*NOTE: Recommendations in the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook are primarily for newspaper and magazine writing. Some rules are different for fiction.
GENERAL RULES
- Spell out numbers from zero through one hundred.
- Spell out these same numbers (0-100) even if they’re followed by hundred or thousand.
- The forces at Wilmington were bolstered by the arrival of ten thousand fresh soldiers.
- The knight had died four hundred years earlier.
- Spell out these same numbers (0-100) even if they’re followed by hundred or thousand.
- Use numerals for most numbers beyond one hundred.
- Spell out ordinal numbers through one hundred
- For military units and street names.
- We’d write the Eighty-second Airborne Division but the 101st Airborne Division. (Newspapers and military publications may have different conventions.)
- A restaurant would be on Fifth Avenue, not 5th Avenue. Or the restaurant is on 129th Street, not One hundred and twenty-ninth Street.
- For military units and street names.
A quick guide to ordinals—
no ordinal for zero twentieth
first twenty-first
second twenty-second
third and so on . . .
fourth
fifth
sixth thirtieth (thirty-first, thirty-second, and so on)
seventh fortieth
eighth fiftieth
ninth sixtieth
tenth seventieth
eleventh eightieth
twelfth ninetieth
thirteenth
fourteenth one hundredth
fifteenth one thousandth
sixteenth one millionth
seventeenth
eighteenth
nineteenth
- Use full-size letters, not superscript, to mark ordinal numbers
- (st, nd, rd, th) written as numerals.
- Use first, second, third and so on
- rather than firstly, secondly, thirdly unless your character would use this odd construction as part of her style.
- Spell out numbers that start a sentence.
- One hundred and fifteen [not 115] waiters applied for the job.
- Hyphenate compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine.
- Do this when the number is used alone and when used in combination with other numbers.
- Louise owned forty-one cars.
- “I heard she owned one hundred and thirty-five diamond rings.”
- Do this when the number is used alone and when used in combination with other numbers.
- When numbers are written side by side, write one as a numeral and the other as a word.
- He made 5 one-hundred-pound cakes.
- Spell out simple fractions and hyphenate them.
- He took only one-half of yesterday’s vote.
- Treat large numbers, made large by being paired with the words million, billion, and so on, just as you would other numbers.
- Some nine [not greater than one hundred, so spelled out] million years ago, the inhabitants of Ekron migrated to our solar system.
- The family had collected the pennies, 433 [greater than one hundred] million of them, over eighty years.
- But for large numbers with decimals, even if the number is less than 101, use the numeral version.
- The team needed 10.5 million signatures for their petition.
- Yet since we want to hear the words, you could just as easily write—
- The team needed ten and a half million signatures for their petition.
- Use words rather than symbols and abbreviations in dialogue and in most narrative.
- Symbols are a visual representation, but characters need to think and speak the words.
- Use words rather than the symbols for degree (°) and percent (%) and number (#), both in dialogue and narrative.
- “Nobody gave a hundred percent.”
- Use the worddollar rather than the dollar sign ($) in dialogue.
- “But I don’t have a million dollars.”
- Do not abbreviate the words pounds or ounces, feet or inches (or yards), hours or minutes or seconds, or miles per hour (or similar words) in dialogue or narrative.
- “The baby weighed seven pounds eleven ounces.”
- An exception might include something like stretches of text where you note the changing speeds of a car but don’t want to repeat miles per hour again and again. Your use of mph becomes a style choice.
- You might find other exceptions in headers and chapter titles.
- You can, of course, use symbols in titles and headers.
TIME
- Use numerals when you include a.m. and p.m., but you don’t have to use a.m. and p.m.
- It was 5:43 a.m. when he got me out of bed.
- Use lower case letters with periods or small caps without periods for a.m. and p.m.
- Include a space between the numbers and a.m. or p.m., but no space within a.m. or p.m.
- Spell out numbers when you includeo’clock.
- But he did wait until after five o’clock to call.
- Use numerals to emphasize exact times, except in dialogue.
- She pointed out that it was still 5:43 in the morning.
- “It’s four forty-three.” She looked out into the darkness. “In the morning!”
- Spell out words for the hour, quarter, and half hours.
- The hall clock was wrong; it showed eight thirty. No, it showed eight forty-five.
- Do not use a hyphen to join hours and minutes.
- It was four forty-five.
- The bomb went off at eleven thirty.
- While we normally would never use both o’clock and a.m. or p.m. and typically don’t use o’clock with anything other than the hour, fiction has needs other writing doesn’t. The following might very well come out of a character’s mouth or thoughts—
- It was five o’clock in the a.m.
- “Mommy, is it four thirty o’clock yet?”
DATES
- Dates can be written a number of ways.
- The twenty-fifth of December, December 25, December 25, 2015, or the twenty-fifth.
- Do not use ordinal numbers for dates that include month, or month and year, written in this format.
- You can write the twenty-fifth of December.
- The exception is in dialogue.
- “Your kids can’t wait for December twenty-fifth.”
- Do not use a hyphen (actually, this in an en dash) for a range of dates that begins with the words from or between.
- Use the words to, through, or until with from, and and with between.
- He planned to be out of town from August 15 to September 5.
- He planned to be out of town between August 15 and September 5.
- He planned to be out of town August 15–September 5.
- Use the words to, through, or until with from, and and with between.
- DECADES can be written as words or numbers (four- or two-digit years).
- Unless it’s in reference to a named era or age—the Roaring Twenties—do not capitalize the decade.
- The cars from the thirties are more than classics.
- Cars of the 1930s were my dad’s favorites.
- The teacher played songs from the ’60s and ’70s to get the crowd in the right mood.
- Unless it’s in reference to a named era or age—the Roaring Twenties—do not capitalize the decade.
- There is no apostrophe between the year and the letter S except for a possessive.
- The doctor gave up smoking back in the 1980s.
- The doctor gave up smoking back in the ’80s.
- Spell out century references.
- He wanted to know if it happened in the eighteenth or the nineteenth century.
- When the guide reminded him it was the seventeen hundreds, he was even more confused.
- The general rule is that mid, as a prefix, does not get a hyphen.
- So midyear, midcentury, midterm, midmonth, and midthirties are all correct.
- The same rules apply for other prefixes, such as pre or post, that can be used with date words.
- Exceptions—
- Include a hyphen before a capital letter.
- Thus, mid-October.
- Include a hyphen before a numeral.
- Thus, mid-1880s.
- Include a hyphen before compounds (hyphenated or open).
- Thus, mid-nineteenth century and mid-fourteenth-century lore.
- Include a hyphen before a capital letter.
DIALOGUE
- Spell out numbers in dialogue.
- When a character speaks, the reader should hear what he says. And although a traditional rule tells us not to use and with whole numbers that are spelled out, keep your character in mind. Many people add the and, in both words, and thoughts.
- “I collect candlesticks. At last count I had more than a hundred and forty.”
- “At last count I had more than one forty.”
- “She gave her all, twenty-four seven.”
- When a character speaks, the reader should hear what he says. And although a traditional rule tells us not to use and with whole numbers that are spelled out, keep your character in mind. Many people add the and, in both words, and thoughts.
- YEARS – spell out years, but you could use numerals.
- “He told me the property passed out of the family in 1942.”
- “I thought it was fifty-two?”
- If you have to include a full telephone number—because something about the digits is vital—use numerals, even in dialogue.
- But if you want to emphasize the way the numbers are spoken, spell out the numbers.
- Write product and brand names and titles as they are spelled, even if they contain numbers.
- 7-Eleven, Super 8 hotels, 7UP
HEIGHTS
- Heights can be written in a variety of ways.
- He was six feet two inches tall.
- He was six feet two.
- He was six foot two.
- He was six two.
MONEY
- Do not hyphenate dollar amounts except for the numbers between twenty-one and ninety-nine that require them.
- Don’t use a hyphen between the number and the word dollars (except as noted below). Note the absence of commas.
- two dollars
- twenty-two dollars
- two hundred dollars
- two hundred twenty-two dollars or two hundred and twenty-two dollars
- two thousand two hundred and two dollars
- But—
- a two-dollar bill
- a twenty-dollar fine
- a two-hundred-dollar fine
- a two-hundred-and-twenty-two-dollar fine
PUNCTUATION
- No commas or hyphens between hours and minutes, feet and inches, pounds and ounces, and dollars and cents that are spelled out.
- Ben promised to be there at four thirty, but it was six twenty when he pulled into the driveway.
- At seven feet three inches, he was the shortest of the Marchesa giants.
- The piece of salmon weighed one pound eleven ounces, but they charged the rude customer the price for three pounds.
- He owed his boss forty-two fifty.
- He owed his boss forty-two dollars and fifty cents.
- Use hyphens for compound adjectives containing numbers the same way other compound is created.
- They are almost always hyphenated as an adjective before the noun.
- Age terms, both nouns and adjectives used before nouns, are hyphenated.
- A two-inch hole in the street became a six-by-six-foot crater.
- My two-year-old loves puppies.
- But—My puppy is two years old.
- No hyphen between numbers and percent.
- The drink was only 60 percent beer.
- For multiple hyphenated numbers sharing a noun, include a hyphen and a space after the first number and hyphenate the last as usual.
- Our Johnny couldn’t wait to tell us about the ten- and twenty-foot-tall monsters in the yard.
- His sister shared details about the two- and three-headed versions that lived under her bed.
- For the words half and quarter, use the hyphen for adjectives but not for noun forms.
- Some words with half are closed compounds—halfway, halfwit—so check the dictionary.
- “Join me in a quarter hour or join me in a half hour; it’s your choice.”
- Join me half an hour from now.
- The half-price items were poorly made.
- Some words with half are closed compounds—halfway, halfwit—so check the dictionary.
- For compound words made with odd, always use a hyphen.
- Thirty-odd hours later, my son finally returned home.
- He’d saved some 150-odd comic books.
- For numerals greater than 1,000, include commas after every three digits from the right.
- For fiction, it’s likely you’ll often round off these numbers and/or write the numbers as words.
- 1,000
- 10,525
- 10,525.78
- For fiction, it’s likely you’ll often round off these numbers and/or write the numbers as words.
- For dollar amounts written as numerals, use the period to separate dollars and cents, and include the dollar sign. But you could spell out the amount, especially if you’re rounding the number.
- He needed $159.75 for the bar tab.
- He needed a hundred and sixty dollars for the bar tab.
- Do not add a period if a.m. or p.m. comes at the end of a sentence. Do use a comma midsentence if that is necessary.
- The fire alarm was pulled at 11:58 a.m.
- The alarm was pulled at 11:58 a.m., just before lunch.
- In narrative, only use numerals when you use a.m. and p.m. or when you’re emphasizing the exact minute, and only use a.m. and p.m. when you have to, when you want to emphasize the minute—something such as 9:23 a.m.
- For the hour, quarter, and half hours, spell them out—it was nine (or it was nine o’clock), it was nine fifteen, it was nine thirty.
- It was nine thirty Sunday morning.
- For dialogue, write out the number.
- “The train leaves at two p.m.,” he answered.
WEAPONS AND GUNS
Use only the necessary detail. For example, in fiction you might not often have cause to write The AH-64D Apache Longbow was the team’s first choice. Instead, you might write, The Longbow was the team’s first choice.
- In both narrative and dialogue, if you use the name of the gun or ammo, spell it as the manufacturer does, including numerals and capital letters. Do the same for military weapons and tanks. Spell out the word caliber.
- If you don’t use the full name, still capitalize brands and manufacturers. The designation mm is accepted in narrative.
- He eyed the .357 Magnum in the loser’s shaky hand.
- Anderson’s Colt .38 was under his pillow, two rooms away.
- Both the Browning 9mm, his favorite, and his stacked salami sub, another favorite, were destroyed by the car crusher.