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In German I would say for the number 3.14 "drei komma vierzehn" or "drei komma eins vier" which is both used (although in case of Pi which is special, I think people more often say "drei komma vierzehn"). In English this is "three point fourteen" and "three point one four" (I also think both is ok but I am not an native English speaker).

So can I also say in French both for 3.14 like "trois virgule quatorze" and "trois virgule un quatre"?

UweD
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    In my experience it's pretty rare to hear decimal numbers as anything but individual digits in English, although it's certainly there in the back of our minds to legitimize Pi Day :) – Luke Sawczak Jan 02 '22 at 14:36
  • German too, and I would never say "drei Komma vierzehn". My math teacher in school hated that. I always say "drei Komma eins vier". – Robin Jan 03 '22 at 13:33
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    @Robin Related https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/7622/wie-schreibt-man-dezimalbr%C3%BCche-in-worten – jlliagre Jan 04 '22 at 09:46
  • Thank you very much for all your input! When I was in school and later in university, it was common in math and physics to say drei-komma-vierzehn (or e.g. zwei-komma-zweiundsiebzig for 2.72) but this might not have been correct according to the various links you posted here. – UweD Jan 04 '22 at 10:40
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    @UweD If a non negligible amount of native German speakers say it that way, perhaps it shouldn't be considered nicht korrekt... see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription – jlliagre Jan 05 '22 at 00:06

2 Answers2

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While the correct punctuation to use for decimals is a comma, it is common in Canada to say [number] point [number] in informal speech.

Circeus
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Technically, that should be trois virgule quatorze (as this answer states too) but in that particular case, most people I know just say trois-quatorze.

Pourquoi la quadrature du cercle est-elle impossible ? Trois-quatorze-quinze... cette ritournelle bien connue décrit le rapport, appelé nombre Pi, entre la circonférence d'un cercle et son diamètre.
Joaquín Navarro, Les secrets du nombre π, 2011.

I have never heard anyone saying trois virgule un quatre. That would be considered kind of "illiterate", done by someone unable to build numbers from digits. Only the digit 0, especially a leading one, is pronounced individually.

We also generally omit to name the decimal separator or the unit when talking about temperatures or sometimes with prices, e.g. Trente-sept deux le matin (37°2 le matin).

An alternate way, taught at school but rarely used otherwise, is to use a unit for the decimal part:

3,14 : trois quatorze centièmes
3,14159 : trois quatorze mille cent cinquante-neuf cent-millièmes.

See also Comment prononcer les nombres à virgule ?

In France, like in Germany I believe, decimal numbers are expected to be written with a comma, not a decimal point: 3,14.

jlliagre
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    In English though, I've never heard anyone say "fourteen" in this context. "Three fourteen fifteen" would be even weirder. – Ray Butterworth Jan 02 '22 at 01:59
  • @RayButterworth On the other hand, in a hotel, room 314 would be generally named "three fourteen" in English but always trois cents quatorze in French, never trois quatorze or trois un quatre. – jlliagre Jan 02 '22 at 09:25
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    I don't know if it's still true for schoolchildren nowadays but as far as I can remember from a very early age I could say trois quatorze cent seize without probably really understanding what it was all about. It was like a catchphrase one had to learn by heart. Et en plus c'était faux !!!!! – None Jan 02 '22 at 10:26
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    @None Comme la révolution de 17 189 :-) – jlliagre Jan 02 '22 at 14:04
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    @jlliagre "room 314 would be generally named "three fourteen" in English". True, but that's simply omitting the word "hundred". The values "3.14" and "3.140" are equal, but "three fourteen" and "three one forty" (or "three one hundred forty") sound very different, the second sounding much larger. Saying the digits individually after the decimal mark is the most common, and most reasonable, way of saying it in English. – Ray Butterworth Jan 03 '22 at 14:47
  • @RayButterworth Absolutely, I wasn't implying at all room 314 and 3140 are equal, just that French and English do not treat them the same way. By the way, I believe room 3140 would be named differently in English depending if on whether it is located on the 3rd floor or on the 31th floor. That would be trois mille cent quarante in both cases in French. – jlliagre Jan 03 '22 at 15:20
  • Je suis à peu près sûr que "trente-sept (degrés) deux" ne s'écrit pas 37°2 mais 37,2°. Comme pour l'argent, même si on dit "un (euro) vingt" on écrit 1,20€ – Teleporting Goat Jan 05 '22 at 15:30
  • @TeleportingGoat Tu as raison, et même 37,2 °C mais cette température particulière peut faire exception... – jlliagre Jan 05 '22 at 17:47
  • @jilliagre: No wonder trois quatorze mille cent cinquante-neuf cent-millièmes for 3,14159 is "rarely used otherwise" than at school. It does even a math wiz's head in. I'm surprised it's even taught in school, as it serves no mathematical purpose. There is good reason why the digits are pronounced separately in English, and why saying three point fourteen is indisputably wrong. An important reason for using the decimal system is to avoid fractions. – Harry Audus Jan 07 '22 at 03:05
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    I agree with @Harry Audus. If I put 3,141592653589793 in the "leconjugueur" linked above, I get : "trois virgule cent quarante et un billions cinq cent quatre-vingt-douze milliards six cent cinquante-trois millions cinq cent quatre-vingt-neuf mille sept cent quatre-vingt-treize". Not very handy, is it? My question is, could I also simply say "trois virgule un quatre un cinq etc. etc.", so one digit at a time, as I would in German? – Robin Jan 17 '22 at 12:50
  • @HarryAudus I don't think the way a decimal part is pronounced serves any mathematical purpose. It is just a convention and it is fully cultural. The goal is to communicate and is not dictated by some logic. It can be equally argued that the integer part of a number should have its digits pronounced separately, or starting from the units toward the higher powers of ten (big endians vs little endians). The mathematics haven't even defined how we write decimal numbers: thousands separator or not, comma or decimal point, where is the unit, unit prefixes/suffixes. – jlliagre Jan 17 '22 at 13:37
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    @Robin No, you can't, at least in France. It would be perceived as if you were not able to pronounce a word in full but instead spelled out each letter one after the other. That's the reason why I wrote "illiterate" in my reply. What is considered handy in English isn't necessarily handy in French. I suspect a reason why French groups numbers while English doesn't is that numbers are sometimes much longer than individual digits en English (e.g. 728 "seven hundred twenty-eight" 7 syllables vs "seven two eight" 4 syllables but "sept cent vingt huit" 4 syllables vs "sept deux huit" 3 syllables.) – jlliagre Jan 17 '22 at 13:39
  • @jilliage: "It can be equally argued that the integer part of a number should have its digits pronounced separately". And that's why we normally separate each multiple of a thousand by a comma in English and a point in French - in recognition of the difficulty of determining the magnitude of large numbers and hence how we say them. It's because we don't use the same device for the part less than 1 that we use the alternative device of pronouncing the digits separately. – Harry Audus Jan 19 '22 at 02:30
  • @jilliagre: Further, it's not particularly useful in everyday life to know that the 5 in 3.1415 (English notation) represents fifty thousandths, whereas it is useful to know that the 5 in 56,764 (English notation) represents fifty thousand, especially if it's your salary. – Harry Audus Jan 19 '22 at 02:30
  • @HarryAudus Using any thousand separator except an optional space is "forbidden" in French. You say you use different devices(?) for digits depending on whether they are on the left side or the right side of the decimal separator, but as far as mathematics are concerned, I see no logical reason to do so, it's just a convention. – jlliagre Jan 19 '22 at 03:59
  • The more to the right a digits is, the lesser its weight but this is true regardless of whether it is an integer or a fractional number. Either these low level digits are important, and you name them the more convenient way for you, either they do not matter and you round the number and say, for example, a salary a little less than 57k. – jlliagre Jan 19 '22 at 03:59
  • I'm curious to know how you would say the number 0.000,000,002 in English. – jlliagre Jan 19 '22 at 04:00
  • @jilliagre (my final comment): Yes, it is just convention, but mathematics depends on conventions in expressing its concepts - there's no room for personal choice. And as far as unusual numbers are concerned, mathematics trumps linguistics. – Harry Audus Jan 20 '22 at 05:06
  • 0.000,000,002 is generally said (if at all) as "zero point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero two" or "zero point eight zeroes two". However, it is much more likely such a number would be expressed as 2 x 10-9 (where -9 is in superscript) and pronounced "two times ten to the power minus nine" or "two by ten to the power minus nine". – Harry Audus Jan 20 '22 at 05:14
  • My apologies if I thought wrongly that the thousands separator in French can be a comma. I know that it is often shown as a space. – Harry Audus Jan 20 '22 at 05:16