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We all want to be smarter and be able to do more things skillfully than we presently do, but there some needless stumbling blocks built right into our language. One of these problems that might be easily resolved is the way we pronounce common numbers. If a number can be pronounced twice as quickly then it would not only take up less time, it would take up less brain space. Also when single digits are clumped together when pronouncing them there is less likelihood of misunderstanding them and misremembering them. A previous post An improved method of counting and pronouncing English numbers covered these ideas and then developed a way of pronouncing numbers. A previous idea explored in The Metric System Contracted for Easy Use used a similar method for the pronunciation of the metric symbols.

pronunciation of the base numerals:

Hoo, Won, Tuu, Thro, Por, Foo, Sik, Sev, Aat, Noo,


When additional exactness as in 00 is required these would be pronounced: In these first numbers it is literally saying zero tens zero, zero tens one, zero tens two, etc. The term da for Deka

Hoodahoo, HoodiaWon, HodaTuu, HoodaThro, HoodaPor, Ho0daFoo, HoodaSik, HoodaSev, HoodaAat, HoodaNoo,

00, 01, 02, 03 04, ,05 06, 07, 08, 09,

And with their tens added to zero they become pronounced:

Hoodahoo, Wondahoo, Tuudahoo, Throdahoo, Pordahoo, Foodahoo, Sikdahoo, Sevdahoo, Aatdahoo, Noodahoo,


Or running through a sequence

Hoodahoo, Wondawon, tuudatuu, throdathro, Pordapor, Foodafoo, Siddasik, Sevdasev, Aatdaaat, Noodanoo


And so on with the entire metric numbering system

the pronunciation and even the spelling of the SI terms.

Contracted Metric Chart . . . is for spelling and pronouncing the truncated forms of the SI metric measurement system.

The Contracted Metric Chart

Scale Quality Power Prefix Spoken Mass Length Volume
Metric units as in
gram meter liter
Metric symbol g m l
Metric contraction …ger …met …lit
as in → tiger meet sunlit
P Peta +15 Pa… pa Pager Pamet Palit
T Tera +12 Te… tee Teger Temet Telit
G Giga +9 Gi… git Giger Gimet Gilit
M Mega +6 Ma… ma Mager Mamet Malit
K Kila +3 Ki… kite Kiger Kimet Kilit
H Hecta +2 He… heel Heger Hemet Helit
Da Deka +1 Da… dam Dager Damet Dalit
ger met lit
d deci -1 de… dead deger demet delit
c centi -2 ce… cent ceger cemet celit
m milli -3 mil… mill milger milmet millit
u micro -6 mo… mote moger momet molit
n nano -9 na… nat nager namet malit
p pico -12 pi… pie piger pimet pilit
f femto -15 fe… fess feger femet felit

The above chart covers most of the terms in common usage in the Metric System. The contracted pronunciation of the terms is defined by the horizontal row and vertical column in the form of italicized words. The new pronunciation of the four syllable word “kilometer” becomes the two syllable word “Kimet.” The new pronunciation of the old four syllable word “milliliter” becomes the two syllable word “millit.” This shorter pronunciation of the words actually increases not only the speed of communication but also its clarity and accuracy because the tongue doesn’t get twisted up in the unnecessarily long words and the transmission doesn’t get garbled in multiple unnecessary syllables and the mind doesn’t get befuddled trying to disentangle all of the excesses from the real thing which is being communicated and that is a specific numbered size of measure. By making the metrics verbiage smaller and clearer the emphasis is transferred over to the numbers which is what the people are trying to communicate. All of these words were chosen to be easy to say and easy to hear as well as being brief and disambiguated from their possible rivals for meaning. You can easily get started by using the couple of terms that you most frequently use and let the others come along as they become used.

The easier something is to use the more it is used.