Numbers

Use words from one to nine and then numerals from 10 upwards. Always use words at the start of a sentence. Where using a numeral adds impact, exceptions are OK but use these sparingly.

Numbers with more than three digits take commas:

999

1,000

150,000

Use million or billion for numbers above 999,999.

Dates

Spell out days of the week and months.

Saturday 24 January

Decimals and fractions

Spell out fractions.

two-thirds

2/3

Use a decimal when a number can’t be easily written out as a fraction, like 1.375 or 47.2.

Percentages

Use the % symbol instead of spelling out "per cent".

Ranges and spans

Use a hyphen (-) to indicate a range or span of numbers.

It takes 20-30 days.

Money

When writing about currency, use the symbol before the amount.

US$20

¥1

€1

Include a decimal and number of cents if more than 0.

£19.99

Telephone numbers

Use a space to separate the area code from the rest of the number. Our users are all over the world, and so are we, so always use a country code.

+44 20 78658100

Temperature

Use the degree symbol and the capital C abbreviation for Celsius.

28°C

Time

Use numerals and am or pm, with no space in between. Use dots not colons between hours and minutes. Don’t use minutes for on-the-hour time.

Use midnight and noon or midday, not 12am, or 12pm, which can be confusing.

7am

7.30pm

Use a hyphen between times to indicate a time period.

7am-10.30pm

When referring to international time zones, spell them out: Nepal Standard Time, Australian Eastern Time. If a time zone does not have a set name, use its Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) offset.

Abbreviate decades when referring to those within the past 100 years:

the 00s

the 90s

When referring to decades more than 100 years ago, be more specific:

the 1900s

the 1890s