English Language & Usage Asked by v_seven on December 29, 2020
How to write 0.1 (ordinal) percentile? E.g. for 1 it would be “first percentile”.
Would it be “0.1st percentile”?
"Zero point first" is definitely wrong. I think you should say "the zero-point-one-th percentile", just as you say "x to the n-plus-one-th". Your spelling checker will mark this as wrong, but it is the only reasonable possibility.
Answered by fdb on December 29, 2020
I suggest reading it as a mixed fraction. Here's the formula:
(Mixed-number ordinal) = (integral-part ordinal) + ("-and-") + (Hyphenated, fractional part)
Numeric Percentile | In Words (Fractional denominators are powers of ten.)
+--------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| 0.1 | zeroth-and-one-tenth percentile |
+--------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| 23 | twenty-third percentile |
+--------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| 23.05 | twenty-third-and-five-hundredths percentile |
+--------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| 10.001 | tenth-and-one-thousandth percentile |
+--------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
Consider the number 1.5
.
As opposed to reading the decimal number digit-by-digit (i.e. one-point-five
), one can also read it as a mixed fraction (i.e. one-and-a-half
or one-and-five-tenths
).
When we use the conjunction and
to join the integral and fractional parts, we have essentially created a compound noun; one where the integral part is the main noun, and the fractional part describes the integral part. Hence, only the integral part needs to change to ordinal form.
I suppose one could also say zeroth percentile and a half
, but that stylistically feels awkward to me.
Answered by Daniel Schetritt on December 29, 2020
I understand mathematically speaking this is impossible, but as to reporting on measures, my supervisor uses "below the 1st percentile" in written explanations. Prior to narratives we supply precise numbers in a table.
Answered by Jojo on December 29, 2020
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