When a fractions contains a compound number between twenty-one and ninety-nine (e.g.However, there are two cases where fractions should include a hyphen: Unless your style guide provides advice on this, it is simply a matter of preference (just remember to be consistent!). The subject completed two-thirds of the exercises. For instance, while we’ve written ‘two thirds’ above, we could equally write it as ‘two-thirds’: Some people like to add a hyphen between the numerator and denominator when writing fractions as words. The hungry boys ate thirty-three and ¾ of the pizzas. Never mix words and numerals in a fraction: If you use a mixed fraction in your writing, make sure to use a consistent style for the whole number and the fraction: ✓ Mixed Fractions and ConsistencyĪ mixed fraction is a whole number followed by a fraction. The fraction 22/7 is a good approximation for the mathematical value pi. Twenty-two sevenths is a good approximation of pi. To avoid this, you would either need to write the fraction as words or rephrase the sentence so that it does not begin with a fraction: For example, the following would be incorrect: Fractions at the Beginning of a SentenceĮven if you are writing fractions as numerals elsewhere, you should not start a sentence with a numeral. Using numerals for fractions in measurements, tables of results, equations, and other primarily numerical data.Īnd in the rest of this post, we will look at cases where you need to be careful about how you write fractions.Writing fractions as words in the main text of a document.It ultimately comes down to which style guide you are using, so make sure to check if you have one. We received feedback from 17/24 of the participants. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter!īut numerals may be clearer in cases like this: We received feedback from seventeen twenty-fourths of the participants. You can also do this for longer or more complex fractions: The subject completed two thirds of the exercises. The subject completed 2/3 of the exercises. But many style guides suggest writing out simple fractions as words in formal writing: So, when should you write fractions as words and when should you write them as numerals? In less formal writing, as long as your meaning is clear, this is simply a matter of preference. Should You Write Fractions as Words or Numerals? Some do use ‘fourths’ in place of ‘quarters’, but this is quite rare outside of American English, so ‘quarters’ will be correct in most cases. But there are two exceptions that have their own words: half (1/2) and quarter (1/4). He ate two thirds of the pizza by himself! third, fifth, sixth).įor instance, we would write ‘2/3’ as ‘two thirds’: The denominator as an ordinal number (e.g.The numerator as a cardinal number (e.g.When writing fractions as words, you need to give: The correct format is usually a matter of preference, but you should check your style guide for advice if you are using one. 1∕ 2, 2∕ 3) or a horizontal line known as a vinculum. But we could also use a division slash between superscript and subscript numbers (e.g. In the examples above, we have simply used a forward slash between the two numbers. There are various ways to write fractions as numerals. For instance, if we cut something into three parts, each part would be ‘1/3’, and two parts would be ‘2/3’: To write fractions as numerals, do it with the numerator above the denominator, separated by a line. But what are the rules about writing fractions? When should they be numerals and when should they be words? Let’s take a look.