How to properly write out a 3-digit number (250)

I would leave out the “and”, and no hyphens are necessary. At least, that’s how I’ve been taught.

There should not be hyphens, no.

Thanks, so, any consensus on the “and”?

not when writing a check…worked at a bank and the “and” would be a no-cash.

sndfreQ—so are u saying I should leave out the “and”? Wasn’t totally clear on your answer. btw, this is for a written document, not a check.
Thanks!!

It was always my understanding that with writing out numbers, anything with single digits should be spelled out. All numbers between 21 and 99 should be hyphenated if writing them out (twenty-one). But I’m not certain about “and” with numbers. It would seem to me that if you were writing it out, it might also need a hyphen.

no “and” for numbers ending with ten or higher, use a hyphen to split the tens from the hundreds and higher:

One thousand and nine
One thousand ten
Two hundred fifty
Two hundred fifty-one

Two hundred twenty-one

Why is it that I could never remember this stuff back in middle school/high school, and now it just comes out freely at friggin’ 12:23 on a Friday morning?

I think the consensus is that sndfreQ has hit the nail on the head.

Chicago Manual of Style says write out any number below one hundred.

All answers are correct, if you live in the USA. In real English you would use an ‘and’ for any value like:

One thousand and nine
One thousand and ten
Two hundred and fifty
Two hundred and fifty-one
Two hundred and twenty-one

I agree with bluemukaki. Believe it or not, there are places of human civilization outside of the US.

I write ‘and’ on ALL of my bank cheques and have never had a no-cash.

I agree with bluemukaki. I write it how I say it. Leaving out the and just looks lazy and doesn’t scan right.

I third bluemukaki, and second sahineha.I presume the original poster however is from the US (seeing the tag ‘math’) and so should follow the American-English rules. However in the UK we do include ‘and’ inbetween the words.

PupnTaco referred earlier to the Chicago Manual of Style; it also says (here) that the use of “and” is at the writer’s discretion, but points out that its use can create ambiguity in some cases.

In math (USA) class, I was taught to never say or write “and”. Even for 209, we were taught to say and write “two hundred nine”.

has been told me Two hundred and fivety

@augustlan-now that I think about it, I was told the same in all my math classes-it’s the same in counting in decimal as it is when telling time…no “and” in the label (8:25, as in it’s eight twenty-five in the morning, not “eight and twenty-five”).

It depends on the context- if you’re describing money, then you don’t hyphenate and you use “and.” i.e. You owe me two hundred and fifty dollars. I make seventy two thousand dollars a year.

If you’re talking about age or population or quantity, then it’s the opposite, you hyphenate and don’t use “and.” i.e. She was eighty-one years old. New York has over twenty-seven thousand homeless.

That’s my understanding.

@snd: about the checks… if you wrote this:

“Two hundred fifty and 30/100————————————————-”

Would that be the same thing?

in bank drafts (checks), the and is very important in separating dollars from cents (expressed as a fraction of a dollar).

I’ve never had a bank check refused. I was “trained by my dad and his grandfather was a bank president, not only here in the states, but internationally. I’ve never used hyphens, and my husband insists on it and uses them between every number. His checks have never been refused either. I only use the “and” between the dollar amount and the cents, writing the cents as a fraction or no/100.

As long as it matches up with the numerical amount, they have taken the checks.

I too never use “and” in writing the dollar amounts on a check except prior to the cents.

My philosophy on writing checks is that fewer extraneous words limits the possibilities for others to change.

When I was in university, the owner of a photo processing business offered this advice as well. When writing the numerical amount on a check ($250.00) he suggested this: $250/00 (with the slash being longer than this typing allows). His rationale, based on problems he did have with changed checks is that the decimal point is too easy to change. Sounded reasonable to me and that’s been my practice.

I just use cash…

$1,234,567.89

I would write this check as:
“One Million Two Hundred Thirty-four Thousand Five Hundred Sixty-seven and 89/100 dollars.” I’d have to write it small to fit it on the check!

If I were to need to express it in writing for other uses (report, prose, etc), I’d write:
“One million, two hundred thirty-four thousand, five hundred sixty-seven dollars and eighty-nine cents.

Easy:

255 = zweihundertfünfundfünfzig.

Gotta love them Germans.

What bluemukaki said. What I was taught in the USA was:

Two-hundred and fifty dollars and no cents

sndfreQ, my banks have never not cashed such checks – what bank wouldn’t?

Math class is different because “and” means addition, and so it could be ambiguous where the parentheses might go if you start inserting addition in terms.

e.g. Three times two hundred and fifty could be either:
3 x (200 + 50) = 750
or
3×200 + 50 = 650

The context of a cheque provides the mathematical parentheses.

Brits and Canadians say “and,” Americans don’t.

right but you should only use “and” if you’re spelling out a decimal. 101= “one hundred and one” is incorrect, it would be “one hundred one” but if you wanted to say 101.1 “one hundred one AND one tenth” is correct, “one hundred and one and one tenth” is incorect