pronunciation - Reading out decimal numbers in English

How do you read numbers like these?

0.12 "oh point twelve", "zero point one two", "zero and twelve hundreds"

And these ones?

0.345, 12.45

Answer

• 0.12: "zero point one two" or "nought point one two"


• 0.345: "zero point three four five" or "nought point three four five"


• 12.45: "twelve point four five" for the number, "twelve forty-five" for the time and perhaps for money with implicit pennies or cents.

"point twelve" is not acceptable for a decimal, as it leads to confusion as to whether "point one" means .1 or .01. After the decimal point you read each digit individually, though with times you can adjust as there may be an implicit minutes for the later digits.

You can use oh for nought or zero if you think there will be no confusion between O and 0 and o; there might be with say a password.