this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2026
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He likely said 'a thousand' but whoever wrote this article failed English and never learned to write out numbers.
The only numbers I should see in an article are things people already expect to see as numbers, like dates (dd/mm/yy) or the time of day.
Isn’t there a style rule where if it’s a number greater than ten you use digits?
Though if you say a thousand, that’s different than saying “a 1,000” which is saying “a one thousand”, which you wouldn’t write.
Not that I'm aware of, I was always taught to write out any number because it helps with the reader maintaining flow while reading. For the exact reasons we're discussing here, 'a thousand' and 'a 1,000' are functionally the same - but one breaks the readers train of thought a lot more easily than the other. Whereas dates and times are used so frequently that writing out 31/12/2026 or 10:00 AM really doesn't impact their ability to read them on a page.
At least, that's what I was taught. Maybe there's a different line of thinking I'm not aware of, though the rule you're talking about sounds like a business English rule - and I disagree with business English.
You talk about reader maintaining flow. And I think for exactly that reason you are supposed to use digits when the number is of a certain size. Like if I say, there are six hundred and seventy three buildings in the city. To me it’s much clearer to write there are 673 buildings in the city. Whatever “rule” I’m thinking of I seem to recall you spell out smaller numbers. Like you would write “there are three files” as opposed to “there are 3 files.” Everyone at work does the latter which always annoys me, though they also commit much more egregious mistakes in their emails and other writings.
Yeah I think this is ultimately a difference of opinion, and potentially a difference in how we learn to read in modern day - because while 673 is technically succinct, I wouldn't say it flows better than six hundred and seventy three.
That being said, this could just be a carry over (for me) from the U.S. education system incentivizing reaching a certain word count. Idk