Numbers carry meaning, tone, and legal detail. Use formats and phrases that are clear, polite, and hard to misunderstand—especially with dates, money, ranges, and trends.
Safe date formats
- June 5, 2025 (safest in emails and letters)
- 2025-06-05 (ISO; good for forms/tables)
- Avoid ambiguous 05/06/2025 (could be May 6 or June 5).
Time formats
- 2:30 p.m. / 9:05 a.m. (write “noon” and “midnight” to avoid 12 p.m./a.m.)
- 24-hour: 14:30, 09:05 (no a.m./p.m.). Great for schedules: 14:00–16:00.
- Windows & deadlines: by Friday 5:00 p.m., between 2:00–4:00 p.m., no later than June 12.
Prepositions that keep you safe
- on June 5, by June 5, from June 5 to June 12, as of June 5 (status starts then).
Write amounts
- $1,250.75 (comma thousands, decimal point). For CAD context, $ is understood; use C$ only if currencies mix.
Useful billing language
- balance due, amount owing, minimum payment, past due, due by, paid in full
- before tax, including tax, plus GST/HST (if relevant), credit the account, issue a refund, waive a fee, apply a discount
Invoice/receipt nouns vs verbs
- invoice (n.), bill (n.), receipt (n.), charge (n./v.)
- refund / credit (n./v.), dispute a charge (v.), reverse a fee (v.)
Metric-first (Canadian usage)
- km, kg, L, m², °C (no plural “s” after symbols: 10 km, not 10 kms).
- With words, hyphenate when used as adjectives: 10-day window, 3-year lease, 2-hour delay.
Rates and ratios
- per day/week/month/person → $25 per month, two visits per week
- Slashes are fine in notes/tables: km/h, $ / hr, units/day, but write full words in formal sentences.
Count vs mass (fewer vs less)
- fewer tickets, less time; fewer complaints, less noise.
Ranges
- from X to Y, between X and Y (don’t write between 5–7; use words or an en dash cleanly: 5–7 days).
- Add clarity words when needed: inclusive, up to, at least, no more than.
Approximations (degree matters)
- about/around/approximately (neutral), nearly/almost (just under), just over/slightly more than (a little above), roughly (informal but fine in speech).
Quantifiers to anchor scope
- some, many, most, the majority of, a minority of, several, a handful of (avoid in formal writing unless paired with numbers).
Core verbs
- increase/rise/grow, decrease/fall/decline/drop, remain stable, fluctuate, peak at, bottom out at, recover to
Intensity adverbs
- slightly/marginally, gradually/steadily, significantly/substantially, sharply/dramatically
Preposition patterns
- increase by X (change amount) → increased by 10%
- increase to X (new level) → increased to 60%
- from A to B (both ends) → rose from 40% to 60%
- up/down by X points or units → down by 2 units
Percent vs percentage points (don’t mix)
- From 20% to 30% → up 10 percentage points (absolute change) → a 50% increase (relative change).
- Use percentage points when comparing percentages.
Clean trend sentences
- Complaints fell by 12% to 180 in June.
- Usage rose from 45% to 58%, a 13-point increase.
- Response times remained stable at 2–3 minutes.
- Daily logins fluctuated between 1,100 and 1,400.
- Prefer June 5, 2025 in prose; 2025-06-05 in tables.
- Use 24-hour time for schedules and events; add time zone if relevant (PT/ET).
- Keep thousand separators for 4+ digit numbers (1,200).
- Hyphenate number-unit adjectives (10-day, 3-year).
- State units once per list when obvious; repeat if a unit changes.
Numbers are easiest to grade when they’re exact, formatted consistently, and paired with the right verbs. Keep the logic clean—by/ to/ from-to—and your answers will read as confident and professional.