Cheers :-) http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=10742#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=10742#Comments Sun, 16 Dec 2007 15:34:22 GMT James Clark grammar On the magazine I work for, we always put 'abbrieviated' units of measurement touching the number: 30ft, for example. It's our house style; I don't know whether it is a difference between British and American English. Also, in British English it is acceptable if slightly colloquial to use 'foot' in the singular with a number higher than one: "I climbed 30 foot up the tree", for example. The same is true for 'pound' (the currency): "This cost me 30 pound", for example. http://engineroomblog.blogspot.com http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=3582#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=3582#Comments Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:48:56 GMT Scott grammar As the reference to the U.S. Metric Association notes, short forms for SI units are called symbols, not abbreviations. ----- -------- http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=42#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx?commentid=42#Comments Thu, 23 Aug 2007 06:43:08 GMT Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:33:13 GMT http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/units-of-measure.aspx feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Managing Editor) feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Webmaster) en-us