Hi! I have a question for the Moms:

How much does a baby weight at birth in American pounds and ounces? I mean a normal, average weight. The baby must not be too big but not too tiny either. I'm not sure about this because we use a different system.

How about 7 pounds? Would that be about right? Or should I add or distract some ounces? <g>

Ursie

7 pounds would work, that's a smallish medium. Big babies are 9 pounds or more. My two were 7lb 5oz, and 7lb, 2oz.

PJ

Three and a half kilos, or seven and a half pounds, is pretty much the average. Anything under two and a half kilos, or five and a half pounds, is considered premature. Six to seven pounds is a smallish but perfectly healthy baby.

Hazel, whose babies run to five or six pounds, but that's because they come two at a time

Thanks, Pam and Hazel!

Would that be acceptable, to write it like this in a story or should I write 'pounds' and 'ounces'?

I think I read once in a discussion that it's preferred to write down 'he's seven years old' instead of 'he's 7 years old'. Would that also apply to weight?

Ursie

I *think* the rule is that you're supposed to spell out small numbers, but you don't have to type "one thousand four hundred forty six" <g>

So yeah, I think I'd go with "seven" years. And for prose, you'd probably better spell out pounds and ounces.

Any grammar experts out there?

PJ

Now, I'm not a member of the grammar police, more like a member of the grammar neighbourhood watch (with less curtain twitching... )

The Style Book we are supposed to use where I work says that we should spell out numbers under twenty. And if you're spelling the numbers, then I guess you should be spelling the units too.

Plus it's less confussing for anyone who's not familiar with imperial notation...

Helga

Thanks Helga, that's how I'll write it down then.

Hazel, LOL about your babies coming two at a time! Planning to have triplets next time? <g>

Ursie

The rules on numbers are chockful of exceptions - and the general rule is that nos 1 to 10 should be written as numbers and anything over ten should be spelled out...or is it the other way around? <G> I confess I can never remember.

Uh-huh - it's the other way around:

The Blue Book of Grammar

Typical.

I must confess though that I have a personal aversion to seeing numbers not letters - unless it's a huge number as Pam rightly points out - so I tend to write most of them out anyway. Seven I would - and do frequently - ask an author to change if they used 7 instead. And I'd ask them to change 15 to fifteen too. (Not that they have to agree, of course. )

LabRat

The official rule I learned about writing number is that you have to write 1-20 in letters, then 30/40/50/60/70/80/90/100/200/etc in letters too. Same goes for round thousand numbers. Everything in between and higher can go in numbers.

At least, this is the rule I learned at Journalism School and which is a standard at all newspaper in the Netherlands. I can only assume that it also applies international, but I'm not sure about that. Anyway, it's the way I write numbers and I stick to that. And I'm known to drive people crazy by pointing that out while BRing.

Saskia

As I understand it, Saskia, journalistic grammar has its own set of rules, many of which differ from general grammar.

At least that's what I was told at some point...sometime...

LabRat (who is now trying to remember who it was who told her, but coming up blank... <g> Where's Annie? She'll know. )

True, Labby - people who read text on the radio or TV always use numbers on their papers or cue boards to avoid mistakes in reading out loud.

I.e. "President XXX will visit the Middle East. He'll cover 4 countries in 8 days."

I know - I edit news items for radio broadcasting and have to read them out loud too! <g>

Ursie

Here I am. <G>

The vast majority of American newspapers adhere to AP Style. The Associated Press publishes a stylebook annually covering topics just like this. In addition to the AP stylebook, every newspaper has their own stylebook with local nuances in it. For example the Raleigh News and Observers stylebook includes information on what exactly makes up "research triangle park" and the official name of the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. There are a few papers that DON'T use AP Style and choose to create their own comprehensive stylebook instead. The only paper I can think of off the top of my head that does this is The New York Times. That said, the AP stylebook is basically the bible of American journalism.

According to AP style, numbers 1-9 should be spelled out and number 10 and above should be numerals. HOWEVER, there are lots of exceptions. Ages are always numerals. The first word of the sentence is always spelled out, even if it is a number under ten. Common expressions are always spelled out. (ie "Thanks a million.") Decimals are always numerals. Fractions are always spelled out. Addresses and Dates are always numerals. The list goes on and on.

However, these are the rules for journalism, not fiction writing. There is a big difference. The reason this rule was made was partially for clarity, but more to save space. Saving space is the reason for nearly every major difference between AP style and common English grammar rules. For example, in journalism there is only one space after a period, not two. Because space is money in journalism, everything possible is done to cram as much content as possible into the smallest space. When writing fiction, our goal is not to squeeze in as many words as possible into a tiny column. So we are not bound by these rules. I think it makes perfect sense to spell out all numbers except for very large numbers that could be confusing.

Annie