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99’999.9

English translation: ninety-nine thousand nine-hundred (and) ninety-nine point nine

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
German term or phrase:99’999.9
English translation:ninety-nine thousand nine-hundred (and) ninety-nine point nine
Entered by: Steffen Walter

08:44 Mar 11, 2016
German to English translations [Non-PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Engineering (general) / numeration
German term or phrase: 99’999.9
Hello everyone,

You never see me here because I am not a DE-EN translator :) I'm localizing something written by a German engineer, and not being European, the numeration is unfamiliar to me, especially with a decimal point followed by a single digit.

Here is the context:

What do the numbers on the hour meter mean?
The first number before the dot is the hour (this means 1 = 1 hour). The highest digit shown on the hour meter would be: 99’999.9. The numbers behind the dot = 1/10th hour (this means, it changes every 6 minutes).
NancyLynn
Canada
Local time: 16:59
ninety-nine thousand nine-hundred (and) ninety-nine point nine hours
Explanation:
... would be the verbalised version of it. In your example, the last 9 (the one behind the decimal point) represents nine tenths of an hour (i.e. 54 minutes), so appears to be perfectly plausible in English, too.

The type of separator (') used after the first "99" points to a Swiss author. In Germany, we would write either 99999,9 or 99.999,9 hours. In English, the equivalent figure would be 99,999.9 hours.
Selected response from:

Steffen Walter
Germany
Local time: 22:59
Grading comment
Thank you! What is excruciatingly obvious to a European may not be so to a Canadian (and vice-versa, of course.)
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +4ninety-nine thousand nine-hundred (and) ninety-nine point nine hours
Steffen Walter


Discussion entries: 2





  

Answers


12 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +4
ninety-nine thousand nine-hundred (and) ninety-nine point nine hours


Explanation:
... would be the verbalised version of it. In your example, the last 9 (the one behind the decimal point) represents nine tenths of an hour (i.e. 54 minutes), so appears to be perfectly plausible in English, too.

The type of separator (') used after the first "99" points to a Swiss author. In Germany, we would write either 99999,9 or 99.999,9 hours. In English, the equivalent figure would be 99,999.9 hours.

Steffen Walter
Germany
Local time: 22:59
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman
PRO pts in category: 245
Grading comment
Thank you! What is excruciatingly obvious to a European may not be so to a Canadian (and vice-versa, of course.)

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  BrigitteHilgner: Yes, this is typical for the Swiss ...
2 hrs
agree  Frosty
5 hrs
agree  Rachel Goodwin
8 hrs
agree  Johannes Gleim: Wat was the problem???
11 hrs
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