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Ten billion = ten thousand million??
Are there to ways of expressing 10,000,000,000, ten billion and ten thousand million?
If so, which one is frequently used? Also, why are are two ways of expressing it?
May 18, 2020 11:45 PM
Comments · 3
“Ten thousand million” would be the term in “long scale”, traditionally used in Europe (including the UK). In America, we use the “short scale”, so we say “ten billion”. In the long scale, “ten billion” would have an additional three zeroes. I may be wrong, but I believe the tendency nowadays is to use the short scale even in British English. Note that in some cases, the term “ten thousand million” may be used even in the short scale, when convenient (if you want to express everything in millions, for example).

May 19, 2020
In reports, statistics and other documents containing very large figures such figures are usually given in thousands or millions to avoid writing many zeros.

May 19, 2020
I have never heard anyone say ten thousand million, mathematically it is correct, but I believe it is almost never used. In any case ten billion is more common and it's easier to say.
May 18, 2020
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English, French, Japanese
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