From Newsgroup: comp.os.vms

On 2025-08-08, Arne Vajhoj <arne@vajhoej.dk> wrote:

On 8/8/2025 2:21 PM, Michael Kraemer wrote:

On 08.08.2025 19:43, Arne Vajhoj wrote:

And "hundreds of" is undoubtedly correct. As it strictly speaking
just say more than two hundred.

Some readers may assume that hundreds imply less than thousand. But
that is reading between the lines.

No need to read between, just stay on line.
In my part of the universe "several hundred" means just that,
"less than thousand".

What do you call the year 1999? The year one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine?

Depends on context. If you know it's a year, then no. If you know it's
a number, then maybe. If you know "2000" is a year, then yes you still do.
If it's something like "2491 AD", then some might say each digit by itself.

Another context matters example: How do you pronounce "coax" ?

BTW, some people get your example wrong when going the other way, even
with the additional required context. For example, some people wrote
"F-111" as "F1-11". Yuck. :-)

BTW, sometimes people just say something the wrong way, even though the
known context says it is wrong. For example, kilometre is known to be
a multiple of a SI unit, yet many pronounce it as "kil-lom-etre" instead
of as "kilo-metre" in the same way as you any other SI unit such as mass.

So in answer to your question, it depends both on the context and also
the ability of a person to understand the context. :-)

Simon.
--
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.
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From Newsgroup: comp.os.vms

On 8/11/2025 8:22 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:

On 2025-08-08, Arne Vajh|+j <arne@vajhoej.dk> wrote:

On 8/8/2025 2:21 PM, Michael Kraemer wrote:

On 08.08.2025 19:43, Arne Vajh|+j wrote:

And "hundreds of" is undoubtedly correct. As it strictly speaking
just say more than two hundred.

Some readers may assume that hundreds imply less than thousand. But
that is reading between the lines.

No need to read between, just stay on line.
In my part of the universe "several hundred" means just that,
"less than thousand".

What do you call the year 1999? The year one thousand nine hundred and
ninety nine?

Depends on context. If you know it's a year, then no. If you know it's
a number, then maybe. If you know "2000" is a year, then yes you still do.
If it's something like "2491 AD", then some might say each digit by itself.

There are other possible examples:

"The lot is twelve hundred square meters"

"The rent is fourteen hundred X per month"

Point is that using "hundreds" when there is more than 1000
does happen quite frequently.

So we cannot conclude with certainty that the number is less
than 1000.

If I were to guess the the one making the edit did not know
if the number was below or over 2000 and therefore did not
want to write "thousands" and decided to fall back to
"hundreds".

I would have chose a different wording. But ...

Arne

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From Newsgroup: comp.os.vms

On 2025-08-12, Arne Vajhoj <arne@vajhoej.dk> wrote:

There are other possible examples:

"The lot is twelve hundred square meters"

"The rent is fourteen hundred X per month"

Point is that using "hundreds" when there is more than 1000
does happen quite frequently.

The difference is that those are explicit multiples of a value (ie: 100).
The standalone plural "hundreds" means something different.

Simon.
--
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.
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