Hey! Me again! Is it acceptable to use numbers in dialogue?
EXAMPLE:
PETER
The tomb was discover 6,500 years ago.
THANKS!!!
EXAMPLE:
PETER
The tomb was discover 6,500 years ago.
THANKS!!!
Is it OK to use numbers in dialogue?
- Thread starter avid-dreamer
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2005
- Messages
- 18,805
- Reaction score
- 4,600
- Location
- Caledonia
- Website
- derekpaterson.net
PETER
The tomb was discover 6,500 years ago.
Is Peter saying "six thousand five hundred" or is he saying "six and a half thousand"? (Or, as Plot Device points out below, "sixty-five hundred" which never even occurred to me, the comma made me think in thousands but regional variants may apply.) It's not obvious so spell the number out, tell the reader (and ultimately, you hope, the actor) how you want it said.
discover = present tense; discovered = past tense.
-Derek
The tomb was discover 6,500 years ago.
Is Peter saying "six thousand five hundred" or is he saying "six and a half thousand"? (Or, as Plot Device points out below, "sixty-five hundred" which never even occurred to me, the comma made me think in thousands but regional variants may apply.) It's not obvious so spell the number out, tell the reader (and ultimately, you hope, the actor) how you want it said.
discover = present tense; discovered = past tense.
-Derek
Last edited:
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2005
- Messages
- 18,805
- Reaction score
- 4,600
- Location
- Caledonia
- Website
- derekpaterson.net
No, silly! He's saying "sixty-five-hundred" years ago.
(Shees!)
As for me, the only time I feel comfortable with sticking Arabic numerals into dialogue is when it's a year, like 1776 or 1492, and only when the context is excrutiatingly obvious that it's definitely a year.
Funny thing, in regular conversations that I have in real life with real people, I still say "oh" when I really mean "zero." Especially with phone numbers and prices and years.
Oh, and room numbers! Who could forget room numbers! Like the recent Stephen King film with John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson: "1408"?
On other matters, sometimes when I hear someone recite a phone number, they might take THIS:
555-3497
and recite it like THIS:
"Five-five-five ... thirty-four/ninety-seven."
Last edited:
Oh yeah. For some reason I thought some one else wrote it.
This is why I try to read scripts not written by directors.
I actually wrote to the Nicholls Fellowship and here is the response I got:
Sure, numbers are fine in dialogue.
I don't think most people would care whether you wrote:
JOHN
I have 7 children.
Or:
MARY
I have seven children.
I think the latter looks better and is slightly easier to read. If you stick with conventional rules - single digits written out, double digits or larger as numbers - you'll be fine.
Sure, numbers are fine in dialogue.
I don't think most people would care whether you wrote:
JOHN
I have 7 children.
Or:
MARY
I have seven children.
I think the latter looks better and is slightly easier to read. If you stick with conventional rules - single digits written out, double digits or larger as numbers - you'll be fine.
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2008
- Messages
- 1,746
- Reaction score
- 247
I've more or less followed the single numbers written up to three digits - including addresses
"He lives at one twenty-seven North Main street."
But most people can handle and transpose dates
"I was born in 1978"
"We left the country back in 1998"
I generally spell out time elements too. "Your appointment is set for five-thirty."
"The train is scheduled to leave at three-ten from Yuma." Although the title of the film was 3:10 - I think its graphically more dynamic to have the time code as the title.
"He lives at one twenty-seven North Main street."
But most people can handle and transpose dates
"I was born in 1978"
"We left the country back in 1998"
I generally spell out time elements too. "Your appointment is set for five-thirty."
"The train is scheduled to leave at three-ten from Yuma." Although the title of the film was 3:10 - I think its graphically more dynamic to have the time code as the title.
Last edited:
The answer may require more than one word.
The truth is that we often see both variations in professional, produced scripts .. even ones that aren't written by the director.
A quick search gives:
COP: "Unit 217 requesting back-up"
OWENS: ".. chrono shows we're 22 weeks out, so gravity wasn't supposed to kick in for another 19 ..."
BURBAGE: "Here is two sovereigns"
BERNARD: "Write this number down. It's a 24-hour hotline ..."
SULTAN: "Can go from zero to 100 kilometers an hour in 12.5 seconds. And I even like the color"
DISPATCHER: "Attention all units -- 211 at Pier 39. Suspect is a white male, 30's, 6 feet with specs, armed and very dangerous"
EVE: "She's only 12. Some day she'll understand .."
TITO: "This is it, Jon. For the next 72 hours you are on your own."
ARCHER: "Met Caster Troy in Berkeley at a Pearl Jam reunion. Felony convictions: two counts, drug running. She has a tattoo of a 1956 Buick on her right ankle"
ARCHER: "Dietrich Hassler. 45. Biochemist. Dismissed from the FDA on charges of ..."
etc ..
Mac
Last edited:
more proof, avid - that nearly ALL of your questions are guideline questions and not rules. there are no rules, only guidelines.
It's true that screenwriters do it both ways. I've seen it both ways. I've done it both ways. But generally, and I think it's true in a majority of the cases above, when you use a number in your dialogue, it's a number that can only be read one way.
"12 years old" can only be read as "twelve years old."
1945, meaning a year, can only be read as "nineteen forty-five."
And while a handful of them might be spoken in a couple different ways -- do you say "100" as "one hundred" or "a hundred" -- "211" (which is a police code) as "two one one" or "two eleven" -- for practical purposes, it doesn't really matter all that much.
The over-arching rule is always going to be clarity. What's easiest to read, easiest on the eye?
BOB
The city's population? It's 12,650.
LARRY.
Make it 12,649.
BANG!
That's just bound to be a lot easier on the eye than:
BOB
The city's population? It's twelve thousand, six hundred and fifty.
LARRY
Make it twelve thousand, six hundred and forty-nine.
BANG!
NMS
"12,650" is always going to be easier to read than "twelve thousand, six hundred and fifty" -- even if it isn't exactly according to Hoyle.
NMS