3. Numbers

News stories are filled with numbers: dollar amounts, company names and people’s ages, to name but a few.

CP style includes a number of important guidelines on when to use numerals and when to write numbers out. And like most good rules, there are exceptions that are important to remember, too.

The most important rule to know is that whole numbers below 10 are spelled out, such as one, five and nine. Figures 10 and above are generally represented by numerals 10 15, 22, and numbers in the thousands need to be set off with commas. If the number is in the millions or above, use words for full figures (such as one billion or two million) or numerals if there is a decimal (1.64 million).

Here’s a sentence that makes correct use of numbers, according to CP style:

Did you know? These aren’t donuts.

The CP Stylebook sets out the correct spelling for doughnuts. The spelling “donut” should only be used as a part of corporate names, such as Hole N One Donuts.

Simple, right? Well, there’s a bit more to it than that. Here are a few of the most important exceptions to remember.

The Nitty Gritty

Numbers that start a sentence are always spelled out:

And numerals that represent people’s ages are always represented as numerals when they follow a person’s name:

CP style also calls for numerals for figures with decimals, and to generally keep decimals to two places:

Numerals are also used in game scores, scores, decisions, heights, money and times — generally, anywhere a number is accompanied by a special symbol.Temperatures are represented by numerals when specifying Celsius or Fahrenheit but are written out when they are under 10.

But fractions are represented as numbers, and they use hyphens:

And heights always take numerals:

Use numerals in votes, scores, decisions.

As you can see, CP style for numbers involves many considerations — and these examples are just the beginning. The ultimate goal is to keep written text readable and understandable for audiences. The people reading a story you have written or edited may be looking at it over a leisurely breakfast, or rushing to the subway while scanning it on their phones. These rules help the text look and feel consistent, which makes it easier to comprehend.

Your Turn

Long Descriptions for Images

Image 3.1 CP Style Sentence with Colorful Numbers long description:

A racoon, six birds, 13 hamsters, 22 cats and four show bunnies disappeared from the animal shelter overnight. The bunnies are worth $10,000 apiece.

This sentence illustrates how numbers below 10 are spelled out, while larger numbers are typed as numerals. Those in the thousands take commas between every three digits.

[Back to Image 3.1]

Image 3.2 Colorful Donuts from Unsplash long description:

This colourful image of doughnuts illustrates an important point in CP style, which prefers the “Canadian” spelling of words. Therefore, in CP style, doughnut is spelled as such, as opposed to the shorter, Americanized version: donut.

[Back to Image 3.2]

Image 3.3 CP Style Sentence Exception long description:

Date: Tuesday Oct. 12th, 2021 Money: Sales fell 20 per cent to $20,000.

A  jumble of dates, numbers, written out numbers.

[Back to Image 3.3]