Saturday, 16 May 2026 08:53 pm
Practice Your Scales
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deckardcanineTake care in saying “billion” to an audience abroad.
Depending where they live, they might just find your usage odd.
The word has different meanings in the short- and long-scale ways.
Most English-speaking people use the short scale nowadays,
Like Arabs, former Soviets, Israelis, and Brazilians:
We like to use “a billion” to denote a thousand millions.
But continental Europeans typically prefer
“A billion” for our trillion, so confusion may occur.
The same applies to lots of other folk whose mother tongue
Is Spanish, French, or German, as their chosen scale is long.
It once was worse, with Britons and Americans divided,
Until the British government officially decided
To take a cue from us. Try using prefixes like “giga”
Or numerals and exponents when numbers get too big-a.
Depending where they live, they might just find your usage odd.
The word has different meanings in the short- and long-scale ways.
Most English-speaking people use the short scale nowadays,
Like Arabs, former Soviets, Israelis, and Brazilians:
We like to use “a billion” to denote a thousand millions.
But continental Europeans typically prefer
“A billion” for our trillion, so confusion may occur.
The same applies to lots of other folk whose mother tongue
Is Spanish, French, or German, as their chosen scale is long.
It once was worse, with Britons and Americans divided,
Until the British government officially decided
To take a cue from us. Try using prefixes like “giga”
Or numerals and exponents when numbers get too big-a.