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Does Anybody actually use milliard? Here in the UK million is a thousand thousand, billion a thousand million etc. I always assumed that was the same for our ma

Does Anybody actually use milliard? Here in the UK million is a thousand thousand, billion a thousand million etc. I always assumed that was the same for our mainland cousins.

alternatetwo 4y ago
We Germans do. It gets very confusing when I switch languages.
- rvwaveren 4y ago
  In Dutch too. Many mistakes are made when translating English sources.
Symbiote 4y ago
The UK used to use milliard, and officially switched to billion for 10⁹ in 1974. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale (there's a map of current usage, most of Europe uses milliard etc.)
casta 4y ago
I think this might be the difference between long and short scale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
tsimionescu 4y ago
Not in English, but most European languages use essentially the same words to describe numbers like 1 million and higher, except that some use the million/miliard convention and some the million/billion convention. For example, in French, 1 million dollars is "1 milion de dolars", but 1 billion dollars is "1 miliard de dolars". Then, 1 trilion dollars is "1 billion de dollars", and a quadrillion dollars is "1 billiard de dollars".
dekelpilli 4y ago
Not a European language but milliard is used for billion in Hebrew
tiborsaas 4y ago
In Hungary we use it all the time keeping track who stole how much.
rahimnathwani 4y ago
I grew up in the UK. When I was a kid, 'billion' was ambiguous: it might mean 10^12 or 10^9. If the source was American you could be sure they meant 10^9.
lostmsu 4y ago
As a crusader for the best solution, I think these are both wrong (as it should never have been this way). 10^6 should be billion, 10^9 should be trillion, etc. Then the prefix would match the number of 1000x multiplications.
- LinAGKar 4y ago
  But with the long scale the prefix matches the number if 10^6 multiplications (with an extra factor 1000 for -ard).

Does Anybody actually use milliard? Here in the UK million is a thousand thousand, billion a thousand million etc. I always assumed that was the same for our mainland cousins.

alternatetwo 4y ago

We Germans do. It gets very confusing when I switch languages.

rvwaveren 4y ago
In Dutch too. Many mistakes are made when translating English sources.

Symbiote 4y ago

The UK used to use milliard, and officially switched to billion for 10⁹ in 1974. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale (there's a map of current usage, most of Europe uses milliard etc.)

casta 4y ago

I think this might be the difference between long and short scale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

tsimionescu 4y ago

Not in English, but most European languages use essentially the same words to describe numbers like 1 million and higher, except that some use the million/miliard convention and some the million/billion convention. For example, in French, 1 million dollars is "1 milion de dolars", but 1 billion dollars is "1 miliard de dolars". Then, 1 trilion dollars is "1 billion de dollars", and a quadrillion dollars is "1 billiard de dollars".

dekelpilli 4y ago

Not a European language but milliard is used for billion in Hebrew

tiborsaas 4y ago

In Hungary we use it all the time keeping track who stole how much.

rahimnathwani 4y ago

I grew up in the UK. When I was a kid, 'billion' was ambiguous: it might mean 10^12 or 10^9. If the source was American you could be sure they meant 10^9.

lostmsu 4y ago

As a crusader for the best solution, I think these are both wrong (as it should never have been this way). 10^6 should be billion, 10^9 should be trillion, etc. Then the prefix would match the number of 1000x multiplications.

LinAGKar 4y ago
But with the long scale the prefix matches the number if 10^6 multiplications (with an extra factor 1000 for -ard).