Pimp my English | Units

By Anna Malczyk
Whenever we measure something – like distance, speed, size, volume and so on – we use a measurement called a unit. Here's a bit on writing down units.

What is a unit?
A unit is essentially "one" piece of the overall measurement – one kilometre, one megabyte, one litre. The unit describes what sort of measurement we are making, and what its scale is. For example:
•    One kilometre

This indicates that the measurement is one of distance, and that we are speaking about "kilo" (thousands) of metres.



When to write the word out in full
As with writing numbers, always write the unit out in full when you are talking about a non-specific, general measurement.
•    We walked for miles!
•    Thousands of litres of water spill over Victoria Falls every second.
•    There was about an hour to go before dinner.
In this case, the unit can either be singular or plural. A unit is singular for any quantity less than one, including fractions.
•    For the cake, use half a litre of milk.

When to write the abbreviation
Use the abbreviated form of the unit when you are talking about a specific, defined quantity.
•    We were going 72 km/h when we got the speeding fine.
•    The parking spot is 3 m long.
•    We spent R39 on the shopping.
The unit is usually written after the number (except in some currencies). Always leave a space between the unit and the number if the unit comes after.

Note: abbreviated units can NEVER have the plural "s".
•    We hiked 7.5 kms yesterday.
This is wrong – the unit already implies a plural amount, since the number is greater than one.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license.