[Misc] When should hyphenation be used with numbers and units?

[Deportivo Seagull]

As an engineer constantly using abbreviations for milli and mega and giga and pica I would never hyphenate. By convention and too easily confused with negatives.

This.


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[deslynhamsmoustache1]

View attachment 143293

What I see when reading the opening post.

bloody hell!! I only see this.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Sorry if I'm a bit late to this party.

My first and only port of call would be the IEEE.org.

I typed in 'hyphen between number and unit of measurement', and got this:

https://standards.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-standards/standards/web/governance/revcom/scc14.pdf

Do a search on 'hyphen', and you will find the rules where it is referenced.

The bottom line is that hyphens are not allowed in normal circumstances. Your premise was quite correct. (I would have expected nothing less from you).

Superb - many thanks

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Although it's American I found this very clear and useful for dealing with SI units. https://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/checklist.html

No hyphens and a gap between number and unit.

The difficulty that HWT is having is that h (hour) is not an SI unit and so the same rules don't apply and it is possible that 12-h is the convention used to indicate 12 hours where technically 43,200 s could be used.

If only that were the case (making life simple). The hyphens just come and go almost at whim. These wanchors also randomly use a hyphen with mg/kg.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Life is too short, honestly.

But not too short to add an unhelpful comment, of course.




Edit - and I can't see who gave you a thumbs up because I have both the plums on ignore. Fancy that!

Happy New Year, weirdo

 

[GT49er]

Agree with the general 'bollocks to hyphens' opinions expressed here by others. I would also go with no space betwee the number and the abbreviation of the unit - space if using the full title though: e.g. 500ml; 6kg - but 500 millilitres; 6 kilograms.

Interestingly, we were always taught that an abbreviation should be followed by a full stop - e.g. £5 7s. 6d. - but that convention seems to have all but disappeared. Due to metrication? - I don't think the full stop was applied to the metric units we imported, and now no full stop seems to be the norm.

There are occasions where a phrase might be hyphenated - examples like, 'Corporal Jones with his 'they-don't-like-it-up-em' attitude', or 'Alex Dawson scored with one of his 'ball-and-goalie-all-in-the-back-of-the-net' specials'. They make sense, convey the meaning etc., but I don't think there's a definitative rule about when it's right or wrong to use it.

The capital 'O' in Use Of English is a definate no-no though! Happy New Year!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Definitely no hyphens.

Put a space between the number and the units.

Units are not capitalised.

So 500 ml.

Which isn't nearly enough beer. Beer should be measured in pints anyway.

 

[dazzer6666]

Indeed.

500ml
12v
9hr

This

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

---

 

[South Stand Bonfire]

As an engineer constantly using abbreviations for milli and mega and giga and pica I would never hyphenate. By convention and too easily confused with negatives.

Thi’s. I’ve never u’sed or s’een hyphen’s attached to number’s. Maybe the publi’sher i’s one of tho’se people who in’si’st on u’sing apo’strophe’s every time they u’se the letter “s”?’

 

[rogersix]

But not too short to add an unhelpful comment, of course.




Edit - and I can't see who gave you a thumbs up because I have both the plums on ignore. Fancy that!

Happy New Year, weirdo

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Agree with the general 'bollocks to hyphens' opinions expressed here by others. I would also go with no space betwee the number and the abbreviation of the unit - space if using the full title though: e.g. 500ml; 6kg - but 500 millilitres; 6 kilograms.

Interestingly, we were always taught that an abbreviation should be followed by a full stop - e.g. £5 7s. 6d. - but that convention seems to have all but disappeared. Due to metrication? - I don't think the full stop was applied to the metric units we imported, and now no full stop seems to be the norm.

There are occasions where a phrase might be hyphenated - examples like, 'Corporal Jones with his 'they-don't-like-it-up-em' attitude', or 'Alex Dawson scored with one of his 'ball-and-goalie-all-in-the-back-of-the-net' specials'. They make sense, convey the meaning etc., but I don't think there's a definitative rule about when it's right or wrong to use it.

The capital 'O' in Use Of English is a definate no-no though! Happy New Year!

Cheers.

On a related tack, the germanic nations tend to use a comma instead of a decimal place in biological literature. Very irritating.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Thi’s. I’ve never u’sed or s’een hyphen’s attached to number’s. Maybe the publi’sher i’s one of tho’se people who in’si’st on u’sing apo’strophe’s every time they u’se the letter “s”?’

I am increasingly confident it is the whim of the press editors rather than the diktat of the publisher. The publisher isn't interested in minutiae like terminology, or indeed scientific integrity. Publishing is about one thing only - money. One of the press editors in the present case is pedantic but makes mistakes. The other one is less pedantic but is inconsistent. I suspect a considerable amount of Old Pals Act is in operation, here, with respect to their continued employment .

Anyway, I'm Michael Winner and I want my sausage's.

 

[Bakero]

With the measurements no hyphen is needed. 50 millilitres is 50ml. You need to hyphenate a compound adjective to avoid ambiguity. Compare "A man eating fish" to "a man-eating fish".

With the dark cycle thing, I'd say the publication is correct l. You've got 2 adjectives: 12-hour and dark but you don't need to link the 2 together with another hyphen.

 

[Is it PotG?]

But not too short to add an unhelpful comment, of course.




Edit - and I can't see who gave you a thumbs up because I have both the plums on ignore. Fancy that!

Happy New Year, weirdo

I'll stick to being a 'weirdo' and not get worked up about such matters.

HNY 'H'.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I'll stick to being a 'weirdo' and not get worked up about such matters.

HNY 'H'.

I was asking for advice because I needed it. These publisher sods have created a mass of work for me, and I'm expecting push back. There's no need for you to comment if you have nothing helpful to add

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Definitely no hyphens.

Put a space between the number and the units.

Units are not capitalised.

So 500 ml.

Which isn't nearly enough beer. Beer should be measured in pints anyway.

Yet, in the world of radio wave frequencies the Hertz is the unit of measure but always abbreviated to Hz or MHz for mega-hertz and GHz for giga-hertz

I suspect the "H" is capitated because it's a name [noun] - i.e. Mr Hertz
So, same for Volts, Amps & Watts

The attached here mostly supports this.

But a litre is not a name and is thus a lower-case abbriviation.

 

[Questions]

Anybody who only buys one 500ml of beer is an oddball.
That’s what you should be worrying about Harry.

 

[GT49er]

Thi’s. I’ve never u’sed or s’een hyphen’s attached to number’s. Maybe the publi’sher i’s one of tho’se people who in’si’st on u’sing apo’strophe’s every time they u’se the letter “s”?’

Nice one sir! If not already familiar with the association, allow me to introduce you to the excellent AAAA. Should you be one of those delicate souls for whom a link to the Daily Mail is liable to bring on an attack of the vapours, please allow me to reassure you that the AAAA was founded and very well established by Keith Waterhouse in the Daily Mirror years before he most regrettably defected to the Mail.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1054453/KEITH-WATERHOUSE-Apostrophes--AAAA-fights-back.html

 

[Eric the meek]

Agree with the general 'bollocks to hyphens' opinions expressed here by others. I would also go with no space betwee the number and the abbreviation of the unit - space if using the full title though: e.g. 500ml; 6kg - but 500 millilitres; 6 kilograms.

Interestingly, we were always taught that an abbreviation should be followed by a full stop - e.g. £5 7s. 6d. - but that convention seems to have all but disappeared. Due to metrication? - I don't think the full stop was applied to the metric units we imported, and now no full stop seems to be the norm.

There are occasions where a phrase might be hyphenated - examples like, 'Corporal Jones with his 'they-don't-like-it-up-em' attitude', or 'Alex Dawson scored with one of his 'ball-and-goalie-all-in-the-back-of-the-net' specials'. They make sense, convey the meaning etc., but I don't think there's a definitative rule about when it's right or wrong to use it.

The capital 'O' in Use Of English is a definate no-no though! Happy New Year!

That must be my favourite reply of all.

It's packed with detailed examples, but you also manage to shoehorn in a trip down memory lane, with a reference to Alex Dawson, which is also relevant !

Hats off to you!