On Wed, 2004-05-05 at 10:18, Roel Schroeven wrote: > In Dutch, we say (simplified by writing some number numerically): > > 1 biljoen > 222 miljard > 333 miljoen > 444 duizend > 555 If English (both flavors, or flavours for our GB friends :), if we had a 'milliard' this problem never would have come up. The reason that I personally believe the US 'corrupted' the term billion is because, as William Ballard said earlier, Americans tend to group their digits by commas. So each time you insert a comma, you change the name. We're left with: 100 - One hundred 1,000 - One thousand 1,000,000 - One million 1,000,000,000 - One billion 1,000,000,000,000 - One trillion Now, if we would have added a term such as 'milliard', that would have taken the place of 'billion' and then 'billion' would be in the 'proper' place. But, as with most other things English, this kind of stuff happens. Enough wrongs do end up making a right. (Coincidentally, what's the accepted way to say 'pecan' in GB English? According to my US dictionary, there are no fewer that FOUR proper pronunciations.) -- Alex Malinovich Support Free Software, delete your Windows partition TODAY! Encrypted mail preferred. You can get my public key from any of the pgp.net keyservers. Key ID: A6D24837
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