4 ms·
Years are another one like dollars, though: C20 is sometimes used for "20th Century" and it's not uncommon to see a year written as AD2015.
by caf 12y ago
Years are another one like dollars, though: C20 is sometimes used for "20th Century" and it's not uncommon to see a year written as AD2015.
- jrochkind1 12y agoOf course "AD" is Latin, and the AD2015 order is probably appropriate for Latin. I wonder if $20 comes from the appropriate order for Spanish, now that I know the $ symbol comes from Spanish!
- dragonwriter 12y ago> Of course "AD" is Latin, and the AD2015 order is probably appropriate for Latin. It'd be just as appropriate if Anno Domini was translated into English.
- narag 12y agoFunny: when movies in English are dubbed to Spanish, the Latin expression is expanded and translated also, placed before the number: "era el año del Señor 1212 cuando...". It sounds good as if it were an archaism (the normal way of speaking is "1212 después de cristo" or 1212 DC).
- caf 12y agoMy guess is that it comes from the order typically used for ledgers, which is Description followed by Quantity. So you might have a ship's manifest with entries like: | sacks of barley | 130 | | kegs of wine | 12 | | pesos de ocha | 2,800 | So the abbreviation Ps starts out on the left-hand-side too.
- marcosdumay 12y agoNope. In Latin languages the number comes before the period (2015 DC). That was a hard detail of English to learn... But in about any language the currency symbol comes before the number.