1976 or Nineteen Seventy-Six?

 

I got a question recently about writing a number at the beginning of a sentence:

Is it OK to begin a sentence with a number written numerically or should the number be written out? In a recent email exchange I was asked how much a piece of equipment might cost and I found myself writing, "800 comes to mind." and it just didn't look right to me. Should I have written, "Eight hundred comes to mind?"

Short answer: probably.

Long answer: Starting sentences with numbers is not a grammar issue. It's a style issue. Editing styles have complicated systems for when to use numerals and when to spell out numbers. But most agree that at the beginning of a sentence, a number usually should be spelled out -- even if it would be expressed as a numeral elsewhere in the same sentence. "We have 80 recordings in our DVR." "Eighty is the number of recordings in our DVR." Some styles, especially news styles, make an exception for years. For those, AP says to go ahead and use numerals at the beginning of a sentence. "1987 was a good year for patent-leather manufacturers."

If you need your writing to be publisher perfect, check a copy of the AP Stylebook. If you just want your writing to appear polished, follow your instincts. My correspondent knew that his sentence would look bad with a numeral at the beginning. So his instincts are obviously good.

 

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