Reading decimals in French
 

I've been puzzled about this for a long time, but I am reading a book right now where the author keeps referring to people's heights, and I am stumbling over the correct way to read them. Since there is no period, or point, I am guessing you don't say the French equivalent of one point six five meters. It is written with a comma, say 1,65 metres. What would one say in French?

The French do not use the point. So read it as 1metre 65.

<b>How tall are you? </b> Isn't it "Un metre, soixante-cinq"?

<b> What's 1.5 times 1.3?</b> Isn't that "Un virgule cinq"?

<b> What's 1.35 times 1.3?</b> Bugger me, I've forgotten. I think it's un virgule trente-cinq - but I'd have got four ferulas for such crass stupidity forty-odd years ago.

Thanks.

You made me google ferula. Oh dear.

You need to google ferula jesuit.

Otherwise you just get stuff about flowers and papal crosses

I figured it out from Wikipedia. I'm good at filling in blanks.

Actually, a large part of the world uses commas for decimals and periods to separate the thousands, not just the French.

Ah, but it's more complicated than that because FM radio frequencies keep the period.

France Inter can be heard in Paris at quatre-vingt sept point huit (87.8).

<<Ah, but it's more complicated than that because FM radio frequencies keep the period.>>

Not universally. In French Canada, FM frequencies use the comma.

So is Flanner correct about 1.35 as un virgule trente-cinq? And if so, how would you say 3.14159 (and don't tell me "pi")?

Come to think of it, the French use "point" for "dot" in "dotcom".

Yes, I'm sure flanner's right; I'm not sure about pi, but I'd assume they'd spell out the individual digits after the "virgule", rather than double them up (as they do with telephone numbers), since the number of digits is indeterminate (for practicable conversational purposes).

So if the number of digits were not indeterminate, would one read them like a phone number in pairs? Unless there were an odd number of digits?

9,1234?

9,12345?

Who knew this would be so complex?

Actually, they are not always read as pairs. French eyes try to divide them into the easiest combinations. If there are nine digits, something like a bank account number, for example, a French person will divide them into groups of three digits: cent vingt-cinq, deux cent trente-trois, neuf cent douze.

Intelligent companies who know that they will be receiving phone calls put spaces in long numbers to help people say them the "correct" way.