Translation - art & business » Translator resources »
How much is a "billion"? Terminology for large numbers
Thread poster: Victor Dewsbery
Victor Dewsbery
Victor Dewsbery  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:33
German to English
+ ...
Jan 10, 2023

A blog article exploring the terminology for large numbers and the historical background of the number formats, with reference to the terminology in German and English.
http://language-mystery.blogspot.com/2023/01/translating-numbers-1-how-much-is.html
I hope this will be of interest to translators who work with large numbers, for example in ... See more
A blog article exploring the terminology for large numbers and the historical background of the number formats, with reference to the terminology in German and English.
http://language-mystery.blogspot.com/2023/01/translating-numbers-1-how-much-is.html
I hope this will be of interest to translators who work with large numbers, for example in texts about finance. ▲ Collapse


Becca Resnik
Janusz Dubis
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Sebastian Witte
Enza Esposito Degli Agli
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 14:33
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Particularly Jan 10, 2023

Particularly problematic to translate in South Africa, where one language (English) uses the short scale and another language (Afrikaans) uses the long scale, and the word for "billion" looks very similar in both languages. And then you get those Afrikaans companies with a single English-speaking department (or vice versa), and no-one knows whether the billion in their texts is really a billion or actually a trillion. That's when you dust off the "thousand million" and "million million", which... See more
Particularly problematic to translate in South Africa, where one language (English) uses the short scale and another language (Afrikaans) uses the long scale, and the word for "billion" looks very similar in both languages. And then you get those Afrikaans companies with a single English-speaking department (or vice versa), and no-one knows whether the billion in their texts is really a billion or actually a trillion. That's when you dust off the "thousand million" and "million million", which looks really odd but at least everyone knows what everyone else is talking about.

[Edited at 2023-01-11 08:03 GMT] ▲ Collapse


Luca Tutino
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 13:33
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Portuguese Jan 11, 2023

That’s one of the many differences between Portuguese spoken in Portugal and in Brazil. In Portugal one billion is one million million, while in Brazil is one thousand million…
 
Victor Dewsbery
Victor Dewsbery  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:33
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
More complications in other countries Jan 11, 2023

I believe that Canada has similar problems to South Africa: the long scale system in French and the short scale system in English.
There are also several countries which use completely different systems for large numbers. Most of these countries are in South-East Asia and have their own traditional counting systems (e.g. in China, Japan, Cambodia, India etc.). Things get complicated in the academic and business world where the English-speaking system is used (mainly the short scale, but so... See more
I believe that Canada has similar problems to South Africa: the long scale system in French and the short scale system in English.
There are also several countries which use completely different systems for large numbers. Most of these countries are in South-East Asia and have their own traditional counting systems (e.g. in China, Japan, Cambodia, India etc.). Things get complicated in the academic and business world where the English-speaking system is used (mainly the short scale, but sometimes the long scale).
If anyone wants to find out more about this topic, there is a useful article on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales#Both_long_and_short_scale ▲ Collapse


Cilian O'Tuama
 
Anne Maclennan
Anne Maclennan  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:33
Member (2010)
German to English
+ ...
Extremely useful -thank you! Jan 11, 2023

Victor Dewsbury,
Thank you for directing us to this extremely useful article.
 
finnword1
finnword1
United States
Local time: 08:33
English to Finnish
+ ...
Finnish numbers Jan 11, 2023

miljoona = 1 000 000
miljardi = 1 000 000 000
biljoona = 1 000 000 000 000
triljoona = 1 000 000 000 000 000 000
 


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:

Moderator(s) of this forum
Maria Castro[Call to this topic]
Nawal Kramer[Call to this topic]

You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

How much is a "billion"? Terminology for large numbers







Wordfast Pro
Translation Memory Software for Any Platform

Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users! Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value

Buy now! »
CafeTran Espresso
You've never met a CAT tool this clever!

Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer. Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools. Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free

Buy now! »