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When I am writing a book and referring to something that lasts 2-8 days, do I say "2-8 days" or "two to eight days"? Also, when referring to how much of something I would use, would I say "2-4 tablespoons" or "two to four tablespoons"?

Neeku
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Mandy
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    In general, you can do it however you want as long as you are consistent about it. If you're writing for a particular publisher, get the style guide they use and follow that. – Hellion Sep 04 '14 at 21:32
  • You can't say "2-8" at all vocally. It is said as "two to eight" or "two through eight". – Oldcat Sep 04 '14 at 22:19
  • You should separate numeric ranges using an en dash instead of a hyphen-minus, so 2–8 not 2-8. Sometimes it is better to space the operands: Safe when stored at −10° – +40° C. – tchrist Sep 05 '14 at 04:41
  • @tchrist the dash vs. hyphen continually rears its head. For example that punctuation sign is not available on my keyboard, it wasn't until last year that someone on ELU explained the trick. Which I will now reveal; press Alt and at the same time press 0151 on the number pad —, once you release the Alt key, the dash signs appears magically! My laptop is Aspire; running on Windows Vista (sigh...) – Mari-Lou A Sep 05 '14 at 11:32
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    related: When to spell out numbers, and Spelling out non-cardinal small numbers and Why do English writers avoid explicit numerals? – Mari-Lou A Sep 05 '14 at 11:46
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    @Mari-LouA I’m sorry that Microsoft expects you to remember such a long and complicated, and unmnemonic, a keystroke sequence. On a Mac, you use the ALT key like a shifter and hit the regular - character for an en dash (–), and both ALT and SHIFT with the regular - for the longer em dash (—). – tchrist Sep 05 '14 at 12:12
  • @tchrist The irony is that Microsoft calls it a "shortcut"! – Mari-Lou A Sep 05 '14 at 12:21
  • @tchrist an en dash in MS word is Ctrl+Numpad hyphen. –  Oct 22 '14 at 20:46

2 Answers2

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Both are valid, but imho the numerical format is more succinct and stands out from the surrounding text.

Consider this sentence:

During my holiday trip, I will spend just 1-2 nights in London followed by 10-15 days touring the rest of Europe, and return by 28th or 29th.

Or some (made up) recipe:

  • 1-2 finely chopped onions

  • 3-5 tsp flour

  • Few pinches of salt

In both these, I think writing out the numbers in long hand will make it excessively verbose.

As a counterexample, consider the lumber size 'two by four' , representing it as '2 x 4' may take a bit of processing for people who parse 'x' symbol as 'into/multiplied by'. However, when a smaller number is followed by a larger number and separated by '-', it's common to read the symbol as 'to' (unless it's in a mathematical sense).

Community
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Alok
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  • +1 for using the word "succinct"! Off-topic, but a good example for consonant clusters. (: – Neeku Sep 04 '14 at 22:22
  • @Neeku Thanks, that formatting looks much better. Also, oops on the 'its' mistake :P – Alok Sep 04 '14 at 23:37
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Both convey the same meaning but the fully written form "two to eight days"/"two to four tablespoons" doesn't leave place to any effort of interpretation: It explains what the dash would stand for.

Mina
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